- About
- Commitments
- Sustainable Development Goals
- 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
- The Goals
- SFU at COP
- Sustainable Development Goals
- Sustainability and Climate Plan
- Reports
- Get involved
- Contact
Design and definitions
Strategy Design Process
As SFU is many years into it’s leadership initiative in sustainability and climate the Sustainability and Climate Office was tasked with identifying how SFU could continue to play a leadership role and continuing to demonstrate innovation, creativity, and impact.
Stages 1-5
- The first stage of the strategy development process was a consultation with three key stakeholders who had in the past not been as involved in SFU’s sustainability strategy development. These were the Faculty Deans, the Indigenous Council Office Lead, and the Equity and Wellbeing Lead. This allowed us to gain an early and ongoing perspective on the foundational inclusion of academic, Indigenous, and equity/wellbeing lenses.
- The second stage was an extensive materiality study to identify the global, national, regional and local goals, targets, commitments, and best practices in this area. This stage set the bar for what SFU could potentially contribute to and what might be expected of an institution like ours. The question became: “what does leadership look like for higher education by 2030?”
- The third stage was to review SFU’s current core strategies, plans, priorities, and strengths to identify which of these external indicators we should focus our energy and efforts on. Core strategies and plans included What’s Next: The SFU Strategy, the Academic Plan, the Strategic Research Plan, and the Faculty plans as they emerged.
- The fourth stage was to identify which external frameworks and commitments would continue to guide our work until 2030 and support our internal priorities. From these frameworks and commitments, three cross-cutting goals were identified at the intersection of global impact and SFU’s strengths.
- The fifth and final stage was to ground truth the overall strategy framework with senior decision makers (including student leaders) and align our year one activities to their current priorities.An extensive community consultation was not undertaken for this strategy. The reason for this was that the strategy was built off current external goals and internal strategies that had already been built on science-based targets and extensive community consultation. The strategy was also informed by the last decade of community consultation and the extensive work undertaken by departments across the university to set their own impact goals (e.g., the Strategic Energy Management Plan, Climate Innovation Platform). Instead of a one-and-done consultation, the Sustainability and Climate Office will continue to engage stakeholders throughout the delivery of the living strategy. Stakeholders will have clear roles and responsibilities as part of its ongoing evolution and delivery. This includes a formal role for student organizations, student researchers, and student volunteers/employees.
Definition of Terms
Many terms are used within and outside the university to describe action at the intersection of planet and people. SFU has used the term “sustainability” since 2008 in alignment with the UN Sustainable Development definition. We have utilized ChatGPT 5.0 to summarize the key elements of this definition:
The Brundtland Report (formally Our Common Future, 1987, published by the World Commission on Environment and Development) gave the most widely cited definition of sustainability:
“Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
Key Elements of the Definition
- Needs-based focus: It prioritizes the essential needs of the world’s poor, recognizing that poverty eradication is central to sustainability.
- Intergenerational equity: It emphasizes fairness across generations—ensuring future generations inherit the resources and environmental capacity to thrive.
- Limits: It acknowledges ecological and technological limits that constrain how far economic and social systems can expand without causing harm.
Connection to Social and Economic Goals
- Social goals: Sustainability is linked to equity, poverty reduction, and social justice. Meeting basic human needs and reducing inequality are not separate from environmental protection—they are essential to it.
- Economic goals: The report stresses that growth can and should continue, but it must be “qualitatively different”—guided by efficiency, renewable resource use, and integration of environmental costs. Sustainable economic development is about long-term prosperity, not short-term exploitation.
- Integration: Perhaps its most influential idea is that environmental protection cannot be treated as separate from economic and social development; all three must be pursued together.
In short, the Brundtland definition ties sustainability directly to social justice and economic development: eradicating poverty and ensuring equitable growth are as critical as protecting ecosystems, and all must be balanced for present and future well-being.
Climate Change and Resiliency
- Acting on climate change and building resilient communities supports long term sustainability. When we reference sustainability at SFU and in this plan we are also referring to slowing and reversing climate change and helping communities respond to climate change impacts and ecosystem degradation.
Net Positive Emissions and Regeneration
- Net positive emissions goes beyond carbon neutrality and refers to reducing more greenhouse gas emissions than what are emitted, creating a net benefit to the environment and to the community.
- Regeneration, in the ecological sense, refers to the processes where an ecological or socio-ecological system renews itself and creates positive outcomes. These processes go beyond simple restoration and create conditions where the environment can thrive and support ongoing net positive benefits to nature and humans.