Exploring the sustainable reporting practices of universities in relation to the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for sustainable development

Abstract Many universities have recently adopted various practices to promote the aims and principles of sustainable development, such as greening their curriculum, enhancing the environmental performance of their campus and using sustainable criteria in their investment and purchasing behavior. Relatively recently, the definition of the sustainable development was broadened by the introduction of 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proposed by the United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda which stipulates the new directions for sustainability at global level. Given this background, this paper examines the level of alignment of universities with the 17 SDGs through an analysis of sustainability reports prepared by universities in order to highlight the issues which are mostly discussed by universities in relation to SDGs. To do so, an empirical analysis was carried out on a sample of 37 sustainability reports using a methodological framework based on scoring techniques to analyze their content. The findings show that the universities have disclosed more information about climate change mitigation and adaptation practices and less about SDGs regarding quality of education and peace, democracy and strong institutions.