Many higher education institutions have a policy stating that they should “promote sustainable development” or something to the effect. In order to make this operational, a definition of the term and concept “sustainable development” could be useful. It may also be necessary to have a condition for when an enterprise, activity, or technology may be regarded as promoting sustainable development. At KTH, a process was started including discussions within top management, faculty, Ph.D. students and other staff resulting in a document formally approved by the President, which can be seen as a guidance document for interpreting “sustainable development”. The document also suggests the following criteria “An activity or technology can be considered to promote sustainable development if it clearly facilitates, in a life cycle perspective, the opportunities to achieve the global sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030.” This paper will describe the process as well as the final document.