Sustainable Development Goals

Queen’s University

The Promise Scholars program at Queen’s University is a comprehensive initiative designed to reduce financial barriers and increase access to Queen’s for local, first-generation students. The program provides dedicated financial, academic, and career support to help students complete their degree.

Carleton University

Carleton University’s Community First: Impacts of Community Engagement (CFICE) project includes a Poverty Reduction Hub which studied how different players tackle poverty through community-campus partnerships. The goal was to understand how people from different areas of the community could work together to address the root causes of poverty.  In collaboration with several community partners, the PR Hub also funded community-driven demonstration projects and provided research support aimed at reducing poverty.

Lakehead University

Lakehead University’s Sustainable Food Systems Lab is a hub for academics and community-based practitioners engaged in sustainable food systems research and action. It is a collaborative event and workspace and a resource for researchers, practitioners, and activists. It aims to build meaningful relationships that enable knowledge sharing between research, policy and practice with an ultimate goal of healthy, just and sustainable food systems for all.

Ryerson University

Enactus Ryerson created Project Growing North to implement sustainable geodesic greenhouse units in Northern communities in Canada. Each unit has the capacity to feed the nutritional requirements for every family in the community, at a fraction of the current price, while creating local jobs. In each community, partnerships are created with local schools, where students will begin to learn about horticulture, and have weekly visits to the greenhouse to gain a tangible educational experience.

University of Toronto

The University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health will lead a major interdisciplinary research and education initiative in line with SDG 3 to promote Universal Health Coverage through equitable health system strengthening. This focus draws on the university’s strengths in quality of care, data systems and analytics, health information systems, health policy and comprehensive health systems and implementation science.

Brock University

Brock University’s Lifespan Development Research Centre uses a network of multidisciplinary individuals and community agencies that are devoted to researching human development across the lifespan with specific strengths in children and adolescence. They are currently working on the Brock Healthy Youth project, which investigates health risked behaviours in adolescent brain development.   

In addition, Brock University is committed to raising awareness and reducing the stigma around mental health, and Brock is dedicated to ensuring all students, staff, faculty, and employee family members have access to health, safety, and wellness programs.

Mount Royal University

Mount Royal University offers a novel credited course, Humanly Information Design, in their Bachelor of Communication, Information Design. For the past three years, the senior Information Design students used a system thinking approach to examine the SDGs.

Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), 27 of Universities Canada’s member’s business and management schools are members of the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME) initiative.  Working through Six Principles, PRME engages business and management schools to ensure they provide future leaders with the skills needed to balance economic and sustainability goals, while drawing attention to the SDGs and aligning academic institutions with the work of the UN Global Compact.

For example, Guelph University’s Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics has a commitment to the United Nations SDGs with their Sustainable Business Initiative and are PRME Champions.

University of Calgary

Campus as a Learning Lab (CLL) is an innovative University of Calgary initiative with a focus on experiential learning and fostering a campus culture rooted in sustainability. Learning labs enable campuses to be active environments for teaching and learning, while enabling the co-production of knowledge and increasing the ability of an institution to contribute to sustainability challenges. Through CLL, the University of Calgary is using its campus as a lab to test and model innovative sustainability practices, leveraging its research, academic and operations functions.

Queen’s University

The Dunin-Deshpande Queen’s Innovation Centre (DDQIC) and Compass North programs at Queen’s University enable students and local women entrepreneurs to build sustainable start-ups through courses, workshops, internships, seminars, conferences, and competitions.

Western University

Western University supports SDG 5, through its Gender Equality Network; its Go ENG Girl and Go CODE Girl programs to introduce girls in grades 7-11 to engineering, coding, and related STEM fields; its Trans Care Team which provides medical care and counselling to students in an LGBTQIA2S+ affirmative environment; and the Women of Ivey Network (WIN) which engages and connects Ivey alumnae to share in women-focused initiatives and creates a community dedicated to supporting and advancing women in leadership roles.

