Bold Aspirations for a Sustainable Future
2017-2020 Strategic Directions

In the summer of 2017, the Sustainability Action Fund team and Board of Directors sat down to discuss its long-term goals for the organizations. Following these discussions, four (4) key directions were chosen.

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Enable project autonomy, sustainable growth and long-term success

  • Develop long-term partnerships with research centers, the community sector and the private sector
  • Diversify our funding sources
  • Get matching funds from the Concordia University administration by 2020
  • Improve and revamp the SAF reporting system by December 2017
  • Develop a post-funding support program that would include regular debrief events with funding projects by December 2017
  • Connect project teams with professors, researchers and practitioners in their field
  • Develop a toolkit of action items to complete prior to launching a long-term project
  • Organize networking and educational events that cater to the needs of long-term projects
  • Develop a partnership with a relevant organization or hub by 2018
  • Develop a special funding and/or support program for long-term projects (in collaboration with our partner(s)) by December 2018
  • Build partnerships with the Concordia Administration for integrating some pilot projects within the university’s operations

Strive for organizational excellence

  • Next steps: develop a governance handbook that would include all internal HR and governance policies
  • Next steps: meet with the HR committee to evaluate progress made in 2016-2017 and set new goals
  • Create an online interactive application platform for applicants by Fall 2017
  • Enhance the “resource” section of our website by Fall 2017
  • Provide live access to key data and impact metrics by 2018
  • Develop a database for internal metrics by September 2017
  • Collaborate with researchers to develop a mixed method for analyzing the overall impact of SAF funded projects on the Concordia campus and the student community: by 2018
  • Collaborate with Sustainable Concordia, the EH&S team and researchers to measure the culture and practices of sustainability on campus
  • Develop a financial literacy workshop series throughout the school year in partnership with other organizations
  • Offer information sessions or mini-workshops on selected topics
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Foster inclusion, diversity and interdisciplinarity

  • In collaboration with the SAF ambassadors, organize open inclusive events for networking, co-creation and reflection
  • Create a virtual platform for project teams to exchange ideas and collaborate
  • Presentations during department and faculty meetings
  • Use the 2017-2018 university orientation to test and explore new outreach methods:
    • Classroom presentations
    • Targeted networking events
    • Residency in certain areas on campus
    • Tabling in the EV, JMSB buildings and the Loyola campus
  • Next step: meeting to decide how we can encourage interdisciplinarity and set measurable goals

Explore the campus as a living laboratory for sustainability action

  • Collaborate with the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Office of Community Engagement to promote experiential learning activities on campus
  • Build partnerships with existing programs (Sustainability & Diversity Minor, SCPA, Management, Geography etc.) to further integrate their experiential learning with Concordia’s on-going sustainability projects
  • Partner with the Leadership in Sustainability Major (Geography department) for their capstone project and their other experiential learning activities
  • Collaborate with Concordia sustainability research centers and hubs to use sustainability projects on campus as case studies for existing and new research projects
    • Next steps: contact research centers and the Shift social innovation hub to explore collaboration opportunities
  • Collaborate with the Concordia University Press
  • Collaborate with researchers to develop a Journal of Applied Sustainability
  • In collaboration with research centers, organize interactive exhibitions of sustainability action research on campus
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