This study aims to analyse the scientific literature on sustainability and innovation in the automotive sector in the last 13 years. The research is classified as descriptive and exploratory. The process presented 31 articles in line with the research topic in the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis identified the most relevant articles, authors, keywords, countries, research centers and journals for the subject from 2004 to 2016 in the Industrial Engineering domain. We concluded, through the systemic analysis, that the automotive sector is well structured on the issue of sustainability and process innovation. Innovations in the sector are of the incremental process type, due to the lower risk, lower costs and less complexity. However, the literature also points out that radical innovations are needed in order to fit the prevailing environmental standards. The selected studies show that environmental practices employed in the automotive sector are: the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions, life-cycle assessment, cleaner production, reverse logistics and eco-innovation. Thus, it displays the need for empirical studies in automotive companies on the environmental practices employed and how these practices impact innovation.

Since the 1990s, higher education institutions have introduced initiatives regarding environmental management, given that higher education institutions play a significant role in the instruction and the mentality of current generations. In this regard, we have environmental education, which aims to, continually and actively, develop mindfulness, awareness of the need to keep the environment as sustainable as possible, seeking alternatives to prevailing problems, thus creating means to sustain and intensify actions of improvement and maintenance towards nature's preservation. Therefore, in this context, this article has demonstrated, through a bibliographical investigation, the dynamic by which the Higher Education Institutions present the Environmental Management subject as well as to locate in the literature authors who study this theme and the HEIs which already apply the protection and the concern for the environment in which they are inserted in their quotidian. These actions influence directly and indirectly the awareness of all the people involved in the process. In this research, we also present ideas and suggestions from authors, analyzing themes such as solid and organic residue, the proper use of water and the matter of recycling, among others. We have attempted to present this data through a chart that represents our findings. As a main result, we have identified that some HEIs present in their daily routine some indicators, which induce the preservation of the environment, engendering a day-by-day commitment with the cause.