Climate action

To support Sustainable Development Goal 13, Simon Fraser University is contributing in multiple ways. SFU actively measures the amount of low carbon energy used across the university and 90.6 per cent of its total energy consumption is now from low-carbon sources. The university provides local education and certificate programmes in BC communities, schools and post-secondary institutions on environmental issues such as climate change risks, impacts, mitigation, adaptation, impact reduction and early warning for disasters. SFU has a Climate Action plan, shared with local government and/or local community groups, and participates in co-operative planning for climate change disasters within government jurisdictions and across borders. SFU’s research centres and funding contribute to informing and supporting local and regional government in local climate change disaster/risk early warning and monitoring, and collaborate with NGOs on climate adaptation. The university met its target date of being carbon neutral in 2010 and has since been working on commitments to net zero carbon emissions. 

How SFU is contributing

• SFU's Strategic Sustainability and Climate Action Plan
• Our commitment to climate action
• Engagement
• Research
• Operations

Embedding Sustainability and Climate Action Framework

The Embedding Sustainability and Climate Action (ESCA) framework is used by the central SFU Sustainability and Climate Office to facilitate the creation, implementation, evaluation and communication of SFU’s strategic sustainability and climate action plans in collaboration with each VP portfolio. The framework is designed to embed climate action across SFU’s core business areas, including teaching, research, community and global engagement, and operations. Climate action is the work of all SFU community members. ESCA is designed to build this accountability into the formal structures of the university including planning, policy, processes, human resource allocation and more.

The SFU Sustainability and Climate Office has been recognized with the City of Burnaby Environmental Award in the Business Stewardship category for developing SFU’s Embedding Sustainability and Climate Action (ESCA) Framework. The award acknowledges long-term commitments, leadership and large projects with a big impact—the exact purpose of ESCA.

Civic Innovation Lab

Co-founded by Simon Fraser University and the City of Burnaby, the Civic Innovation Lab centralizes, connects, and accelerates the many different research and learning collaborations that occur between the two entities, with the aim of improving the economic, social and environmental well-being of Burnaby’s community members. Its projects focus on energy efficiency and clean energy for the local community to learn from and employ. Project topics include resilient sustainable mobility for the Vancouver Metro area, sustainable heat transformer technology, community-executed carbon capture, and a clean hydrogen hub for partners from the community, government, and industry. This collaboration helps the university and Burnaby to achieve sustainable growth and address the impacts of climate change. 

Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions

The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS) and SFU have collaborated on multiple regional-partnership initiatives. PICS unites experts from British Columbia’s four research universities (including SFU) with government, businesses and community leaders to generate evidence-based, usable, and durable solutions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. PICS supports BC’s GHG emissions reduction targets and contributes to resiliency across industry, business and multi-level government policies.

Student Organizations

• Embark: A student-led non-profit at SFU is working to convene students and stakeholders to co-create climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies while encouraging personal commitments to responsible action.
• SFU 350: A student organization committed to engaging the SFU community in meaningful action against climate change in pursuit of a more sustainable world.
• Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS): A student-led organization that represents and advocates for the interests of the 25,000+ undergraduate students at SFU. SFSS convenes an Equity and Sustainability Committee focused on advancing climate and equity work across the institution. 

Co-operative Planning on Local and Regional Scales

Low Carbon Resilience (LCR) Planning Tool 

Climate adaptation and mitigation efforts share common goals: to reduce the projected impacts of climate change, build community resilience and sustainability over time, and avoid displacement of people across local and regional borders due to climate disasters. Low carbon resilience (LCR) is a step change in climate action that coordinates and mainstreams adaptation, mitigation, and co-benefits in planning and decision-making processes. SFU’s Action on Climate Team (ACT) tested this approach through participating in co-operative planning with ten local governments in the Province of British Columbia. ACT supported these partners through the process of mainstreaming LCR via comprehensive climate action planning in corporate strategy, asset management, and community planning, including transportation, biodiversity, land use, and emergency management. Building on this, an online tool is now available to explore cohesive, co-operative, and streamlined climate action planning and to tailor approaches for specific communities. 

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Briefing Note on A Synthesis of Nature-based Solutions as Climate Resilient Infrastructure in Canada

The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) developed a Global Flagship Report to identify key Nature-based Solutions (NbS) that can be mainstreamed at global, national, and sub-national levels to address climate change and mitigate related disasters. As an annex, the SFU Action on Climate Team (ACT) and federal government department Infrastructure Canada prepared A Synthesis of Nature-based Solutions as Climate Resilient Infrastructure in Canada and subsequent briefing note. The briefing note aims to inform decision-makers and practitioners in co-operative climate change planning about key information and lessons learned from Canadian NbS case studies. It is designed to provide useful resources for and insights into planning, implementing, and monitoring NbS best practices, identifying both opportunities and limitations in current approaches across local and regional scales in Canada. 

Read the Briefing Note

Mapping Climate Readiness for the Social Service Sector in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES)

As climate change impacts intensify, the social sector in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside must adapt and enhance their ability to anticipate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from adverse climate-related events such as displacement of already vulnerable populations. SFU Climate Innovation is co-creating a strategic climate readiness Roadmap to support adaptive capacity building with and for residents and organizations in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES). It will be developed through a series of co-creation workshops to tailor strategies for the support organizations working with the most climate-vulnerable and disproportionately impacted residents. The project’s goal is to use co-operative planning to explore and prioritize key opportunities, barriers, and trade-offs and build low carbon resilience into DTES social sector organizations.

