The paper explores the relationship between culture and sustainable development. In particular, it advocates the introduction of cultural sustainability as a fourth pillar of sustainable development. A first section explores the existing research on the topic, and focuses on the notion of culture itself and how it should be intended in the context of sustainable development. Then, the existing debate over culture’s position among the three pillars of sustainable development is presented. In the second section, the issue of assessing sustainability in cultural policies is addressed. The proposed approach suggests the interconnection of economic, societal and artistic dimensions of evaluation, thus going beyond the instrumental view of culture which is common in the sustainability discourse. Culture-driven sustainable development is presented in the third section: policies concerning the use of tangible heritage, the development of cultural districts and participatory practices for the performing arts are analysed; their ability to combine artistic merit and positive impacts on the other dimensions of sustainable development is eventually assessed. Conclusively, cultural policies and practices prove able to generate sustainable growth at all levels, not least the creative and artistic one; as a consequence culture can be fully considered a fourth pillar of sustainable development.

As acceleration toward the transition to a carbon-neutral energy production becomes an urgent imperative, universities are called to play a multifaceted role: to produce knowledge and cutting-edge research for the pursuit of energy transition; to transform infrastructures to promote circular economy practices and a more sustainable use of their building stock; and to promote energy citizenship through formal and informal education. The authors aim to move from these considerations to critically present some actions and programs in education, research, and campus operations in which the University of Bologna is engaged. The first part presents an overview of the role of universities in this transition, with a focus on the UI GreenMetric international standard for assessing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the core section, an empirical focus is provided on Bologna and its Cesena campus through three directions: the University’s multicampus sustainable strategy (campus operations), the relevant research–action projects on energy justice and the energy transition (research), and the EN-ACTION project to foster energy citizenship and behavioral change in students and citizens (education). This study concludes that the comprehensive approach of the University of Bologna in integrating sustainability into its operations, education, and research while fostering student engagement in energy citizenship, provides a replicable model for other institutions. It highlights the need for consistent and ongoing support to ensure the long-term impact and effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. The integration of social components and engagement with civil society is crucial for fostering a collective behavioral shift toward low-carbon systems, which can be further supported by interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches.

A low level of energy literacy can hamper the adoption of climate-responsive solutions in the built environment. This is often the case of social housing neighborhoods, where the implementation of improvement measures such as those from the EU Recovery Plan (PNRR in Italy) may become difficult because of the specific socio-cultural and economic criticalities. Here, inhabitants are more prone to misinformation as well as energy poverty. Therefore, understanding the level of knowledge and willingness to implement certain design actions at both site and building levels is of utmost importance to make the transition as effective and just as needed. The article presents a pilot survey conducted in two Italian social housing neighborhoods to assess residents’ understanding and preparedness to implement climate-responsive strategies, as well as literacy gaps about energy transition and related public fundings. This can prepare the ground for developing effective solutions to improve the livability of the built environment based on local needs and features that can be combined synergistically with financial incentives. The survey results are discussed, in addition to the upscaling potential.

The research observes practices of collective city-making beyond the participatory framework of institutional urban governance. In particular, it looks at how grassroots organizations in Bologna are able to produce a dual movement between the local and the global, mutually informing global movements and local practices oriented toward the sustainable growth of cities. The first section introduces the theoretical framework, based on participatory governance, urban commons and grassroots networks; it presents the methodology in the second section, introducing the criteria for the dataset and the network analysis consisting of local and global nodes within the city of Bologna; it then presents the results of the analysis, discusses them and draws the conclusions in the final section.