Stage 1 – Engaging Students:

Students are the main drivers of change on campus. Teach them what Sustainability is and how they can contribute. Also to engage other on-campus stakeholders.

Stage 2 – Advisory Committee:

Establish a committee that represents on-campus stakeholders to discuss opportunities for improving campus sustainability (Low-Hanging Fruits or Initiatives require minimal funding).

Stage 3 –Sustainability Officer/Department:

Sustainability Officer to coordinate larger projects on campus that are capital intensive. Works with and executes on projects deemed feasibly by the advisory committee.

Stage 4 – Engrained in Organizational Culture, Policies, Plans, & Programs:

Sustainability is evident in the culture of campus and is practiced without significant oversight. It is evident from both an operational and academia standpoint. It is part of everyone’s responsibility.

Acknowledgments: The Sierra Youth Coalition, Sarah English, Dr. Amelia Clarke, Prof. Goretty Dias, Dr. Andre Roy, Dr. Steve Young, Tom Galloway, Claire Bennett, Dr. Berry Colbert, James

Emary, Paul Donoghue, Tenley Conway, Chelsea Dalton, Yuill Herbert, Roger Blake, Dave Breeze, Daniel Daoust, Liz Sutherland, Prof. Ann Dale, Paul Rowland, Adam Owad.

Institutionalizing Sustainability on Canadian Campuses|Andrew Adams | Zamir Janmohamed | Nigel Moore | James Skuza | Mark Tsou | Alex Xu |

This research project has been conducted by Propel Research + Strategy for the Sierra Youth Coalition (SYC), the largest youth environmental organization in Canada which empowers passionate young people to strive to make Canada more sustainable. Through this collaboration Propel is responsible for undertaking

background research and developing strategic recommendations to guide SYC’s Sustainable Campuses (SC) project. The SC project aims to make post-secondary campuses across Canada more sustainable through addressing institutional operations, improving curricula and mobilizing campus and community

support.

Results

Implementing Sustainability on Campuses

RecommendationsAnalysis (SWOT)

Strengths

1. Standardized approach

2. Ensures institution laggards pursue

sustainability

3. Punitive measures are good

motivators to comply with

sustainability

4. Providing financial assistance

5. Provincial legislation are adapted to

regional specific issues

Weaknesses

1. Lawmaking is a long and tedious

process

2. Slower process attributed by Political

gridlock between federal &

provincial levels

3. Place financial burden on institutions

4. Hinders innovation as resources are

redirected to reporting and

paperwork

Opportunities

1. Potentially a long-term vision for

institutionalizing sustainability

2. Existing legislations (e.g. BC Bill 44,

ON Green Energy Act) could act as

champions to drive change

3. Regulations can act as a guideline for

implementing sustainability

initiatives

4. Progressing from reactive to

proactive state, similar to JHSC

Threats

1. Laws can be repealed or amended

2. Varying standards amongst

provinces, making comparative

analysis difficult

3. Encroaches on freedom and

flexibility of institutions ability to

innovate and address their priorities

4. Standardized approach results in

unintended de-incentivized

proactive/voluntary actions

Methodology

• Survey response rate was 24% accounting for 39 of 162 student unions across Canada

• Interviews were conducted with 17 information rich individuals from Universities, University Associations, NGOs and Industry Professionals

Overview

• Access to knowledge, personal values, and one’s role within their organization shape what they see as the scope of sustainability

• Sustainability is a multi-faceted approach and it is necessary for it to be engrained within a large number of activities on campuses

Broad Considerations on Sustainability

• Four common barriers to implementing sustainability on campuses emerged: Lack of financial support, lack of administrative support, lack of student knowledge, and high turnover of sustainability champions

• Poor decision making arises from the ineffectiveness of existing sustainability knowledge, policies and programs

• Silos exist in decision-making structures on campuses which are often decentralized and ineffective to implementing sustainability

• Individual professors would likely be hesitant to incorporate sustainability teachings into their course material

Barriers to Change

• Horizontal and vertical integration of sustainability is key in order to facilitate knowledge transfer within the institution

• Partnerships with external organizations are becoming increasingly common and can provide a further source of innovation

• Once policy changes are in place within institutions they should solve the issue of high leadership turnover

Opportunities to Overcome Barriers

• Two external pressures identified were from legislation and from grassroots campaigns originating in non-profit groups

• The most notable legislative contributors are British Columbia’s Bill 44 and Ontario’s Green Energy Act both forcing campuses to reduce their carbon footprints

• The most notable grassroots campaigns are the Chicago Youth Climate Coalition and 350.org both encouraging universities to divest their holdings in fossil fuels

• 88% of survey respondents agreed that the student body is the main driver of sustainability initiatives on campus

Pressure Leading to Successful Initiatives on Campuses in the Past

• Any effort to lobby for legislation should be directed at provincial level lawmakers

• The consensus agreed that the legislative process is slow and highly political and was dismissive of this approach to sustainability on campuses

• There are linkages between OHS and sustainability but the analogy is not a perfect model to follow

• The consensus agreed that current OHS practices embody a ‘checklist’ approach to implementation that would not be well suited to the broad scope of sustainability.

