Today's civil engineers need to have the ability to understand the interaction between technical and environmental issues. They also need the ability to design and construct environmentally friendly civil engineering constructions, take care of the safety of their structures and understand the impact of their solutions in a global and social context. These competencies were found not to be important in traditional civil engineering studies in Croatia in the past. The results of research conducted at the Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Rijeka during 2006 and 2009 showed that employers and former students were not happy with a level of these competencies developed during the study for a civil engineering degree. This is one of the reasons why the Faculty of Civil Engineering in Rijeka has been implementing different approaches in the teaching-learning process in order to improve students' competencies and skills. It starts with developing students' awareness about sustainable development and follows by implementation of sustainable development principles in planning, designing and building of civil engineering structures. Students are given the opportunity to be involved in sustainable development projects (application to Solar Decathlon 2012 in Madrid, Spain). The Faculty collaborates with the Lancaster University (UK) in delivering their field course 'Water and environmental management in Mediterranean context'. The experience of UK teachers in delivering this course is used to improve the teaching at the Faculty. Students are also involved through curricular and extracurricular activities, in promotion of sustainable development in the local community etc.