Nova Scotia Community College
EN-14: Participation in Public Policy

The Halifax Regional Municipality launched a CEO Climate Action Charter in March 2023. The CEO Climate Action Charter was created with the help of business leaders across the greater Halifax municipality. It encourages signatories to "take meaningful climate action using the unique operational levers of their respective organizations while demonstrating leadership to our community." NSCC president Don Bureaux signed this on NSCC's behalf.
The charter has been embedded in Halifax's five-year Inclusive Economic as part of the plan's objective to increase the city's environmental sustainability and resiliency. By signing this charter, NSCC is an active member in creating meaningful changes to the municipality of Halifax's sustainability landscape.

https://huddle.today/2023/03/27/hrm-launches-ceo-climate-action-charter/#:~:text=The%20CEO%20Climate%20Action%20Charter,demonstrating%20leadership%20to%20our%20community.%E2%80%9D

Melissa Mixer, an NSCC Facilities Support Technician and a Rick Hansen Foundation Accessibility Certification Professional, sits on the Nova Scotia Accessibility Advisory Board on behalf of NSCC to represent educational institutions on a provincial level.

In September 2017, Nova Scotia became the third Canadian province
to pass accessibility legislation, committing to a more equitable and
barrier-free province. The Accessibility Act recognizes accessibility as
a human right and sets a goal of an accessible Nova Scotia by 2030.
Under the act, an Accessibility Advisory Board was established to
advise and make recommendations to the minister about accessibility.
Specifically, the Board:
• suggests measures, policies, practices, and requirements
the government may implement that to achieve
accessibility
• assesses whether existing measures, policies, practices,
and requirements are consistent with the purpose of this act
• sets priorities for establishing accessibility standards and
timelines for implementing them
• sets long-term accessibility objectives for furthering the
purpose of this act
• responds to requests for accessibility advice from the minister

Through the Accessibility Act and Access by Design 2030, Nova Scotia is committed to developing six accessibility standards in the following areas:
• built environment
• education
• employment
• delivery of goods and services
• information and communication
• public transportation and transportation infrastructure

More information (including access to the Accessibility Advisory Board Annual Report) can be found here:

https://novascotia.ca/accessibility/advisory-board/

Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) is a nonpartisan organization that provides information to the public and advocates for its members across Canada. NSCC President, Don Bureaux, sits on the board of directors of Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan). CICan is a voluntary membership organization representing publicly represented colleges, institutes, Cegeps, and polytechnics in Canada and internationally. CICan promotes and supports the innovations, applied research, international development, and employment and entrepreneurial opportunities created by its member institutions. CICan advocates as the collective voice of colleges and institutes, working with governments, industry and stakeholders to ensure all Canadians have access to training opportunities that will prepare them for a fulfilling career in the field of their choice. Although NSCC's participation in CICAN could be seen as a national partnership, the fact that NSCC's President sits on the Board of Directors for this organization implies both explicit and implicit advocacy for these sustainability policies at the highest level of NSCC's leadership and goes beyond a traditional partnership role. Additionally, NSCC's Manager of Infrastructure and Sustainability is on a CICan working group developing a guideline for embedding the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in post-secondary institutions in Canada.

CICan and its members remain focused on the following priorities to achieve these goals:

-Advanced skills for employment
-Training for inclusive economic growth
-Indigenous Education
-Environment and Climate Change
-Student Mobility
-Innovation

More information on the specific avenues of advocacy and public awareness campaigns in these areas of sustainable development can be found here: https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/what-we-do/advocacy/

In addition to CICAN's advocacy on behalf of all members including NSCC. NSCC has played an active role in national advocacy through CICAN. Jeff Taylor, Chair of CICan National Research Advisory Committee and Associate Vice President of Applied Research, Innovation & International at NSCC, appeared before the House of Commons to present recommendation of how the Government of Canada can better support economic growth and the commercialization of intellectual property through increased investment in applied research within Canada’s colleges and institutes. (Appearing before the House of Commons Standing Committee on Science and Research), March 7, 2023. This meeting can be viewed at: https://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/Harmony/en/PowerBrowser/PowerBrowserV2/20230307/-1/38683?Embedded=true&globalstreamId=20&viewMode=3 (time of appearance 12:04).

More information can be found here:

https://annualreport.collegesinstitutes.ca/

https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/media-and-resources/submissions-reports

https://www.collegesinstitutes.ca/members/nova-scotia-community-college/

NSCC is an institutional signatory of the SDG Accord. The SDG Accord is a global collaboration for the advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals in Post-secondary education. The coalition is managed by the Alliance for Sustainability Leadership in Education. NSCC completed annual reports as a part of our commitment to the Accord, within these reports SCC shares our progress but also our key barriers to the further integration of the SDG within out College and community. These reports are used for the creation of metrics that are presented at the annual UN High Level Political Forum. The main objective of the Forum is to provide political leadership, guidance and recommendations for sustainable development.

The following exert from sdgaccord.org outlines the use of the materials at the Forum on an annual basis:

2023 SDG Accord Reporting
The 2023 SDG Accord Progress Report was launched at the UN High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development on 17th July. You can access the full report via the Sustainability Exchange here or via the EAUC here.

2022 SDG Accord Reporting
The 2022 SDG Accord Report is available here.

The 2022 Report was presented at the HESI+10 Global Forum, as part of the UN High Level Political Forum (HLPF), on Wednesday 6th July 2022, contributing to the in-depth review of the SDGs and raising the profile of the university and college sector in this space.

This Reporting was open from 29th March to 6th May 2022, thus is now closed for 2022. You can view the reporting requirements and share with colleagues to collate your responses here.

2021 SDG Accord Report
The SDG Accord Report 2021 is available here.

The recording of the Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI) Special Event, Driving collective action for the SDGs: The role of further education, Building a sustainable and resilient recovery, shows the findings of the 2021 SDG Accord Reporting presented. Available here.

2020 SDG Accord Report
You can now read the 2020 SDG Accord report: Progress towards the Global Goals in the HE and FE Sector. The findings show that awareness of the SDGs in universities and colleges across the world is steadily increasing. From the institutional signatories of the Accord, 83 institutions reported on their progress on the SDGs over the 2019-2020 academic year. This is an increase of 63% on the number that submitted reporting in 2019 and is reflective of the sector's growth with this agenda.

Read more at https://www.sdgaccord.org/reporting