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In the framework of the EU Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), a new multidisciplinary course “Heat loss in buildings and sustainability: local approaches to global problems” was designed and implemented in collaboration between three European universities. The aim was to introduce engineering and architecture students to sustainability and systems thinking in relation to energy use in buildings. Together with conventional lecturing and seminars, a mixture of online, in-person, theoretical and unconventional hands-on teaching methods and activities was applied, including, lectures, discussion seminars, experiments and a role-play. This approach required the strong involvement and collaboration of the teaching staff, who, by combining different disciplines and collaborating across universities and national boundaries, acquired invaluable pedagogical experience. Most importantly, students from different countries and disciplinary backgrounds were exposed to a mixture of subjects that they might not otherwise have experienced in their engineering and architecture programmes, i.e., policy and governance, physics, and energy systems. In this way, the course laid the foundations for systems thinking and a sustainability mindset.