York University

Researchers from York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change are working on a diverse range of projects with local and global partners, including the Ecological Footprint Initiative, which tracks human consumption of renewable resources around the world; The Waste Wiki, that houses data to inform waste management decisions; and a global database project that tracks water quality in more than 12,000 freshwater lakes.  Their students can take part in any of the 500+ sustainability-related courses on York’s Toronto campuses or study for a semester at its EcoCampus in Costa Rica. 

Ryerson University

Ryerson Urban Water (RUW) is a multi-disciplinary collective of over 40 experts across 6 faculties and 13 Departments. Its researchers and their wet labs and students come from the natural sciences, engineering, policy/regulatory, and social science arenas. Experts are working on water capture strategies including green roofs and urban forests, low impact development and municipal master planning, engineered wetlands and sophisticated wastewater mitigation strategies, and cost-benefit economic strategies. RUW has the expertise necessary to ensure the development of resilient sustainable cities. 

University of Northern British Columbia

UNBC’s Bioenergy Plant, the flagship component of the UNBC Energy Initiative, is a biomass gasification system designed by Vancouver-based Nexterra Systems Corp. The Bioenergy Plant uses gasification to convert sawmill residue into useable heat in the form of hot water. The hot water is distributed through its existing hot water district heating system and has offset roughly 85% of the fossil fuels previously used to heat the core campus buildings. This reduction has helped UNBC work towards its energy policy goals of reducing the fossil fuel consumption for space heating of all UNBC campuses by 80% by 2015.

University of Regina

The Clean Energy Technologies Research Institute (CETRI) centralizes all low-carbon and carbon-free clean energy research activities at the University of Regina. Areas of research focus include decarbonization and zero-emission hydrogen (H2) technologies, carbon (CO2) capture and utilization, and waste-to-renewable fuels and chemicals. Bringing together one of the most dynamic teams of researchers, industry leaders, innovators, and educators in the energy field, CETRI’s mission aligns with the Environment & Climate Action areas of focus in the University of Regina’s 2020-2025 Strategic Plan.

University of British Columbia

UBC’s Bioenergy Research Demonstration Facility is a first of its kind project in North America. The system processes renewable biomass to generate thermal energy for heating campus buildings. It reduces UBC’s reliance on fossil fuels, provides a quarter of campus heating needs, and eliminates 14% of campus greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, a 2MW cogeneration engine uses Renewable Natural Gas to generate over 5% of the power for UBC’s electrical grid, while waste heat from the electrical generation process is also used for heating buildings. The BRDF is a signature Campus as a Living Laboratory project, integrating UBC’s core academic mandate of research and teaching with our district infrastructure, all within a facility that is a showcase for cross-laminated-timber products made in British Columbia (CLT).

More information.

McMaster University

McMaster University’s School of Labour Studies offers certificates, undergraduate and graduate programs for students seeking careers in law, community development, policy analysis, teaching, research and more, while its Institute for Work in a Global Society (WIGS) research group brings a social science perspective to issues of concern to paid and unpaid workers. 

McMaster also participated in Hamilton’s Living Wage group, a coalition of labour, academic and social services convened to determine the community’s living wage for a family of four.

More information.

Ontario Tech University

Ontario Tech University’s office of Campus Infrastructure and Sustainability promotes sustainable infrastructure throughout their campus, with a strong emphasis on innovation. Ontario Tech has the largest geothermal system in Canada, with 1500 tonne Borehole Thermal Energy Storage System. This system links to the buildings to minimize heating, ventilation and air conditioning demands on these buildings.

Université de Montréal

Several innovative projects have been carried out in recent years by the Université de Montréal, including its MIL campus ephemeral projects, the Darlington Ecological Corridor and the L’extension centre. Other major projects will come to fruition in the years to come, such as the redevelopment of the university’s principal campus, which will be greener and more open to the surrounding.

Wilfrid Laurier University

Wilfrid Laurier University’s sustainable campus infrastructure initiatives include: the Laurier Energy Efficiency Program (LEEP) to increase the energy efficiency of its buildings (including the installation of rooftop solar panels, battery storage and a fully functioning microgrid); its in-house waste reduction and recycling programs, and the newly constructed Lazaridis Hall which is LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold certified and incorporates environmental features such as solar panels, an accessible green roof and an electric vehicle charging station. 