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Informing and Supporting Government in Early Warning and Monitoring

Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and partners receive grant to enhance monitoring of Q̓welq̓welústen (Mount Meager)

A grant from the Union of BC Municipalities, will provide seismometers, infrasound acoustic sensors and cameras for day and nighttime, and create a disaster risk monitoring and warning network that can “track seismic activity, slope instability and weather conditions,” at Mount Meager (Q̓welq̓welústen) in the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District (SLRD) in BC. The network provides real-time data and will help governments warn communities downstream of potential climate change related risk and disasters. The project is led by the SLRD and supported by the Lil’wat Nation, the Village of Pemberton, Pemberton Valley Diking District (PVDD), Innergex and Simon Fraser University. Glyn Williams-Jones, a Professor at SFU’s Department of Earth Sciences and Co-Director of the Centre for Natural Hazards Research, said “Q̓welq̓welústen/Mount Meager’s slopes have become increasingly unstable, partly due to climate change, underscoring the importance of this enhanced monitoring.” Data will also be transmitted to the Canadian Natural Hazards Knowledge Portal, a website SFU is developing that provides resources for public, corporate and government officials. “On behalf of the Líl̓wat Nation, I am very much in support of an early warning system […] This early warning system is vital for the monitoring of ongoing natural actions that continue in the upper valley,” said Lil’wat Chief Dean Nelson.

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Resilient Pathways Report: Snow Avalanches

SFU School of Resource and Environmental Management Professor Pascal Haegeli has contributed to the Natural Resources Canada Resilient Pathways Report. The Report has following objectives: a) to share knowledge about existing practices and recent advances in understanding and managing disaster and climate risk in BC, including some information on relevant federal programs, and b) to provide insights on gaps and recommendations that will help build pathways to resilience in BC. In it, Haegeli and colleagues describe avalanche disaster risk warning and monitoring systems and services for the public and local governments. They lay out drivers of risk, such as climate change, infrastructure, technology, and tools, and best practices for safety, gaps in the work, and recommendations for future work. This contribution to the Resilient Pathways Report helps inform and support regional government in local climate change disaster and risk early warning and monitoring. 

Read the Article

SFU's 2023-2028 Strategic Research Plan Priority Areas

Officially launched in January 2023, Simon Fraser University's 2023-2028 Strategic Research Plan (SRP) captures some of the breadth of activities at the university. It also defines priority areas of research strength and focus for 2023-2028. The SDGs provide an international framework covering many of the most pressing issues of our time including climate action. Our university and our community members are committed to the SDGs and are putting them at the heart of our international engagement framework. Each of the priority areas below spans multiple disciplines and intersect with each other.

• Advancing Community Centered Climate Innovation
• Supporting Health and Wellness of Individuals, Populations, and Communities
• Expanding the Foundations of Knowledge and Understanding Our Origins
• Strengthening Democracy, Justice, Equity and Education
• Transforming Industry and Economies Through Technology, Management and Policy

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Climate Innovation at SFU

Climate Innovation is a critical research priority at SFU that takes a community-first approach to co-develop and co-implement innovative solutions to address climate change. Climate Innovation integrates three intersectoral research streams (adaptation, mitigation and sustainability) and uses three foundational approaches that inform our research: community partnerships, innovation, and valuing of Indigenous knowledges and perspectives. SFU Climate Innovation is working on several interdisciplinary projects that focus on community-centered partnerships to address some of the most pressing issues in our communities. Local and regional partners include: the City of Port Moody, City of Burnaby, City of Maple Ridge, First National Housing and Infra Council, BC Housing, Technical Safety BC, the University of British Columbia, Translink, and others.

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Action on Climate Team (ACT)

ACT is the first and only university-based think tank initiative in North America dedicated to low carbon resilience and nature-based solutions to climate change impacts. ACT is moving action on climate change from scholarship to practice and back to ensure that governments, organizations and individuals have the information they need to urgently address climate change and its global impacts—while transitioning toward sustainability goals.

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Facts and Figures

• 365 research publications relating to SDG 13, 2020-2024
• 135 active research projects related to SDG 13 funded between 2020-2024
• At least 70 researchers involved in research relating to SDG 13 (source: SFU Research Expertise Engine)

Carbon Neutrality Climate Change Accountability Report 2023

As of January 2010, SFU has been carbon neutral in order to meet the Greenhouse Gas Reductions Act and Bill 44 targets for a carbon neutral public sector. This was just the beginning, as SFU has continued to work at decreasing its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As part of B.C.’s public sector, SFU is required to submit a Climate Change Accountability Report (CCAR) to the B.C. Climate Action Secretariat (Ministry of Environment) and the B.C. Ministry of Advanced Education. The report summarizes SFU’s annual GHG emissions (scope 1 and 2) from the government mandated reporting areas: direct and indirect fuel used for operating building systems (heating, cooling of buildings and electricity) and from consumption of office paper. In 2023, SFU's total Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions were 10,382 tCO2e, representing a 46 per cent reduction from the 2007 baseline.

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UN Race to Zero

Having met its carbon neutral target for Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions in 2010, SFU continues to make commitments to achieving net zero emissions. In 2021, the University committed to the United Nations-backed Race to Zero campaign, the largest global alliance of its kind to date.  As part of this commitment, SFU set ambitious emission reduction targets:

• 85 per cent all emissions reductions by 2030,
• net zero reductions of direct emissions by 2035, and
• net zero of all emissions by 2050.  

SFU is currently on track to meet interim targets set for 2025. 

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Corix Biomass

As part of the Renewable Energy Centre, SFU has partnered with Corix since 2021to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heating by 80 per cent since 2021. The Corix Biomass project at SFU is a high-efficien cy heating plant fueled by burning urban wood waste from Metro Vancouver. The plant greatly reduces demand for natural gas on campus and in the surrounding community. As a result, the Burnaby Mountain District Energy Utility has drastically decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. SFU has exceeded its carbon reduction targets, slashing GHGs by over 50 per cent from 2007 levels in 2021 and saving 12,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. 

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