Environmental Energy Sustainability at Universities

<jats:p>The use of renewable energies and energy saving and efficiency are needs of global society and universities. Universities have a large responsibility and social impact, as they are an example and engine of social change. Universities, in the European context, must be at the forefront of sustainability progress, seeking to be at the same level, and preferably higher than the rest of society, seeking the goal of 20% in renewable energy for 2020 and, in the longer term, greater energy efficiency based on a diverse use of renewable energy and studying the feasibility of other energy processes (cogeneration, trigeneration, etc.). The application of renewable energies and efficiency allow universities to make significant savings in their costs and contribute to sustainable development and the fight against climate change. Actions on these aspects in addition to the objective of saving should seek to promote research and form an example for the university community. This Special Issue aims to advance the contribution of energy saving and the use of renewable energies in order to achieve more sustainable universities.</jats:p>

section_content: Efficient energy consumption has now become one of the most important points on which society must raise awareness and work on it, because it is today, more than ever, when natural resources are scarcer and scientists are showing more evidence of climate change. Energy consumption is one of the main sources of environmental impact at the University, and also represents a significant economic expense. Likewise, from the environmental point of view, it is worth noting that through the energy savings, we will be contributing to a good use of energy and, in turn, we will be providing solutions that minimize the impact or energy footprint on society. In this sense, a lower use of resources and the promotion of renewable energies will result in an important contribution to reduce the evolution towards a negative climate change. 

This Special Issue aims to advance the contribution of energy saving and the use of renewable energies in order to achieve more sustainable universities. This Special Issue seeks contributions spanning a broad range of topics related but not limited to:
section_name: Introduction

section_content: The publication statistics of the call of papers for this Special Issue, regarding the articles published or rejected with respect to the total number of articles submitted, were:

-14 articles submitted (100%) -4 articles rejected (28. 6%) -10 articles published (71. 4%)

The regional distribution of authors by countries for the published articles is presented in Table 1, in which it is possible to observe 24 authors from three countries. Note that it is usual for an item to be signed by more than one author and for authors to collaborate with others from different countries.
section_name: Publication Statistics

section_content: Table 2 shows the affiliations of the authors who have participated in this Special Issue.
section_name: First Affiliation and Country of the Special Issue Authors

section_name: Conflicts of Interest:

section_content: Funding: This research received no external funding.

section_content: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
section_name: Conflicts of Interest:

section_name: Topics of Environmental Energy Sustainability at Universities

section_content: The research carried out by the different authors is classified according to the topics of the Special Issue in Table 3. It was noted that one "Environmental Energy Sustainability at Universities" topic dominated the rest: "Sustainability".
section_name: Topics of Environmental Energy Sustainability at Universities