Concordia's commitment to the SDGs

Context

Our commitment to the SDGs aligns perfectly with our original mission as an institution, our Strategic Directions that currently guide our development, our long-term vision for our next-gen university, and recent measures we have taken to support all of these.

On the environmental front, in the past few years we have taken a number of important steps:

• We signed on to UN Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) in 2018
• In 2019, we became the first Canadian university to issue a sustainable bond, to fund our new Applied Science Hub
• That same year, the Concordia University Foundation committed to:
  • Ending investments in coal, oil and gas within 5 years
  • Making 100% sustainable investments by 2025
  • Doubling our impact investments
• On October 1, 2020, we embedded sustainability into the leadership of the university by creating the position of Vice-President, Services and Sustainability
• At the beginning of November 2020, we launched our first ever Sustainability Action Plan, which includes our intention to become a carbon-neutral institution.

Beyond environmental measures

Having a healthy environment obviously affects everything else we do. Of the 17 SDGs, environmental measures are specifically targeted in the following SDGs:

• SDG 6 - Clean Water and Sanitation
• SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
• 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

While environmental measures may undergird sustainability, if we are to sustain our species and thrive, we must improve on many more fronts than these alone. Ultimately, sustainable development is a much broader endeavour. That’s why the SDGs include initiatives around social justice, inclusivity, the economy, strengthening our institutions, and fostering collaboration on sustainable development across sectors and organizations.

Concordia’s position and goals

Concordia already does very well on some of the SDGs. According to the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Rankings last year, we placed Top 20 in the world on Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG 11) and on Climate Action (SDG 13). We were also ranked tops in Canada for our impact on Quality Education (SDG 4).

In addition, our efforts to decolonize and indigenize Concordia, guided by the Indigenous Directions Action Plan, the opening our Equity Office, and launching our President’s Task Force on Anti-Black Racism, tightly align with the objectives articulated in SDGs 10 - Reduced Inequalities and 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.

Our goal is to have our commitment to the SDGs inspire and influence: the curricula of existing courses and the creation of new ones; new impactful research opportunities; and strategic collaborations, such as our Sustainability Ecosystem at JMSB. Just as the SDGs are themselves not siloed but interconnected, our commitment will compel us to think in interdisciplinary ways.

Ultimately, we want to lead by example to spur collective action toward a sustainable future. The SDGs provide a framework to lead transformational change in our teaching, research, and operations – our mission as an institution.

Concordia’s SDG Voluntary University Review

To develop an SDG strategy, we will conduct a Voluntary University Review (VUR), a process similar to those undertaken by countries and cities to gauge their current performance on each SDG and their progress over time. The review is “voluntary” in that it is not linked to any accountability structure. Only a few other universities have undertaken a voluntary review to date.

Unlike governments, universities are not ultimately responsible for performance against the SDGs. Still, the SDGs provide a useful framework for universities to find common cause with government and civil society.

The VUR process will focus on the question: How can we deepen our engagement and impact with the SDGs in our teaching, research, public engagement, and operations?

This focus will require us to clearly define what we mean by “impact” (beyond numbers of publications or courses, etc.), and distinguish between impacts that we can achieve directly (e.g., by improving access to educational opportunities, or reducing waste on campus) and those we can indirectly contribute to through our activities.

We will get started on our VUR early in 2021, and aim to have an action plan in place by the fall.

Research-related opportunities

What’s particularly exciting about the SDG framework is the number of alignments supporting their uptake.

There has been great buy-in from Canadian universities. Most are now engaging with the SDGs at some level, with each steering its own course, as reflected in the different  approaches been taken up at Dalhousie University, University of Manitoba, University of Alberta and University of British Columbia.

Research funding agencies are also aligning with and supporting the SDGs:

• FRQ has launched program calls over the past several years (e.g., FRQ-IIASA postdoc fellowship) that require the research interests of applicants to align with the SDGs. Janice Bailey, Scientific Director of FRQNT, has signaled her interest in extending this requirement to all programs within the FRQNT.
• We are seeing similar commitments within the tri-agencies (NSERC, SSHRC, CIHR) to large-scale, interdisciplinary, partnered research that addresses future global challenges – and is therefore closely tied to the SDGs.

The SDGs also align with other discourses that are shaping the future of academic research at Concordia and elsewhere:

• The critical importance of multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary perspectives
• Increasing attention paid to social impact and social innovation
• The need to redefine research excellence and develop alternative metrics for measuring impact
• Greater recognition of the role and importance of ‘mission-driven’ research alongside, rather than instead of, curiosity-driven research
• Greater attention to open science, plurality of knowledges, co-creation and making space for other voices
• EDI and GBA+ considerations

We are seeing alignment beyond the academic sector, too. Common goals, targets and language support unprecedented potential for partnerships between researchers, government, businesses and civil society.

While the SDGs set out an ambitious, transformative agenda for the next decade, there are some notable gaps. For example:

• There are calls for the addition of an SDG 18 focusing on digital governance
• In a study for the Social Purpose Institute, Coro Strandberg has proposed we adopt SDG+3 to accommodate three Canadian social issues missing from the framework – Indigenous equity, aging society and sense of belonging

Although the SDG framework may not be perfect, the extent of its reach, its attention to local context and community engagement as well as to global connections and partnerships offer a strong foundation for an exciting, transformational agenda.

Concordia’s great potential to contribute

Concordia is well placed to contribute – a number of our researchers and research units, such as our recently opened Next-Gen Cities Institute, are on the leading edge of SDG-driven research. Many others are fueling SDG research, though their efforts are not explicitly framed as such. The voluntary review will be a valuable opportunity for us to build upon this work and chart our path forward.

Committing to the SDGs presents an opportunity for transformational change that uses our research to advance these critically important global goals. The need to champion an alternative next-generation vision of the future that is optimistic, inclusive and sustainable has never been greater.