The concept of sustainable development (SD) was born, developed and is actively evolving in many national and international strategies, official reports, modern scientific research in various directions. The context of sustainable development is present in the official and scientific chronicle of the development of society, summarized in documents and studies. However, in pedagogical works, this tendency is not covered in such detail. The idea of SD is aimed at systematic, multidimensional development, at the well-being of countries, peoples, an individual, at eliminating inequalities: demographic, social and political stability and neutralizing factors dangerous for the development of nature. The basic element of SD in the 21st century is higher education, which was declared at the Paris World Conference on Higher Education in 2009. The evolution of education in a society of sustainable development contributes to a change in the ecological culture of an individual and groups of people based on a value attitude towards nature, safety, health, well-being, unity and cultural diversity. The article is based on the idea of the leading importance of the formed ecological culture of the teacher for the sustainable development of the state. The developed foundations for the formation of environmental culture in the context of sustainable development of university students imply the definition of its goals and conditions, clarification of the structure and relationships between the components, patterns and principles, methods and forms of organization of training, criteria and indicators for assessing the development of components of environmental culture.