Legislation and Links to OHS

• Knowledge networks and collaboration is of most importance to implementing sustainability on campuses

• It is likely that many people in the position of power to create change are not aware of the lack of sustainability information and thus opportunities are foregone

• Partnerships between individuals in similar positions across Canadian campuses can allow for knowledge gaps to be filled and best practices to be created

• External collaboration may also link the institution’s sustainability strategy with that of the wider community

• 69% of respondent institutions acknowledged an existing partnership with at least one local environmental non-governmental organization

Knowledge Networks and Cross Sector Partnerships

• Should have an operations focus as opposed to a curriculum focus

• Should advocate the business case for sustainability projects to high-level university or college administration and should act as a project management hub

• Must act as a bridge-builder within the institution. Through horizontal integration the office can act to draw in other on-campus stakeholders and create a more fertile environment for a culture of sustainability to thrive.

Sustainability Offices

Objectives

Strengths

1. Empowering students to shape

Post-secondary institutions’

priorities

2. Promotes creative thinking and

solutions towards the

implementation of Sustainability

3. A bottom-up approach is highly

effective by changing culture

within any institution

Weaknesses

1. Expends resources that may not

align with administrators funding

and human resources

2. Coordinating amongst various

student groups is difficult

Opportunities

1. Partnerships between similar

student-driven initiatives can lead

to a Canada-wide campaign

2. Awarding sustainable action for

various stakeholders on campus

can be effective (a.k.a. the carrot

approach)

Threats

1. Leadership turnover can stall

progress

2. Competing for student

involvement for various initiatives

may result in volunteer fatigue

3. Loss in grassroots campaign

momentum is difficult regain

Provincial-level Campaign for Legislation

Campus-by-Campus Campaign for

Voluntary Action

Stage 1

No Financing Required

Stage 2

Establish Green Revolving Fund to Finance Sustainable Projects

Stage 3

Impose a small Student Sustainability Fee on Student Tuition via Referendum

Stage 4

Continue to Operate GRF & Collect Sustainability Fee

• To identify and synthesize the components required for a successful campaign to institutionalize sustainability across Canadian campuses through either a legislative or a voluntary route

Primary Goal

• Identify key stakeholder groups

• To identify and characterize the major challenges and opportunities that face champions of campus sustainability

• To define the characteristics and role of campus sustainability offices

• To create a pathway for the institutionalization of sustainability

Objectives

17%

22%

4%

18%

5%

3%

7%

8%

9%

7%

Focus Areas of Sustainability

Organizations on Canadian Campuses

Promote Awareness

Recycling/Compost/Diversion

Reusable Materials

Locally Sourced Foods

Energy Conservation

Environmental Grants

Bottled Water Issues

Green Buildings

Alternative Transportation

Community Outreach/Lobbying

“Everybody needs to be working in collaboration and in

concert…Because really the implementation of sustainable

development is about co-ordination and integration. – Ann

Dale, CCSDR

“I would say the best thing to do is make people understand

how sustainability issues impact them and how they can

impact sustainability and if people see that and if it’s

important to them then they will embrace it” – Barry

Colbert, WLU

“I think to a large extent one of the biggest problems on

campuses moving forward are the silos that separate not just

academic departments from one another, but also even within

the operations” – Paul Rowland, AASHE

Re

sea

rch

De

sig

n

Identify Stakeholders to be interviewed

Design bi-lingual surveys and interview questions

Outreach to interview respondents in

Identify limitations of online surveys and in person interviews

Complete ORE application and get approval for research design

Started: Start of November 2012

Completed by: End of January 2013

Da

ta C

oll

ec

tio

n

Send out 150 surveys across Canada to student unions

Interview in person or phone interview, record and get waivers signed by 17 interviewees

Literature review on financing campus sustainability

Started: End of January 2013

Completed by: End of February 2013

Da

ta A

na

lysi

s

Transcribe interviews and send back to respondents

Analyze and discover correlations and trends in surveys

Create inductive themes from interviews (ex- sustainability vs. OHS)

Code Interviews

Environmental scan and strategic analysis of routes towards institutionalizing sustainability

Started: Start of March 2013

Completed by: End of March 2013

This framework is a guideline for Higher Education institutions to help them implement Sustainability on their campuses