Research data

Beginning in 2022, the Sustainability Office worked with the Library to better align its approach for measuring SDG-related research with emerging benchmarks and enable comparison across campuses over time. Previously, estimates of the extent and focus of environmental sustainability and SDG-related research were extracted from public faculty biographies on relevant department webpages. , Waterloo used the Elsevier data sets and keyword search strings to identify publications related to the SDGs with affiliation to Waterloo’s faculty members. To be included, a researcher had to have at least three publications on any single SDG during the assessment timeframe.

Waterloo's first study was based on publications between 2016-2020, and its most recent public data is for publications between 2019-2023.

Limitations

This has certain limitations, including multiple publications across different SDGs, research that is active but not yet published, journal articles or other academic outputs that are not within the Elsevier database, and applied research that may have translated into a non-academic output. In addition, the database may capture faculty members or researchers who published earlier in the timeframe but are no longer currently employed at the University, or vice-versa may exclude faculty that actively published on a sustainability topic through another institution prior to joining Waterloo. It is expected that these edge cases would roughly balance out over the long-term.

Given that the Elsevier approach is an emerging standard and removes the subjective analysis required to interpret faculty biographies, it will continue to be the approached used for analysis despite the above limitations..

Search strings and details on the Elsevier methodologies can be accessed on the Elsevier SDG Mapping Initiative website.

Actions from various departments and teams at Waterloo to advance this objective have included, but are not limited to:

2023/2024

• Found evidence through satellite data of ocean water intrusion beneath Antarctica’s Thwaites Glacier
• Launched new centre for electric vehicle battery research  to advance next-generation electric vehicle battery development
• Awarded nearly $10 million in federal funding for a major initiative to rebuild Canada's pandemic-battered aeronautics sector and position it for a more sustainable future

2022/2023

• Supported Canadian municipalities’ capacity to monitor, measure, and achieve net-zero climate action goal through the Municipal Net-Zero Research Partnership
• Prioritized Sustainable Futures as a key theme and focal point of Waterloo’s long-term strategic vision
• Launched new research institutes, including the Future Cities Institute
• Receive more than $1.3 million to support small modular reactors research
• The Government of Canada's Environmental Damages Fund, administered by Environment and Climate Change Canada, allocated $15.8 million to six research projects to identify solutions to environmental challenges
• Received $15 million in funding to work with Indonesian partners on climate-change adaptation and mitigation strategies in the country

2021/2022

• Led an interdisciplinary team to detect, identify and treat per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – better known as forever chemicals
• Launched the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Aeronautics
• Part of a prominent global collaborative team utilizing DNA barcoding to support biodiversity science and understand the complex web of life on earth
• Organized the International Workshop on Nanotechnology for a Sustainable Future
• Received $15.5M in funding through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund
• The Sustainability Living Lab was launched to link academic expertise and capacity with these operational needs, building on a long history of using the campus as a living lab back to the early 1990s; the new iteration will more tightly link operational sustainability initiatives to the University’s academic mission

2020/2021

• Was a founding partner of the University Global Coalition, a key network of global research institutions committed to taking action on the UN Sustainable Development Goals

2019/2020

• Conducted interviews with undergraduate student groups to integrate sustainability within course assignments and reports, as well as masters and PhD research projects
• Installed new technology for temporary submetering to better understand energy consumption of several campus buildings
• A student project team in ARTS 490: The Future of Nature used the campus as an imagination tool for how to integrate nature into buildings and infrastructure, developing mockups of campus spaces to facilitate discussion

2018/2019

• The Office of Research hired a co-op student to further compile information on research strengths, outputs, and funding related to sustainability
• Launched and co-hosted the Sustainable Development Solutions Network Canada, a national collaboration of academic institutions supporting Canada’s advancement of the Sustainable Development Goals
• Dr. Blair Feltmate, from the School of Environment, Enterprise, and Development, was named as chair of the Government of Canada’s expert panel on adapting to climate change
• The Office of Research began developing a report on more detailed bibliometric data across a number of sustainability issue areas and themes
• The Waterloo Climate Institute was approved to shift from a Research Centre to a University Research Centre
• Analyzed faculty research using the lens of the UN Sustainable Development Goals

• An Environment master’s student developed new waste sorting signs and piloted them at nine receptacles on campus to evaluate their effectiveness at improving recycling and reducing contamination, and conducted before/after audits

• An Engineering student group conducted a study and design proposal for Plant Operations on how to reduce the energy costs of the Environment 1 building without negatively impacting the user experience
• An Environment student group conducted a plug load audit of Environment 1, 2, and 3 to evaluate energy draw from appliances and equipment, as well as opportunities to encourage energy efficient behaviours

2017/2018

• Demonstrating leadership as a key partner in one of the largest university-led water research programs in the world, through Global Water Futures
• A student team from the ENBUS 402 capstone course completed an 8 month project to analyze Waterloo’s travel survey data and evaluate infrastructure availability to support walking, cycling, and transit to campus
• Three teams of students from the GEOG 452 course collected data and provided analysis on campus sustainability challenges, including clothing waste/reuse, benchmarking faculty and staff air travel emissions, and creating a plug load inventory for Environment 1