Recently, universities all over the world challenge the problem of reducing energy consumption through the introduction of energy efficient technologies. Higher educational institutions, especially in emerging and developing economies, often face significant barriers to achieving this goal. In developing countries, these obstacles are partly due to technical constraints. However, most of them belong to the organizational, economic, financial, social and educational ones, as is the case in emerging economies. This situation brings up to date the issues of identifying barriers to energy saving on university campuses as well as forming a set of organizational, economic and motivational measures for the energy saving potential implementation in higher educational institutions. On the example of Sumy State University (Ukraine), the study proves a crucial role of the initiative team of energy managers, the necessity of recognition and constant support of the university’s energy efficient development by the topmanagement and wide involvement of teachers and students in energy saving activities. Creating a revolving energy efficiency fund at the university may significantly help to overcome the luck of investment and long-term payback of energy efficient and green energy technologies. In addition, both the promotion of the university’s energy saving achievements by establishing effective communication with all stakeholders and the formation of a system of moral and economic incentives for energy saving essentially contribute to the successful development of energy efficiency policy of the educational institution. The experience of Sumy State University as a case study proves that a systematic approach to the organization of energy saving activities in the university campus based on the continuous improvement of management mechanisms allows achieving the goals of energy efficiency, even with many barriers.