Abstract

KITZMANN, Dione Iara Silveira et al. The state of the art of environmental compliance at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG. Contrapontos [online]. 2015, vol.15, n.2, pp.243-260. ISSN 1984-7114.  https://doi.org/10.14210/contrapontos.v15n2.p243-260.

This paper describes the process of environmental adaptation, and expresses the results of the evaluation of commitments to sustainability at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande - FURG, based on an analysis of the timeline of its environmental management actions, and of the project "Definition of indicators for the evaluation of policies of sustainability in Latin American Universities", which is linked to the Network of Sustainability Indicators in Latin American Universities - RISU Project. This project is an initiative of Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), which involved 10 Latin American countries. In Brazil, there were 13 participating universities, including public and private higher education institutions. The research tool of the RISU Project was applied at FURG, considering the broad scope of the 114 items to be investigated, which were divided into three groups: Sustainability Policy; Awareness and Participation; Socio-environmental Responsibility; Teaching; Research and Transfer; and Environmental Management (on the themes of Water, Urbanism, Energy, Mobility, Waste, and Responsible Procurement). The methodological strategy for the implementation of the questionnaire consisted of data collection by searching the official documents, and meetings with leaders in each of the six areas within the Carreiros Campus. Through its participation in this project, the University found that its level of commitment to sustainability is variable among the analyzed areas, enabling the evaluation, development, correction and improvement of policies and continuous improvement actions for the institution. We believe that the RISU Project showed, in an objective way, the current situation of FURG, which is consolidating its Environmental Policy and fulfilling its environmental licensing conditions. We also believe the RISU provided an important tool for the continuous improvement of the process of environmental compliance for this higher education institution.

Keywords : RISU project; Environmental Management in Universities; Environmental Management Practices.

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