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Since the 1972 Stockholm Conference, many Sustainable Development declarations, charters, and partnerships have been developed, both in the overall societal context and within higher education frameworks. This paper addresses two issues: (1) a comparison of the development of sustainable development initiatives in society and in universities and (2) an analysis of how those initiatives are influencing educational institutions? SD activities. The analysis indicates that SD needs to be incorporated in a transdisciplinary manner throughout: curricula, research, operations, outreach and engagement with stakeholders, collaboration with other universities, assessment and reporting, institutional framework, on-campus life experiences, and educate the educators programmes. These key elements must be integrated systemically in the HEIs in order to provide learning and career value to those participating in the SD transition. One of the key observations is that the concept of „meme? diffusion/transfer from the diverse declarations, charters and partnerships is slow and inefficient. The question is why is it so slow and ineffective and what can be done to speed it up throughout society? The authors propose the following ways to speed up the transfer, and implementation of the SD in higher education „meme?: universities and their leaders should become more proactive in engaging with SD, SD should be made the „Golden Thread? throughout the university system, and recognise those engaged with SD and foster multiplier effects

Since the 1972 Stockholm Conference, many Sustainable Development declarations, charters, and partnerships have been developed, both in the overall societal context and within higher education frameworks. This paper addresses two issues: (1) a comparison of the development of sustainable development initiatives in society and in universities and (2) an analysis of how those initiatives are influencing educational institutions? SD activities. The analysis indicates that SD needs to be incorporated in a transdisciplinary manner throughout: curricula, research, operations, outreach and engagement with stakeholders, collaboration with other universities, assessment and reporting, institutional framework, on-campus life experiences, and educate the educators programmes. These key elements must be integrated systemically in the HEIs in order to provide learning and career value to those participating in the SD transition. One of the key observations is that the concept of „meme? diffusion/transfer from the diverse declarations, charters and partnerships is slow and inefficient. The question is why is it so slow and ineffective and what can be done to speed it up throughout society? The authors propose the following ways to speed up the transfer, and implementation of the SD in higher education „meme?: universities and their leaders should become more proactive in engaging with SD, SD should be made the „Golden Thread? throughout the university system, and recognise those engaged with SD and foster multiplier effects