From Dugan O'Neil | Update to the SFU community: sustainability initiatives

This message is sent on behalf of Dugan O’Neil, SFU’s vice-president, research and international. It has been sent to all faculty and staff.

Dear SFU staff and faculty,

I have some exciting updates to share with you regarding sustainability initiatives at the university. I am pleased to inform you that SFU Sustainability (previously SFU Sustainability Office) has joined the Vice-President, Research and International (VPRI) portfolio (www.sfu.ca/research/departments). Some teams within our portfolio have already been building strong partnerships over the last couple of years with SFU Sustainability around sustainability research, sustainability reporting and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We have found these partnerships to be both productive and rewarding for those involved, and for Simon Fraser University as a whole. On behalf of Executive Director, Candace Le Roy, we look forward to seeing that work deepen as we work together on sustainability priorities for SFU.

In addition, ACT – the Action on Climate Team, has joined the VPRI portfolio. ACT is a state-of-the-art research-to-practice hub for climate change and sustainability solutions. ACT works across disciplines and sectors, advancing public and private sector partnerships by bringing leading experts from the academy, industry, NGOs and all levels of government together to co-create leading research for practice. Under new leadership, Executive Director, Dr. Alison Shaw, will continue the work of Deborah Harford, enrolling diverse actors to advance practical and effective policy and professional norms that minimize climate risk and emissions, while catalyzing more systemic-level climate and sustainability solutions. ACT will work closely with SFU Sustainability and other members of the VPRI portfolio to elevate and amplify climate change and sustainability partnership and co-creation opportunities, promoting the strengths of SFU as a higher education leader in mobilizing relevant knowledge for sustainable practices across all sectors to help us all go further faster.

This is an exciting time, as SFU is redesigning our sustainability initiatives, strategies and resources. Part of the redesign is grounding this work in a wider framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A new SDGs project will have several announcements associated with it over the coming months, with the first being the launch of a project to map SFU’s SDGs activities across the university. The project is led by Executive Director, Shaheen Nanji, SFU International and the project team includes members from SFU International, SFU Sustainability and VPRI administration. Through this project, we look at how the 17 SDGs align with—or are being contributed to by—various types of core activities taking place at SFU, including: Research; Teaching & Learning; Operations; and Engagement. In the fall, key results of an initial scan of SDGs activity will be shared with the university community during the stakeholder engagement process to strengthen our understanding of SFU’s existing activity and our potential. SFU International will use the results to develop a Global Engagement Plan aligned with the SDGs, and SFU Sustainability will use the results for their sustainability planning and initiatives.

We are dedicated to collaborating and putting appropriate resources together to leverage and enhance sustainability research, partnerships, projects and initiatives that are happening across the university. You can expect to see further updates on SFU’s extensive work in SDGs, as the VPRI portfolio is working hard to share more with you in the coming months and throughout the next year.

Sincerely,

Dugan O’Neil
Vice-President, Research and International and Professor of Physics
Simon Fraser University
vpri@sfu.ca