Energy efficiency initiatives and the academic community’s behaviour: a Brazilian experience

The Sustainable Development Goals are part of the 2030 Agenda and the seventh goal is dedicated to affordable and clean energy, aiming to ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all. Energy efficiency is an important component of this goal and is associated with reducing energy consumption and its costs and increasing the source of clean energy production. Some authors have been discussing the relation between theory and practice of sustainability, and how the practice can contribute to behaviour change. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to assess the level of knowledge of the academic community about energy efficiency practices implemented during recent years by the University of Passo Fundo, in Brazil, and students, professors and employees’ energy behaviour. The paper intends to illustrate how education practices on energy efficiency can be added to universities’ actions to improve the progress towards reducing energy consumption and promoting occupants’ change of behaviour on campus. The methodology represents a case study of the University, based on a questionnaire applied to the academic community, with a sample of 400 respondents. The results showed that the university should invest more in its energy efficiency actions but always connecting these with the academic community and highlighting their importance for the success of the practices and for a more sustainable culture on campus. Our findings show the importance of connecting energy efficiency initiatives to the academic community’s behaviour, and especially of making these initiatives more visible and engaging. The contribution of this study is expected to support other educational institutions developing similar strategies in the energy context, but could also be useful to other sectors and sustainability topics, as the need for further dissemination and awareness-raising efforts is universal.