Welcome!
Welcome to the web page for SFU's new Sustainability Office! We're glad you've found us, and we're very glad to be here.
The Office was established by SFU’s Senior Executive in mid-July, and began operations effective September 1, 2012. Its creation reflects the University's fundamental commitment to sustainability as one of the six underlying principles of SFU's Vision, "The Engaged University":
"SFU will pursue ecological, social and economic sustainability through its programs and operations. Through teaching and learning, research and community engagement, SFU will seek and share solutions. In its own operations, it will develop and model best practices, from minimizing its ecological footprint, to maximizing its social health and economic strength."
SFU Strategic Vision, 2012
The creation of the Office also marks a significant step toward achieving President Petter's commitment to develop an institutional strategy and structure to guide and promote SFU’s sustainability commitments. To this end, the Office will work with the new Senior Sustainability Council to develop a Sustainability Strategic Plan covering each Vice President’s portfolio. We hope to have that Plan prepared and approved early in 2013. In the meantime, we will continue to support and refresh many of the important sustainability projects already in place at SFU (for instance, the Sustainability Network and the Sustainability Ambassador Program) as well as to unveil a few exciting new initiatives.
We believe in the central importance of "sustainability" in our professional and personal lives. We also recognize that the word "sustainability" is burdened with a heavy freight of complex, sometimes confusing meanings that often make it a challenge to speak about or understand it clearly.
By extension, we believe that the language we use and the stories we tell to illustrate what a sustainable life might look like are essential to making sustainability accessible and meaningful to the individuals and communities from whom change must come. So an important part of our work in the coming months will be to explore some of "sustainability's" many meanings and to seek ways to talk about sustainability that offer positive alternatives to the path down which our consumer culture and the myth of endless growth has sent us.
We look forward to working with you!
KC Bell, Director
SFU Sustainability Office