- The Goals
- SDG 1: No Poverty
- SDG 2: Zero Hunger
- SDG 3: Good health and well-being
- SDG 4: Quality education
- SDG 5: Gender equality
- SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
- SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy
- SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
- SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
- SDG 10: Reduced inequalities
- SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
- SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
- SDG 13: Climate action
- SDG 14: Life below water
- SDG 15: Life on land
- SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions
- SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals
- About
- Contact
Engage With Us
On this page
- For faculty: SFU's Research Expertise Engine
- For faculty: SDGs mapping project
- SFU faculty, staff, and students: SDG Framework for Global Engagement
- SFU staff, students and partners: Engage with us
SFU's 2022-2025 Strategic Sustainability and Climate Action Plan establishes the university's sustainability goals, defines SFU's climate action targets and outlines how SFU will take action to achieve them. This Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) website is part of a project that will benefit our community at large by helping inform SFU's Global Engagement Plan.
There are a number of ways the SFU community and public can get involved. We encourage you to engage with us.
Email: sfui@sfu.ca
SFU FACULTY
1: UPDATE YOUR PROFILE ON SFU'S RESEARCH EXPERTISE ENGINE TO INCLUDE SDGS
SFU's Research Intelligence Office has developed a tool designed to help answer the question, "Does anybody at SFU work on that?" Our Research Expertise Engine (REE) is available to the SFU community and the general public. REE helps SFU researchers connect to colleagues with similar interests, or with whom new multidisciplinary collaborations can be built. SFU's REE also helps researchers and graduate students from other institutions find SFU researchers and SFU research works. It allows industry, government, partners and media to search for SFU scholars and research interests.
SFU researchers can update their profiles with the SDGs their research has contributed to. They can turn any SDG of choice "on" or "off" in their settings. This will serve as not only a tool to show what SDGs their research is connected to, but will also help others learn more about each of the 17 SDGs.
Connect with us about SFU's Research Expertise Engine: rio@sfu.ca
2. LEARN ABOUT THE SDGs MAPPING PROJECT
BACKGROUND
Since 2019, SFU has participated in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings, the only global platform that assesses universities' performance against the SDGs. SFU continues to demonstrate its potential to be a global leader in advancing this global commitment: in 2023 SFU ranked as the world's top university impact on sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), 5th in the world for climate action (SDG 13) and 4th in Canada for peace, justice and strong institutions (SDG 16).
These rankings show only a slice of the myriad activities taking place at SFU that align with the SDGs, and only hint at the potential and opportunities for mobilizing our strengths for deepened and sustained impact at local, national and international scales.
ABOUT THE SDG MAPPING PROJECT
The purpose of this project was to broaden and deepen our understanding of current activities taking place at SFU that contribute to the SDGS locally, nationally and internationally, and to mobilize the SFU community around strengthening work towards the achievement of the SDGs.
The project involved gathering quantitative and qualitative data about each of the core functional areas of the institution—Research, Teaching and Learning, Operations, and Engagement—according to pre-identified indicators or information that align activities with the SDGs.
Phase 1: Scanning
Scanned and analyzed existing quantitative and qualitative data from across the institution in each of SFU’s core functional areas (Research, Teaching & Learning, Operations, and Engagement) to understand what we were already doing. In this phase, the project team:
- Identified areas of strength where SFU already excelled and could deepen its engagement in each of the institution’s four functional areas, and cross-institutionally;
- Identified key institutional stakeholders and potential champions for the SDGs;
- Compiled ideas and modalities for SDG mobilization from other universities in Canada and across the globe; and
- Provided data, reports and story ideas to SFU communicators to populate an institution-wide website on SFU’s contributions to the SDGs.
See the SFU International SDG Initiative Report on Phase 1 - Institutional Scan.
Phase 2: Stakeholder Engagement
Designed and conducted a thoughtful, inclusive stakeholder engagement process to deepen our understanding of the work currently being done, and to generate ideas and recommendations for deepening SFU’s impact on the SDGs. In this phase, the project team:
- Identified SDGs or intersectional areas with the highest potential for SFU to be effective in providing leadership and deliver impact at local, national and international levelsl;
- Generated considerations and ideas for deepening engagement with the SDGs in ways that are inclusive of reconciliation, EDI or institutional priorities (SDGs++);
- Developed recommendations for supporting, resourcing and coordinating SDG-related efforts across the institution; and
- Validated and expanded the data collected during the Phase 1.
Project Benefits
This project benefited the SFU community at large by:
- Providing a common language for global engagement which is recognized across sectors (e.g., academia, government, NGO, industry) around the world;
- Identifying the areas in which SFU is currently excelling and ways to deepen engagement/progress in these areas;
- Prioritizing the areas of transformation where SFU has space and capacity to lead and deepen engagement on the SDGs;
- Informing the baseline for assessing SFU’s contributions to mobilizing for the SDGs locally, nationally and globally; and
- Providing data and stories to communicate about SFU’s engagement with the SDGs.
SFU FACULTY, STAFF AND STUDENTS
3: SDG FRAMEWORK FOR GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT
As the result of the mapping project, the SDG Framework for Global Engagement was created and shared with the community in March 2023. The intention of this framework is to help guide SFU’s global initiatives and engagement to be aligned with the 17 SDGs. The UN SDG framework was selected partly because it was developed through a global collaborative process that included countries across the world, as well as Indigenous peoples as one of nine core stakeholder groups. An additional benefit of using this SDG lens for our global engagement, is that it provides shared language and objectives amongst institutions upon which to build strong and mutually beneficial partnerships. Our global engagement—using this framework—is guided by SFU's values, as per What's Next: The SFU Strategy.
We welcome questions and dialogue on how the SDG Framework for Global Engagement might be used. Please contact us at sfui@sfu.ca.
SFU STAFF, STUDENTS AND PARTNERS
4. Engage with Us
Are you involved in—or know of—a sustainability project or initiative at SFU pertaining to the SDGs that you would like shared more widely? Are you outside of the SFU community and would like to learn more about this initiative or are interested in partnership opportunities?