Saint Mary’s University

The Centre of Excellence in Accounting and Reporting for Co-operatives (CEARC) at Saint Mary’s University have set out to answer the question: How is the Canadian co-operative sector contributing to Canada’s measurement and reporting on SDG impact? Working with co-operatives and mutuals across Canada that are interested in how they can implement the SDGs in their corporate environment, this project will help co-operatives and mutuals understand the impact of, and increase knowledge and action regarding, the SDGs in the co-operative sector.

University of Lethbridge

EleV is an innovative partnership between the Blackfoot Confederacy, the University of Lethbridge and the Mastercard Foundation which creates new educational opportunities for Indigenous youth and bolsters supports to ensure their success, increasing employability and enhancing economic development in Blackfoot communities.

EleV works to improve transitions to post-secondary, increase student success at the University of Lethbridge and expand work-integrated learning opportunities. It will also launch new initiatives to deliver programs in Blackfoot communities, create opportunities for students to participate in activities at the University, enable additional Blackfoot and Indigenous students to attend uLethbridge and enhance Indigenous student services in each of the Blackfoot communities.

Breaking down barriers to education for former youth in care: Many Universities Canada members across the country, such as the University of Winnipeg, Mount Saint Vincent University, Vancouver Island University and Memorial University, break down barriers to university education for former youth in care by providing bursaries, tuition waivers, or dedicated financial supports for students in or aging out of foster care.   

Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique

The Labo Climat Montréal is a living lab research collaboration designed to investigate and improve adaptations to climate changes in the Montreal neighbourhoods of Lachine and Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension.  This work is done is partnership with experts and members of the local community.

Thompson Rivers University

The Skeetchestn Indian Band has initiated partnerships with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc (TteS) and Thompson Rivers University (TRU) to create an innovative partnership that teaches Indigenous students how to run a business using traditional and Western land practices, and food sovereignty through the Applied Sustainable Ranching (ASUR) Certificate.   

Students learn skills around regenerative agriculture, traditional and cultural land use practices including grazing management, riparian management, invasive species, managing soils, biodiversity and financial/business management.  Elkstwewc ne tmicw will fill some much-needed gaps in the Skeetchestn community, where the band owns three ranches that are leased out or not in use because there aren’t enough community members with the knowledge or support to make them sustainable and profitable. 

HEC Montréal

HEC Montréal’s urban agriculture project, Hectare urbain, is a living laboratory which includes a forest garden, an heirloom vegetable garden and an educational beehive –  all grown using permaculture principles. The green spaces of the project are located around and on the roof of the University’s Côte-Sainte-Catherine building.  The project also includes a pedagogical dimension, encouraging staff, students and members of the local community to think about food chain issues, climate change and how we can preserve biodiversity. It is hailed for its innovative approach and its mentorship program aimed at introducing local elementary school students to permaculture.

ETS

The ETS Center for Intersectoral Studies and Research on the Circular Economy (CISRC) seeks to contribute to the creation and deployment of a circular economy through cutting-edge interdisciplinary scientific research and innovation, education and training, dialogue with stakeholders, and added value and knowledge transfer.

Trent University

Trent University defines sustainable agriculture as creating a food system that is responsible, justice-oriented, efficient, effective, and viable. It is about farms that can produce food sustainably, as well as humane working conditions, ethical treatment of animals, living wages, fair prices, profitable business models, conservation of biodiversity, resource stewardship, healthy diets and food sovereignty in Indigenous communities.  Trent’s Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems (SAFS) Program examines each of the links between farm and table, and their implications for people, the economy, and the planet and teaches students about the challenges and benefits of producing and distributing healthy, affordable food in sustainable ways, while preparing them for a career in which they really effect change.

Responsible procurement and purchasing policies: Universities across the country have committed to responsible consumption through their strategic plans and their policies and guidelines related to sustainability, procurement, and purchasing.  

For example, sustainability is one of six foundational pillars of OCAD’s Academic plan 2017-2022, with the university committing to fostering a culture of sustainability in every facet of OCAD, including curriculum, operations, community and administration.  The university also has a standalone sustainability policy and commits to maintaining environmentally responsible and sustainable procurement practices as part of its procurement policy. 

