Simon Fraser University
IN-24: Innovation A

On the 50th Anniversary of the institution, SFU launched an ambitious engagement process to map out and envision what a “sustainable SFU” would look like in 20 years. The yearlong engagement process led by the SFU Sustainability Office invited the entire SFU community of students, faculty, staff, senior leadership and alumni to provide their input on the University’s long-term sustainable future. Over 4,000 SFU community members contributed to the engagement process and helped develop core themes that were then refined into a 20-year University sustainability vision and 20 sustainability goals. This process is worthy of an innovation credit recognition as it was developed using the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) principles and framework with the goal of involving the SFU community of students, staff and alumni in shaping the University’s long-term sustainability vision. It also sought to provide the SFU community with the necessary information needed to participate in a meaningful way and to communicate the SFU community’s sustainability aspirations to decision-making bodies of the institution, building meaningful and lasting partnership and trust. Positive from this process including: 1) Reaffirming SFU’s commitment to sustainability 2) Increasing access to sustainability information 3) Better understanding of social, ecological and economic aspects of sustainability by the community 4) Fostering new partnerships and strengthening existing ones 5) Direct contribution to the City of Burnaby’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy 6) Clearly articulating SFU community’s long-term sustainability aspirations to help shape SFU’s Five-Year Sustainability Strategic Plan For more information on this process, visit SFU's submission to AASHE's Campus Sustainability Hub.