The development of a "sustainability agenda" in higher education (HEFCE 2009) is, it seems to the author, a classical example of supercomplexity in action. In this article, the author argues that the challenge for universities in responding as organisations to the demands of sustainability--which must, in the end, mean reducing fossil fuel-based carbon footprints--is pre-eminently a managerial one, in which new, supercomplex, frames of reference need to be brought to bear. Nobody knows what the solutions to the problems will be, but the author suggests that thinking of university management in terms of a knowledge partnership, with shared responsibilities, is likely to be the best way of finding them.