Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals: A guide for Canada’s universities & colleges

We are proud to launch our new guide Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals for Canada’s universities and colleges. The guide is meant to provide a reference point on how post-secondary institutions in Canada and around the world are reporting their progress on the SDGs, with the aim of also accelerating SDG reporting, commitments, and action by Canada’s universities and colleges.

The guide is a collaborative effort between SDSN Canada at the University of Waterloo, Colleges and Institutes Canada and Universities Canada.

The Sustainable Development Goals set an ambitious global agenda to guide action on the most urgent economic, social, and environmental challenges facing our planet. The COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts in Europe and the Middle East and climate change-induced escalation of wildfire and flooding activity are but a few examples of the continued importance and necessity of working to achieve the SDGs.

Recognizing the important role that universities and colleges play in advancing sustainable development, many have begun to formally document and publish their contributions to the SDGs. But with no standard SDGs reporting approach established, many institutions are navigating the complexities of this reporting in ad hoc ways without easy-to-access tools to learn from the experiences of others.

We hope that this new guide can contribute to a new wave of progress for the SDGs in Canada.