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Abstract Non-technical summary Brazil – one of the world's largest biocultural diversities – faces high rates of habitat loss, social inequality, and land conflicts impacting indigenous and local peoples. To challenge that, Brazilian sustainability science and education needs to be strengthened. We searched for elements in ongoing bottom-up sustainability social movements that can help serve that purpose. We found values, contents, and attitudes that, if incorporated into Brazilian sustainability science and education, can assist its transformative potential by reflecting local voices and critically engaging with (often-hegemonic) northern concepts. Technical summary In Brazil, a strong sustainability science and education is required to confront ‘glocal’ issues such as zoonotic pandemics and climate change, which are worsened by rampant ecosystem loss and social vulnerability. However, a largely disciplinary university system has been slow to meet these urgent needs. To address if and how dialogical processes with non-academics can prompt integration between distinct types of knowledge, we analyze four bottom-up sustainability initiatives that promote dialogues between science, the arts, religion, youth, and indigenous and local knowledge, and reflect on lessons learnt with movement organizers, scientists, and educators – the authors of this paper. Although sustainability science produced in dialogue with other forms of knowledge is still emerging in Brazil, we find that bottom-up initiatives outside academia can inspire science and education to approach sustainability as wholeness – a state of balance to be fulfilled when reached individually, collectively, and cosmically. We discuss how to approach a transdisciplinary and reflexive attitude in Brazilian sustainability science and education, and highlight its unique contribution to frontier topics in global sustainability debates. Social media summary Social movements’ values, contents, and attitudes can inspire transformative Brazilian sustainability science and education.

Brazil is a powerhouse in terms of water resources, which are instrumental to the country’s transition to sustainability. However, to realize this potential, substantial management and conservation hurdles must first be overcome. We propose a novel strategy for the use, management, and conservation of Brazilian water resources. Our approach recognizes the spatial heterogeneity of water abundance and is based on a multisectoral perspective, including energy, food, sanitation, and environmental conservation. The main recommendations are to adopt low-cost local and subnational solutions and to design policy mixes, both based on the logic of the nexus water-food-energy-ecosystem. We offer as examples programs that 1) increase cistern infrastructure in drylands, 2) use constructed wetlands to improve sewage treatment in small cities and vulnerable areas, 3) turn the focus of conservation to aquatic ecosystems, 4) stimulate the adoption of small hydrokinetic turbines for energy generation in sparsely populated river-abundant regions, such as the Amazon Region, 5) diversify the matrix of renewable energy sources by combining hydropower with biomass and wind energy generation, and 6) mixes policies by integrating multiple sectors to improve regulation, use and management of water resources, such as the Brazilian “Water for All” Program. By following these recommendations, Brazil would align itself with the goals established in international agreements and would turn its abundance of water resources into development opportunities.