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Goals & Actions

SFU's Sustainability and Climate Action Plan is structured around six overarching goals and 18 supporting actions.

Six goals for sustainability and climate action

Simon Fraser University’s original SFU 2020-2025 Sustainability Plan (.pdf) was approved in January 2020. The current version, SFU's 2022-2025 Strategic Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (.pdf), is a refresh of the plan to reflect the substantial shift in context “post” pandemic, the need to modernize some aspects of the plan (e.g., equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), Indigenous focus) and to align the plan with the Embedding Sustainability and Climate Action Approach (ESCAA).

The refreshed plan was approved by the SFU executive team and Board of Governors at the September 2022 Board meeting. This document will continue as a living plan and process to reflect an adaptive and iterative planning and implementation process. Future versions (if any) will carry a version number and date. These changes will be approved by at least one SFU vice-president (VP).

Explore SFU's 2022-2025 Strategic Sustainability and Climate Action Plan →



GOALS

SFU’s 2022-2025 Strategic Sustainability and Climate Action Plan is built around six goals that address organizational culture and systems change in each of the university's VP portfolios:

  • Learning and Teaching;
  • Research;
  • People, Equity and Inclusion;
  • External and Community Engagement;
  • Operations; and
  • Advancement and Alumni Engagement.

ACTIONS

Actions were chosen by each VP in consultation with the central SFU Sustainability and Climate Office. They cross many different “impact” levels (systemic, cultural, quick wins) and address the different types of levers available to each VP portfolio. This structure ensures that sustainability and climate action are embedded and interwoven into all major areas of SFU.

In addition to the work included in Goals 3 and 4, SFU commits to integrating justice, equity, diversity, inclusion (JEDI) and truth and reconciliation as a critical thread across the entire strategic plan and throughout implementation plans. 

Goal 1: Learning and Teaching

Increase climate and sustainability literacy among faculty, staff and students through learning and teaching

Actions

  1. Conduct climate and sustainability literacy baseline audit
  2. Provide opportunities for learning about climate change and sustainability in the classroom, in the workplace and in the community

Leading VP

Vice-president, academic and provost

Goal 2: Research

Integrate climate and sustainability across the research portfolio into research, partnerships, knowledge mobilization, and innovation

Actions

  1. Advance the community-centred climate innovation research priority area
  2. Develop SFU’s sustainability and climate research programs and facilities within and beyond the campus boundaries (e.g., Civic Innovation Lab)
  3. Create new and enhance existing supports for sustainability and climate research across the university
  4. Establish a system to: streamline sustainability data collection and reporting; provide campus members with on demand access to sustainability data (database); and create an accessible website dashboard for communicating progress
  5. Establish SFU’s global framework for adopting, contributing to, and communicating about the UN SDGs by completing asset mapping and faculty consultation

Leading VP

Vice-president, research and innovation

Goal 3: People, Equity, Inclusion

Embed climate justice and community wellness into all of SFU’s climate and sustainability activities

Actions

  1. Develop justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) guidelines and resources for SFU’s climate and sustainability activities at SFU

Leading VP

Vice-president, people, equity and inclusion

 

Goal 4: External and Community Engagement

Expand SFU’s local, regional and international impact in climate and sustainability using conduits, assets, and platforms we already have, to deepen existing partnerships and avenues for this work. This will include the municipalities, and host nations SFU has campuses in as well as new strategic partnerships

Actions

  1. Utilize existing external and community engagement units such as Public Square, Renewable Cities, Moving in a Livable Region, and VanCity Community Engagement (e.g., to increase presence and impact of participation in COP27)
  2. Integrate applicable TRC and ARC Calls to Action into climate action, resilience, and sustainability activities at SFU 
  3. Deliver the THE Conference on sustainability in cities (partnerships)

Leading VP

Vice-president, external relations

 

Goal 5: Operations

Embed climate (mitigation and resilience) and sustainability into all operational decisions and projects and work to achieve milestones toward the UN-led Race To Zero commitment

Actions

  1. GHG Emissions Reductions. Reduce operational GHG emissions by 50 per cent (Scope 1, 2 and limited Scope 3 [exclusively paper purchased]) from 2007 by 2025
  2. Renewable energy.  Shift 50 per cent of the fossil-fuel based energy used by SFU to renewables by 2025
  3. Scope 3 GHG Emissions Reduction (indirect/value chain). Where solid methodology exists to measure GHG emissions for a scope 3 category we will work toward a 25% reduction (purchased goods and services, commuting, waste, food). Where we do not have an approved methodology, we will not set targets and instead will work on developing or adopting methodology (investments, capital goods)
  4. Investment Portfolio. SFU will divest from fossil fuels by 2025
  5. Climate Resilience. Integrate the climate resilience report big moves into action planning processes

Leading VP

Vice-president, finance and administration

 

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

Actions

  1. Research and actively pursue sustainability fundraising initiatives
  2. Instill “sustainability mindset” in the department which focuses on reducing carbon footprint and reducing waste (e.g., reduce paper use and go paperless where possible)

Leading VP

Vice-president, advancement and alumni engagement

 

Learn more

Read the latest sustainability updates and progress reports.

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