The present study details the significant contribution that different international institutions have made to the field of sustainability and energy efficiency, with a focus on public buildings. This has been achieved by making use of the database Scopus, by applying bibliometric techniques and by analyzing the contents of articles published from 1976 to 2016. All the materials included in the analysis have been reported from Scopus. Several key aspects of the publications have been considered such as document type, language, subject area, journal type and keywords. Sustainable Development, Sustainability, Energy Conservation, Energy Efficiency and Buildings have been verified as the most used keywords. The obtained contributions have been classified geographically and by institution, with the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Australia and Italy being the leading research countries and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Delft University of Technology and Tsinghua University the top contributing institutions. The most active categories in those fields are engineering, social sciences and environmental issues in that order. It can be assumed that the study of sustainability and energy efficiency across all its dimensions is of great interest for the scientific community. The global environmental issue has led many countries to incorporate a wide range of Energy Efficiency (EE) strategies in order to reduce energy consumption in public buildings, a highly valued aspect by European Union energy labelling.

: Energy saving is a global priority, as it is helping both energy and environmental sustainability by reducing CO₂ emissions. The search for new energy solutions is therefore necessary. In the Mediterranean climate, resources are generally scarce, and all energy sources need to be explored, including biomass from agricultural or industrial waste. There is a clear upward trend in date worldwide production, having doubled its world production in the last 10 years, and this trend is particularly relevant for Mediterranean climate countries, especially in North Africa and nearby countries. This study analyzes the properties associated with the date seed (Phoenix dactylifera L.) to evaluate its suitability and viability as a new biofuel. Specifically, the viability of replacing the existing gas boiler in a university building in the south of Spain with a system of biomass boilers using this biomass was analyzed as a case study. The results reveal that this biomass has HHV values very similar to those of other biomass sources, 19.121 MJ/kg. With the replacement of the gas boiler by a biomass that uses the date seed, a reduction of 95 tons of CO₂ per year is obtained and an economic saving of more than 66% is achieved. In short, this work opens new perspectives for the use of this biomass of date seed in boilers and it is an efficient solution for large public buildings such as the buildings of Mediterranean climate universities.