INTEGRATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE (ESG) INTO PUBLIC UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF ESG INSTITUTIONAL MATURITY AT THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN BAHIA (UFOB)

Abstract

The adoption of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) principles has expanded significantly beyond the corporate sector, reaching public organizations committed to strengthening governance, sustainability, and public value creation. In the context of Brazilian Federal Higher Education Institutions, however, studies addressing the institutionalization and integration of ESG principles into planning and management instruments remain limited. This study aims to analyze the integration of ESG into the management of the Federal University of Western Bahia, investigating the extent to which its main institutional instruments demonstrate the institutionalization of environmental, social, and governance dimensions. This applied qualitative research adopts an exploratory and descriptive approach, based on a bibliographic review and documentary analysis. The documentary corpus comprised the Institutional Development Plan, the Sustainable Logistics Management Plan, the Integrity Plan, Management Reports, and other strategic institutional documents, which were examined through content analysis. The findings indicate that UFOB has implemented practices aligned with ESG principles, including initiatives related to environmental sustainability, human development, strategic planning, integrity, and institutional monitoring. However, these initiatives remain dispersed across different administrative instruments, without an explicit institutional policy integrating them into a transversal ESG framework. The study concludes that the University has reached an intermediate level of ESG institutional maturity, characterized by consolidated organizational capabilities that remain only partially integrated. The main contribution of this research is the proposal of institutional maturity as an analytical category for understanding ESG integration in public universities, providing theoretical and practical insights to strengthen university governance and to support future research on ESG within public administration and higher education institutions.