The role of universities in development of the Circular Economy

This chapter is devoted to the role of universities in sustainable development from all perspectives. The review will consider both the policies and programs implemented and the assessment and report tools. Indeed, the main purpose of this chapter is to collect, organise, and describe a set of initiatives carried out by different universities and communicated to their stakeholders through various documents and media. In particular, after an introductory literature review about sustainability strategies in higher education institutions (HEIs) and an overview of the most significant international best practices, the attention will be drawn to the experiences of the Italian and Polish universities. With regard to the methodological aspects, data will be analysed with a qualitative approach on the basis of pre-established coding criteria. This analysis will allow us to present some selected case studies and to compare different realities with regards to the commitment to the Circular Economy and related communication to the main stakeholders.