The sustainability approach has changed the modern society. Currently, the sustainability takes into consideration, not only the economic and environmental facets, but also the social facet. Taking into account the three facets of sustainability, this paper shows the application of a method of active learning to assess the sustainability of three real retaining walls. A group of 29 students of the Master of Science in Planning and Management in Civil Engineering at the Universitat Politècnica de València has experienced this assessment. The method followed was proposed by academics of the School of Civil Engineering of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) and Universidad de La Frontera (Chile). An approach multi-criteria and a clusters analysis are part of method, which allows developing a participative process with different points of view about the sustainability. The outcomes show that of this way students can forecast impacts from of the integration of design, planning and the location context of the infrastructure. Result evidence that personal values of each student influences the election of the optimal alternative. The paper also identifies the need to strengthen the conceptualization of social criteria in the students training.