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 team. 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.
Actions
- Conduct climate and sustainability literacy baseline audit
- 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
Actions
- Advance the community-entred climate innovation research priority area
- Develop SFU’s sustainability and climate research programs and facilities within and beyond the campus boundaries (e.g., Civic Innovation Lab)
- Create new and enhance existing supports for sustainability and climate research across the university
- 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
- 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 international
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
