The University of Trieste, Italy, has a mandate to promote public participation in sustainable development, and a comprehensive plan to address the SDGs. A core pillar of their university mission is sustainable social responsibility. In support of this, a variety of university-community collaborative projects have been carried out for sustainable urban design, with public participation in design and use of abandoned spaces. They also focus on the development and dissemination of public engagement practices. The university founded the Italian Universities Network for Sustainable Development (RUS), which has led to the development of instruments, recommendations and tools for work at both the micro/local levels (i.e. behaviour change within communities) and macro levels (i.e. supporting local administrators and policy-makers in implementing sustainability innovations). Trieste has also focused on translation of the SDG framework into their own policies and measures.