GOAL 6: ADVANCEMENT AND ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
Embed sustainability thinking in all operations of the department targeting our donors, staff, faculty and alumni and various philanthropic programs and themes as applicable by the new comprehensive campaign.
ACCOUNTABLE VICE-PRESIDENT PORTFOLIO
ADVANCEMENT AND ALUMNI ENGAGEMENT
“Addressing the mounting climate crisis and the myriad of intersecting challenges our society faces today requires collective action. Within Advancement and Alumni Engagement (AAE), we’re doing our part to further the university’s sustainability goals while engaging with SFU’s diverse alumni and donor communities. AAE’s efforts have resulted in raising funds that support students and researchers studying the environment and sustainability, the transition to clean energy, and more. We are also generating support and awareness of vital research being done by SFU researchers on our critical ecosystems, and climate innovation. Whether it’s through alumni and donor events and communications, campaign planning, or our day-to-day operations, we’re activating sustainability in all we do.”
— Erin Morantz
Vice-President, Advancement and Alumni Engagement
Actions
Enthusiastically pursuing fundraising initiatives that support sustainability.
- Examples include a generous bequest from SFU alumnus Kenneth Cawker that provides vital funding for students in the Faculty of the Environment; securing funding for projects like Dr. Taco Niet’s Delta Energy Plus Research Group within the School of Sustainable Engineering, Dr. Andy Hira’s Clean Energy Research Group within the Department of Political Science or Dr. Anne Salomon and her kelp system science project within the School of Resource and Environmental Management.
- Numerous initiatives within the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at SFU support sustainability. Cultivating support from a range private, corporate and government, and philanthropic organizations, the Wosk Centre is able to cover an impressive range of topics and speakers whose expertise revolve around research, policy on climate action and solutions, urban sustainability, and more. Highlights of the Wosk Centre’s donor-supported sustainability initiatives include:
- Clean Energy Canada is a climate and clean energy program within the Wosk Centre that works to accelerate Canada’s clean energy transition.
- Renewable Cities works with policymakers and practitioners to accelerate the transition to renewable, restorative, resilient cities through meaningful engagement, critical research, capacity building and policy innovation.
- Moving in a livable region is growing consortium based in the Metro Vancouver region of British Columbia that aims to build a more resilient, equitable, economically strong, and healthy region.
- Cities and Climate began as a temporary project focused on the activities leading up to and during COP26 and is now an ongoing initiative to support and enhance the impact of multilevel climate action in Canada.
- Urban Resilient Futures is an initiative partnering with the City of Burnaby and Vancity where city residents and stakeholders work to accelerate climate action and to co-create a new, locally developed narrative for a resilient, low-carbon future.
- Mitigating Wildfires works to create dialogue and collaboration to identify and advance solutions that address the fundamental changes happening in wildfire risk and management in B.C.
- Action on Climate Team is a research-to-practice hub for the mobilization of climate change and sustainability knowledge and solutions. It works across sectors to mobilize relevant knowledge for practice.
- Collaborating with SFU’s Sustainability Office, AAE is also in the early stages of conceiving a proposed community-directed sustainability fund.
Amplifying SFU’s progress and commitment to sustainability throughout our donor or alumni communications as well as stewardship and engagement initiatives.
- We’re continually sharing SFU’s progress on decarbonizing investments. This includes providing fundraisers with up-to-date resources containing the latest information on SFU’s sustainable endowment and approaches to building an environmentally responsible investment portfolio.
- Within our donor and alumni communications—including: our monthly SFU Alumni eNews and Engage magazine—we cover stories and impact on sustainability at SFU and we highlight alumni and close community members who are helping shape a sustainable world.
Reducing our operational carbon footprint and waste.
- In all our events—whether alumni, donor or stewardship events, staff meetings or socials—we encourage the use of public transit and/or carpooling. We use locally-sourced catering whenever possible and event invitations are also almost exclusively digital in format.
- We have switched to paperless delivery channels to our donors, including tax receipting and regulatory reporting.
- We’re rolling out a versatile new online donations platform, which not only modernizes operations but allows for paperless delivery of tax receipts not supported by our current system.
- We have also pivoted to paperless and distribute other donor and alumni communications primarily in digital format, including: our monthly SFU Alumni eNews, Engage magazine (which goes out twice per year).
