SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Following in the steps of the BCIT Student Association (BCITSA), BCIT became a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Accord in 2022.

The Accord is a high-profile international initiative developed to allow the higher education sector to demonstrate its commitment to playing its part in meeting the SDGs, and sharing best practices. It is a partnership initiative, endorsed by the United Nations (UN) and many other global partners including Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan). As of February 2023, there are 36 other members of CICan who also signed the SDG Accord to:

• do more to deliver the goals,
• annually report on each signatory’s progress, and
• to do so in ways which share the learning with each other both nationally and internationally.

Read the BCIT News ArticleLearn more about the SDG Accord

BCIT has joined the SDG Accord Community of Practice (CoP) with members from Canadian Colleges and Institutes from across the country. The purpose of the CoP is:

• to raise awareness regarding the SDG Accord,
• encourage institutions to sign the Accord, and
• provide guidance, resources, and support for signatory institutions.

Members regularly contribute to an SDG Tookit to share, inspire and educate colleges and institutes across Canada. The toolkit includes case studies and provides an opportunity to tell about how the SDGs are being integrated into the college community.

BCIT is participating in a nation-wide collaboration to advance the SDGs organized by the Sustainability Hub at UBC, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Canada, and Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan).

March 6-10, 2023 marks the inaugural SDG Week in Canada on university and college campuses featuring workshops, panels, and other interactive programming to increase awareness of and engagement with the 17 SDGs. Events are organized independently by participating campuses, and are meant to draw on diverse disciplinary perspectives to unpack challenges and solutions related to the SDGs.

The goals of SDG Week are to:

• Raise awareness of the SDGs through interdisciplinary teaching and learning opportunities on post-secondary campuses.
• Build long-term momentum around the SDGs in Canada’s post-secondary sector by embedding and institutionalizing the SDGs in campus operations, strategic planning, teaching, learning, and research.
• Create a cross-disciplinary collaborative environment for post-secondary institutions to work together and across sectors to advance the SDGs in Canada.
• Integrate the guiding values of the SDGs to create inclusive and respectful conversations to inform universal, transformative, and interconnected solutions.

Browse 2023 events

BCIT is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) – an association of colleges and universities that are working to create a sustainable future. AASHE’s mission is to empower higher education to lead the sustainability transformation. It provides resources, professional development and a network of support to enable institutions of higher education to model and advance sustainability in everything they do, from governance and operations to education and research.

AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) is a transparent self-reporting framework for post-secondary institutions to objectively measure their sustainability performance and compare scores with peers.

With more than 900 participants in 40 countries, the STARS program is the most widely recognized framework in the world for publicly reporting comprehensive information related to an institution’s sustainability performance.

The STARS framework was used to help measure and report on BCIT’s contributions towards the SDGs.

Learn more about STARS