{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,28]],"date-time":"2025-10-28T10:57:45Z","timestamp":1761649065808,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,7]],"date-time":"2022-09-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1662508800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sustainability"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This work proposes a framework with which to analyse Higher Education Institution (HEI) students\u2019 knowledge and understanding of circular economy (CE) concepts and the potential of the CE to promote sustainability, using a contest. The framework integrates CE principles and business models with sustainable indicators, and it was applied to the accepted projects by the contest jury. The contest was launched in 2021 by the CE Working Group of the Portuguese Sustainable Campus Network to encourage creativity and the development of CE projects at HEIs. HEIs can play an essential role in promoting environmental education and creating partners with new visions for society and the economy concerning sustainability, developing knowledge, values, attitudes, and behaviours regarding the CE. The projects were mostly based on the recovery of secondary raw materials\/by-products, the CE business model, and the CE principle of value optimisation. In addition, a strong relationship with environmental indicators was observed, but social and economic indicators of the CE were only marginally considered by the students. Therefore, students considered the CE as mostly mainly being related to product recovery\/optimisation; thus, the CE concepts and principles and their relationship to sustainability implementation require reinforcement and transversal approaches to increase this knowledge and its dissemination.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/su141811207","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,8]],"date-time":"2022-09-08T09:51:09Z","timestamp":1662630669000},"page":"11207","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["From Linear to Circular Ideas: An Educational Contest"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6652-9914","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Denner","family":"Deda","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"ISISE\u2014Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Coimbra, 3030-790 Coimbra, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1711-6056","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Murillo Vetroni","family":"Barros","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laborat\u00f3rio de Estudos em Sistemas Produtivos Sustent\u00e1veis, Universidade Tecnol\u00f3gica Federal do Paran\u00e1 (UTFPR), Ponta Grossa 84017-220, Paran\u00e1, Brazil"}]},{"given":"Constan\u00e7a","family":"Rigueiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering, Instituto Polit\u00e9cnico de Castelo Branco, 6000-084 Castelo Branco, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2153-3282","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Margarida","family":"Ribau Teixeira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CENSE\u2014Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research, Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"},{"name":"CHANGE\u2014Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Universidade do Algarve, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,9,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"EMF (2021, June 15). 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