Overall Rating Gold
Overall Score 67.93
Liaison Emily Zabanah
Submission Date Feb. 1, 2024

STARS v2.2

Seneca Polytechnic
AC-9: Research and Scholarship

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 12.00 / 12.00 Wai Chu Cheng
Sustainability Specialist - Academics
Office of Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Part 1. Sustainability research

Total number of employees that conduct research:
76

Number of employees engaged in sustainability research:
34

Percentage of employees that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
44.74

Part 2. Sustainability research by department

Total number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts research:
23

Number of academic departments that include at least one employee who conducts sustainability research:
18

Percentage of departments that conduct research that are engaged in sustainability research:
78.26

Research Inventory 

A copy of the inventory of the institution’s sustainability research (upload):
Inventory of the institution’s sustainability research:
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A brief description of the methodology the institution followed to complete the research inventory:
Faculty-led or employee-led research at Seneca is supported by Applied Research (AR) and the Research Ethics Board (REB). AR and REB were requested to provide the sustainability research inventory for the last two years. The Office of Sustainability provided them with the definition of sustainability research (based on STARS) and Seneca’s definition of sustainability (see below) as criteria for creating the inventory. The inventory created was then reviewed and revised by the Sustainability office, which was then validated by AR.

Researchers and their sustainability research projects from the 2 sources, AR and REB, conducted in FY2020-2021 and FY2021-2022 are included in the attached inventory. Faculty/staff members who conduct research with any combination of AR projects and REB submissions were only counted once in the number of employees who conduct research. Those who conducted sustainability research projects, are identified and counted in the sustainability research inventory.

The following definitions were used:

Sustainability research, as defined by STARS, addresses the concept of sustainability, further our understanding of the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems, or has a primary and explicit focus on a major sustainability challenge.

Seneca defines sustainability as the integration of environmental health, social equity, cultural vitality and economic responsibility to create and maintain thriving, diverse, resilient communities for this generation and those to come. The practice of sustainability recognizes these are complex and interconnected issues that require an interdisciplinary, inclusive and collaborative systems approach to reach a state of collective well-being and social and environmental justice.

Optional Fields 

Website URL where information about the institution’s sustainability research is available:
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Additional documentation to support the submission:
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Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Non-academic departments have been considered and accounted for in this credit, including Library, Academic Quality, Teaching and Learning, Student Conduct, Student Life and Learning Centre. This should be accounted for if any discrepancies with other credits that ask for academic departments are identified.

The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.