Assessing Resource Management in Higher Education Sustainability Projects: A Bootstrap Dea Case Study

Ricardo Casonatto (), Tales Souza, Gustavo Silva, Victor Oliveira and Simone Monteiro
Additional contact information
Ricardo Casonatto: Departament of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
Tales Souza: Departament of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
Gustavo Silva: Departament of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
Victor Oliveira: Departament of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil
Simone Monteiro: Departament of Industrial Engineering, Faculty of Technology, University of Brasilia (UnB), Brasilia 70910-900, DF, Brazil

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 19, 1-16

Abstract: This case study evaluates the efficiency of STEM-based sustainability initiatives at the University of Brasilia (UnB) using a Bootstrap Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) approach. Twenty projects were analyzed based on input variables—team size, budget, and workload—and output variables—number of beneficiaries and published papers. The results indicate higher efficiency in the Mathematics and Civil Engineering departments, while Energy Engineering showed the lowest performance. A strong correlation (r = 0.78) was observed between budget and publication volume, but no significant relationship was found between the inputs and number of beneficiaries. SDG 4 (Quality Education) was the most frequently addressed, whereas SDG 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) and SDG 14 (Life Below Water) received less attention. The study identifies key areas for improvement, emphasizing the need for more balanced resource allocation and contextual awareness over sustainability priorities. It also offers an adaptive and replicable framework to other faculties or institutions seeking to optimize sustainability efforts through the lens of resource allocation optimization.

Keywords: sustainable development; climate change; data envelopment analysis (DEA); sustainability initiatives; higher education; sustainable projects; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8653/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/19/8653/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:19:p:8653-:d:1758778

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().