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This paper aims to introduce a new sustainable business excellence model, called Knowledge Management Excellence Model 21 (KMEM21), a theoretical framework that combines Knowledge Management and Business Excellence Models (BEMs), proposing an approach applicable to organizations to directly contribute towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The paper through a qualitative-exploratory methodology makes an analysis and benchmarking, emphasizes the integration of Knowledge Management and three specific Business Excellence Models (Management Excellence Model (MEG) from Brazil, Baldrige Excellence Framework, and EFQM). This integration uncovers relationships between organizational concepts associated with Knowledge Management and BEMs, which contributes to new insights in the literature regarding these concepts' interplay. BEMs are presented as tools that can catalyze the power of Knowledge Management towards achieving SDGs. However, it's noted that the existing BEMs might not be adequate, as the goal extends beyond organizational improvement and excellence to encompass sustainable development aligned with SDGs. The article suggests that specific organizational concepts, identified through a literature review and aligned with Knowledge Management and BEMs, can be selected as indicators associated with the constructed KMEM21 and the SDGs. These indicators are intended to form a bridge between the new model and the SDGs. However, given the comprehensive nature of the theory, model development, application, result acquisition, and analysis, the article's primary contribution will be in its focus on elaborating the instrument and technique, demonstrating the creation of a theoretical framework for the SDGs. Future works will showcase the application of the proposed KMEM21 method in five Brazilian organizations, members of Global Compact, to compare the achieved objectives and the results obtained with the organizations' performance and their sustainability reports. [Display omitted] • There is a visible relationship between knowledge management and business excellence models, aided by shared organizational concepts. • Achieving the SDGs in organizations can be done by using the traits incorporated into knowledge management and business excellence models. • The Knowledge Management Excellence Model 21 represents an original approach, acting as a new sustainable business excellence model. • A comprehensive model can be constructed using a methodology that incorporates an instrument, a technique, and a method. • KMEM21 presents a strategic path that aligns with business excellence principles and the sustainable development objectives, offering a framework for organizational success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the significance of international conferences for higher education institutions (HEIs)’ promotion of sustainability. The paper has undertaken a detailed review of the scientific literature on strategies of HEIs to promote sustainability, hence identifying eight HEIs strategies that these institutions can adopt to become more sustainable (developing an Institutional Agenda, promoting Research, improving Teaching, enhancing green Campus Operations, stimulating community Outreach, and promoting Knowledge Dissemination). Based on this review, and focusing on knowledge dissemination, particularly on the academic events (conferences, seminars and workshops), 69 international academic conferences on sustainability were selected for analysis (from 2012 to 2016). From these conferences 21 proved suitable for a text mining analysis due to the data availability - i.e. articles published online. These articles were organized and submitted to the Collocations Extraction process, creating a list of important terms for each conference, based on their frequency in the articles. Furthermore, the relevance of these terms was tested using the Google Trends tool, to evidence the frequency of their Google searching. Finally, two conferences were selected for a more in-depth analysis, exploring their results and contributions (REGSA and LINKS conferences) to promote sustainability. The main results of the paper outline that international conferences have become important HEIs’ strategies to promote various issues of sustainability, through sharing knowledge, experiences, projects, initiatives and methods. It can be noticed a high interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary character of these events, illustrated by the multitude of promoted topics and participation, but also an increasing interest to actively involve stakeholders in discussing and promoting sustainability and sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to evaluate the perception of experts on the contribution of the Brazilian industrial sector in terms of sustainable development, focusing in particular on three of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) presented by United Nations (UN). A survey was conducted with professionals from Brazilian industry in order to identify their perceptions. It obtained sixty one answers and the collected data was evaluated technically and descriptively by TOPSIS analysis. It was found that Brazil has been carrying out some relevant actions, both sporadic and planned, with significant opportunities for improvement. Comparatively, the most cited contributions are those related to increasing productivity and technological modernization, which contributes to the inclusion of young people in the labor market, improving resource efficiency and the minimization of environmental degradation. Conversely, the least cited contributions are those related to the stimulation of sustainable consumption and negotiation with small companies. Therefore, the authors believe that the findings of this research could be useful for professionals and academics as guidance. It is also important to mention that no similar paper was found with an academic basis, which reinforces the originality and the contribution of this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]