Purpose This study aims to analyze the situation of Federal Universities (FUs) regarding compliance with the Sustainable Logistics Management Plan (PLS) Normative Instruction (NI) 10/2012, the adoption of which is compulsory for all agencies and entities of direct, autarchic and foundational public administration and dependent state-owned enterprises, including FUs. PLS is an instrument intended to establish sustainability practices in the management of public organizations. Design/methodology/approach The data were collected through searches on the websites of the 68 Brazilian FUs that constitute the study population, along with their plans of action (PAs) and monitoring reports. Findings The collected data revealed that only 25% of the FUs had a current PA and 15% published a report for the years 2020 or 2021. Furthermore, the most commonly found mandatory issue to be addressed in PAs was electricity, and the least frequent was sustainable procurement and contracting. Research limitations/implications Future research should be conducted with the Management Committee of the PLS to understand the reason for the discontinuity of this work in some universities and the rationale behind the mandatory issues. Originality/value Some studies address FUs’ implementation of PLS, which promotes sustainable management systems. However, each of the identified studies investigated only one of the seven mandatory issues set down in NI 10/2012, which did not allow a complete assessment of the FUs’ situation exclusively in respect of compliance with the PLS.