KPU wins silver prize for developing a sustainable development goals mapping initiative
The award for Excellence in Sustainable Development recognizes the initiative illustrating KPU’s support of the SDGs
The United Nations' SDGs were developed in 2015 as a call to end poverty, protect the Earth, and ensure all people can have peace and prosperity by the end of the decade. (Submitted)
Kwantlen Polytechnic University received its first silver prize for Excellence in Sustainable Development at the Colleges and Institutes Canada 2024 Awards of Excellence.
The award was presented to KPU for developing a sustainable development goals (SDGs) mapping initiative, which started in September 2022 and ran until April 2023.
The initiative aims to map and apply the United Nations’ 17 SDGs to academic and administrative ecosystems throughout the university.
“From every single course that is taught at KPU, all of the academic programs, policies, research initiatives, initiatives that are related to environmental sustainability, [and directed] towards equity, diversity, and inclusion, student supports that are offered by student services, … [and] by our [Kwantlen Student Association], we map them against the 17 SDGs,” says Candy Ho, the team lead for the project.
In relation to the SDG mapping initiative, KPU has also signed the SDG Accord, which is a commitment between learning institutions to adopt sustainable goals and report their advances and challenges annually, Ho says.
Mapping what the university is already doing in sustainability work was the first step. Ho says the process included a lot of conversation with the faculty, students, and administration to help inform them about SDGs.
“We did extensive student consultations. We went into classrooms, we were in public spaces trying to get students and the public to tell us where they think the priority in SDG should be,” Ho says.
Now, the university is in the process of prioritizing which goals are important and continuing to work on them.
“It’s unrealistic for us to say that we want to advance all 17 goals. I don’t think it’s achievable, but what we can say is, ‘What are the goals that are important to KPU?’ and with that in mind, … identify how we make sure that we move forward with those.”
Ho adds that she is proud of the work the team has done so far and hopes to keep going as there is more to be done for sustainability.
Jacy Sim, a 2023 KPU graduate who was part of a team working on the environmental scan for the project, says she was thrilled to hear about winning the award.
“Winning the award helped me realize that it was actually a bigger deal than I thought,” Sim says. “You don’t realize the significance of it until something like this comes along.”
The Colleges and Institutes Canada recognizes and presents awards in 10 different categories to learning institutions that show leadership and advancement in one or more nominations.
To be eligible for the Excellence in Sustainable Development Award, KPU had to present evidence of innovation, integration/implementation, identification, impact, and awareness within the past five years.
“This current decade that we’re in, from 2020 to [2030], is a really critical decade for all of us, because the more we’re able to move towards the 17 sustainable development goals, the better we become,” Ho says.
Moving towards sustainability requires both individual and partnership efforts, Ho says, especially during the “Decade of Action,” which presents a shared vision of promoting the SDGs to counter challenges such as poverty, climate change, and global inequality, among others.
“Environment is one thing, but it has rippling effects. So, anything that we can collectively do and as individuals, the time is now.”