More information.  

University of Winnipeg and University of Regina

ClimateWest is a non-profit organization and a regional hub for climate services in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, which empowers people, communities, businesses, and governments to address risks and opportunities caused by a changing climate.  It is co-founded by the University of Winnipeg’s Prairie Climate Centre (PCC), the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), and the University of Regina’s Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative (PARC) with support from the Governments of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, as well as Environment and Climate Change Canada. The organization’s mandate is to deliver credible, useful, and timely climate information, data, and tools tailored to the Prairie region in support of positive adaptation to climate change.

Royal Roads University

The Cascade Institute at Royal Roads University is a Canadian research center that addresses the full range of humanity’s converging environmental, economic, political, technological, and health crises. Using advanced methods to map and model complex global systems, it identifies and helps implement high-leverage interventions that could rapidly shift humanity’s course towards fair and sustainable prosperity.

Memorial University, Dalhousie University, and University of Prince Edward Island

A historic partnership of Memorial University, Dalhousie University and the University of Prince Edward Island, the Ocean Frontier Institute is a collaborative research initiative that seeks to improve prediction and mitigation of major storms, manage human activities as they relate to ocean resources, improve the potential for fisheries and aquaculture industries to meet global seafood demand in a sustainable manner, strengthen marine safety, and transform how we monitor the ocean with new data capture and IT tools.

Algoma University

The Department of Geography, Geology & Land Stewardship at Algoma University hosts a Taking Care of our Land Symposium, the fourth iteration of which will be held in May 2023.  The purpose of the symposium is to explore, through research and best practices, the inclusion of cultural and traditional practices of land management, planning, and use for Aboriginal communities in Northern Ontario. Past symposiums have included sessions on issues such as forest management, invasive species, decolonizing land use planning, traditional ecological knowledge and forest herbicides, and using community science to help understand disturbances in the Boreal forest of Eastern Canada.

Vancouver Island University

Vancouver Island University’s Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI) is a centre for collaborative research, innovation, and knowledge sharing that elevates the relationship between people and nature on Vancouver Island and within the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region.  MABRRI’s projects include Wetland Mapping in the Regional District of Nanaimo, promoting the SDGs in the Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region, and Coastal Forest Plant Phenology Research.

University of Victoria

The University of Victoria is home to the world’s first Indigenous law degree program. Students of the program graduate with two professional degrees: a Juris Doctor (JD) and a Juris Indigenarum Doctor (JID).  They study Canadian law, Indigenous legal traditions, governance, environment and attend field schools to learn from community experts and work with the community on law-related projects. Through these experiences, they explore the diversity of Indigenous legal traditions and observe first-hand the ways Indigenous legal processes are being used today.

The University is also home to the Indigenous Law Research Unit (ILRU), an academic research institute dedicated to the revitalization of Indigenous law and governance.  It seeks to create sites of respectful dialogue and collaboration to reinvigorate communities of Indigenous legal practice locally and globally. It believes that the revitalization of Indigenous laws and governance is essential to re-building deliberative democracy and healthy citizenries in self-governing, lawful communities.

Western University

Western’s Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance (CUP-LG) was created in 2017 to respond to many new challenges faced by local governments and urban policymakers. The University is also home to Community Legal Services which provides free legal services to low-income people in the London community and to Fanshawe College and Western University students. Services are provided by over 125 law students per academic year, who work under the supervision of experienced staff lawyers.

University of Saskatchewan

In its internationalization plan, also known as the International Blueprint for Action 2025, the University of Saskatchewan highlights its commitment to enhancing the supply and sustainability of global water, energy, and food supplies, as well as to promoting the health and the protection of the environment.   

Its international office offers internal project grants to initiate or strengthen existing research collaborations with international partners as well as to support new and existing collaborations and engagement with communities to improve welfare and quality of life.

McGill University 

The McGill Sustainability System Initiative (MSSI) developed a Sustainability Collaboration Dashboard using data provided by faculty members to visualize McGill’s research and collaborations in the area of sustainability. The dashboard also provides data on publication impact, visualises publication collaborations between MSSI members by year, and matches MSSI member research to the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals.