The Faculty of Business Management (VVF) at VILNIUS TECH, together with the Sustainability Centre (TC), has successfully completed the second phase of the Erasmus+ project “Advanced Tools for Changing Higher Education Stakeholders’ Energy Consumption Behaviour” (ABCinEnergy) – WP2 “Development of the Sustainability Framework.” This stage was entrusted to the VILNIUS TECH team and became one of the essential elements of the project, allowing not only for analysis but also for a systematic comparison of how European higher education institutions actually implement sustainability and energy consumption strategies in their daily activities.

Today, sustainability is increasingly perceived not as a technological issue, but as a behavioral one. Studies show that long-term environmental changes occur only when people's daily habits change, not just strategic documents. This is precisely the gap that the ABCinEnergy project aims to fill – moving from declarations to tangible actions.

During the implementation of the WP2 phase, a comprehensive analysis of six European countries – Austria, Italy, Spain, France, Serbia, and Lithuania – was conducted to understand how different higher education institutions manage energy consumption and sustainability processes. International and interdisciplinary cooperation allows the project to combine different experiences, cultural contexts, and energy consumption practices. This is crucial because behavioral changes are not universal – they depend on the environment, organizational culture, and human motivation.

The research covered not only an analysis of national policy and regulatory environments but also specific best practices applied in universities and recurring challenges that higher education institutions face when seeking real behavioral changes in energy consumption. It also examined in detail the indicators (KPIs), data collection tools, and monitoring systems used by institutions to measure energy consumption and behavioral changes. The collected data served as the basis for the consolidated "Sustainability Roadmap" document, which integrates the experiences of different countries into a unified, practically applicable system of methodological guidelines. This document will be applied in all higher education institutions participating in the project and will serve as a reference point for future decisions.

The most important goal of the project is not only to create methodologies or tools but to ensure that they are used in practice and remain relevant after the project funding ends.

The final document summarizes the experiences of the six countries and provides clear recommendations that will be applied in the development of the project’s "Habit Tracker" platform and in planning subsequent activity phases.

The "Sustainability Roadmap" document was prepared in English by the VILNIUS TECH team and was subsequently translated into all partner languages, thus ensuring wide dissemination and real-world application throughout the European academic community.

Universities play a special role in educating not only specialists but also responsible citizens. Habits formed at a young age often persist for a lifetime; therefore, sustainability practices at the university have a long-term impact not only on the institution but also on society.

The ABCinEnergy project invites university communities to become active participants in change – not observers, but creators of solutions. A sustainable future begins with daily choices.

Link to the "Sustainability Roadmap" document in Lithuanian: https://www.abcinenergy.eu/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Sustainability-Roadmap_Lithuanian.pdf

Link to the "ABCinEnergy" project page: https://www.abcinenergy.eu/