Abstract
Goal: this paper goal is presenting sustainability experiences using Life Cycle Assessment perspective in two Latin America higher education institutions (HEI). What similarities do these HEI have in common regarding sustainability? What are the major challenges they face? In which way is Circular Economy effective on university campuses? Since universities face challenges posed by a changing and competitive environment, there ought to be sustainable management that is more appropriate to higher education institutions’ real environment, which is characterized by complexity, paradoxes, ambiguities, and conflicts.
 Methodology/Approach: Multiple Case Study. A resilience threshold of global ecosystem should be considered. Ecosystem dynamics require effort in mapping its functions.
 Results: the results considered that the difference between environmental approach failure and success lies in knowing how to realign their strategic plans.
 Limitations of the investigation: comparing private and public HEI and different levels of education (technical, undergraduate and graduate courses).
 Practical implication: the practical implication leads to an understanding that Circular Economy in HEI can be perceived as a guideline to innovation towards a more sustainable economy.
 Originality/value: the originality/value of this work is the ability of enabling scientists to empathize with both Brazıl and Colombia’s LCA perspectives in HEI.
Highlights
The advent of a new economy and culture of consumption, post-Fordist system is accompanied by profound changes in demand stimulation, sales formulas, behaviors, and consumer imaginaries
This paper presents a multiple case study between Brazilian and Colombian higher education institutions (HEI), discussing alternatives to develop these concepts in training of future production systems professionals, both in undergraduated technical courses and engineering
Through the identification of the current solid waste management of packages generated in eating places within Universidad El Bosque, a field work was developed in four months; it mapped waste management from its generation until its final disposition
Summary
The advent of a new economy and culture of consumption, post-Fordist system is accompanied by profound changes in demand stimulation, sales formulas, behaviors, and consumer imaginaries. Circular Economy has been presented as an alternative to reduce environmental impacts and use natural resources in a viable way It is concerned with both a more efficient generation of products and the inclusion of waste/disposal material as productive input (Gansky, 2011). Circular Economy (CE), or restorative economy by nature, is a concept generated in the 1970s that presupposes the rupture of linear economic model (extract, transform, and discard) It is currently applied by most companies for the implantation of a model in which all types of materials are designed to circulate efficiently and be relocated in production without loss of quality. Minimizing effects requires considering strategies to reduce the use of energy and raw materials as well as optimizing production processes, reducing the amount of packaging material (Unep, 1997; 2011)
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