From February to June 2022, a series of sessions, called the "17 Rooms", was held at Concordia. Each consecutive session focussed on one of the SDGs. The goal of the exercise was to strategize about how to coordinate activities and achieve greater impact related to the SDGs. Eight key takeaways emerged out of this collaborative process. Under each item below, the SDG icon indicates in which rooms the idea was discussed.
1. Build an "impact agenda"
Build an institutional “impact agenda” that articulates clear goals, targets, and roadmaps to help define where and how we should focus our SDG-related efforts on our own campuses and communities.
2. Assess and track progress on SDGs
Rigorously assess and track progress on institutional commitments to SDG-aligned efforts around decolonization, EDI, sustainability, “good governance” practices, etc. in order to have a clear sense of our strengths and weaknesses, and to hold ourselves to account with respect to our stated ideals.
3. Foster inter-disciplinary research to enhance impact
Use the SDGs as a mechanism to foster inter-disciplinary research collaborations with a focus on enhanced social impact, finding effective ways to engage and align various researchers and research units around a common set of challenges and objectives.
4. Create co-teaching opportunities and cross-disciplinary courses
Use the SDGs as a basis for creating co-teaching opportunities and cross-disciplinary course offerings, with a focus on providing students with immersive forms of experiential learning that builds skills in complex problem-solving and sustainable innovation.
5. Use the 'campus as a living lab' model
Expand use of the "campus as a living lab" model to facilitate SDG-inspired initiatives that integrate research, teaching, operations, services, and community engagement, testing and modeling new practices on our own campuses.
6. Provide training, support and recognition for social impact work
Provide training, support and appropriate forms of recognition for faculty, staff and students who want to influence public policy, do advocacy work and pursue other forms of social impact.
7. Extend efforts providing leadership and guidance
Develop or extend efforts providing leadership and guidance to businesses, government and communities undertaking sustainability- and equity-related transitions, building on faculty expertise and student initiatives, as well as know-how developed through efforts on our own campuses.
8. Build multi-stakeholder partnerships
Find additional ways to build and contribute to multi-stakeholder partnerships at all levels to maximize Concordia’s reach and impact in relation to the SDGs, and provide a range of learning opportunities and supports related to developing and managing partnerships.
