Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, members of the United Nations, including Canada, adopted the Sustainable Development Agenda. This includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that are intended to end poverty, protect the planet, and improve wellbeing for all. Meeting the SDGs requires the involvement of a broad range of global actors, including educational institutions at all levels. In response, many higher education institutions are integrating sustainability and sustainable development into their mandates, operations, and curricula through new initiatives and practices.
This strand of research examines how higher education institutions are responding to and integrating the SDGs into their operations and throughout their institutions.
Current Projects
Learning From the Sustainability Tracking and Assessment Rating System (STARS) in the Global South
This SSHRC-funded project will investigate sustainability tracking as a global practice, focusing specifically on what can be learned from the experiences of early-adopting universities in lower- and middle-income countries. Specifically, the project will: 1) examine why early-adopting universities in lower- and middle-income countries participate in sustainability tracking; 2) Identify challenges and barriers faced by early adopters in lower- and middle-income countries in adapting sustainability tracking to their contexts; and 3) identify the limitations in current practices of sustainability tracking.