Since 2008 new long-term agreements on energy-efficiency have become effective in the Netherlands. Participating organisations of thirty-six sectors have agreed with the Dutch government to make efforts to realise energy-efficiency of 30 percent in the period 2005-2020 and 50 percent - as a guideline - before 2030. Higher education is represented among these sectors. To achieve the energy-efficiency objectives many sectors and associations of organisations have developed sustainable visions and road maps to implement these visions. This paper will elaborate on the sustainable vision for the sector ‘higher education’, summarizing the results of a research project, which included an analysis of the higher education sector, scenario studies and strategic choices for the sustainable campus. In the process of developing sustainable campuses energy efficiency is not the only goal, setting a good example for visitors, employees and a new generation of students is another. The research project consisted of three parts: (part I) the future of the campus, describing the higher education sector, (part II) collecting tools and measures for sustainable development and (part III) combining the components of part I and part II in future models for the sustainable campus. This paper describes the process of developing sustainable visions for the university and campus of the future.