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A broadly conceived human development approach can help universities contribute in responding to the challenge of environmental unsustainability. The paper characterises the contemporary ‘human development approach’ represented by the UN Human Development Reports, relates this work to older lines of thought about human development, and shows their integration in the ‘human security’ variant of human development analysis. It suggests how these ideas can contribute to meeting requirements for advancing sustainability, including: more commitment to inter- and trans-disciplinarity, which must rest on serious attempts to understand disciplinarity too; provision of intellectual bridges to promote cooperation beyond disciplinary nests; attention to the basic interests of all persons, including future generations; and institutionalization of organizational routines and evaluation systems in universities that match these values of sustainable human development.