In Brazil, the public lighting sector is a responsibility of the municipal government and typically represents around 4% of the electricity consumed by cities. Considering the significant importance and functions of this service, sustainable management is necessary. The aim of this paper is to investigate the main practices used worldwide in terms of energy efficiency of public lighting and propose the use of the multi-criteria method called Analytic Hierarchy Process to choose the best options for a group of Brazilian cities, namely Passo Fundo, Santa Maria and Porto Alegre. The methodology of this paper consists of searching for best practices in public lighting, which worked as alternatives for applying the Analytic Hierarchy Process. The final step consisted of presenting the impacts of a potential implementation, through analysis of energy and financial savings. The results suggest the preferred practices to each municipality (Audit and Guide Elaboration, Retrofit, Alternative Energy and Management) and their potential implementation can promote energy and financial savings up to 6 GWh/year and 600,000.00 US$/year. The main implications of this paper are related to proposing the use of a multi-criteria method to the public lighting sector and providing useful insights for local governments and especially for developing countries.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present an experience of inclusion of the theme “climate change” in a Brazilian public school through training conducted with teachers. Design/methodology/approach The methodology was based on three specific phases: reflection, focusing on the application of a pretest with 45 questions directed to three domains (knowledge, attitude and behavior); climate change education (CCE) training; and application of a post-test and action, regarding the insertion in the school space. Findings The survey results highlight the difficulty teachers have in understanding and applying CCE in the classroom and it underscores the importance of this approach. Research limitations/implications The research approach is related to a specific case in a school located in south of Brazil. Although the school has its own context, the reported experience can be considered elsewhere. Practical implications This case study reinforces that CCE presents broad challenges for the scientific community. For the reason that the understanding of the topic (CCE) is complex, considering the global context and the divergent opinions on the subject. Social implications The paper reinforces that for today’s society, sustainable development is no longer a choice but a necessity, underpinned by global Agenda 2030 discussions. In this context, teachers are essential to the transformation toward a better future. Originality/value The difficulties and facilities encountered during the experience serve to enhance new actions at national or even global level, respecting each new context of study and insertion of research directed to the theme – CCE.

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The civil construction industry has great prominence in the national economy, however, the sector is responsible for generating a large amount of Construction Waste (CW). The CW recycling plants present technological solutions that aim to minimize the environmental impact caused by the inadequate disposal of the CW, and that the generated material is no longer a problem and becomes a sustainable outlet for the scarcity of natural resources. This article analysed the economic, social and environmental aspects of an CW recycling plant, situated in Passo Fundo / RS. As a result, the quantification and classification of waste sent to the CW recycling plant was obtained from March to December 2016. An economic evaluation of the plant was carried out based on the comparison of the economic decision criteria between the Minimum Acceptable Rate of Return (MARR) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR). Subsequently, social aspects were evaluated, such as the profiles of employees, their salaries and issues related to health and safety, education and training. When assessing the environmental aspect of the CW recycling plant, the composition, the separation process employed and the way in which these residues were used were determined. The conclusions demonstrated that the company is economically viable since the IRR was higher than the MARR. In the social assessment, the employment opportunity for different genres stands out and regarding the environmental question, the ability to reuse civil construction waste in 97.98% of the material received.