SDG Week Canada 2024

That’s a wrap to SDG Week Canada 2024! The week was a great success with 33 universities and colleges participating to deliver more than 130 events across the country. These events had a wide range of approaches and topics, from student-led clothing swaps and mending workshops to virtual sustainability scavenger hunts and a host of roundtable discussions on teaching the SDGs and charting institutional action pathways. Some campuses participated by hosting one or two events during the week, while others developed multiple events for each day of the week.

For full details on SDG Week 2024, visit www.sdgweekcanada.ca (for French,  www.semaineoddcanada.ca).

SDG Week Canada is an annual national collaboration featuring workshops, panels, and other interactive programming to increase awareness of and engagement with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on university and college campuses. Brought to you by the Sustainability Hub at UBC, SDSN Canada hosted by the University of Waterloo, and Colleges and Institutes Canada.

A small selection of the great events that took place across the country include:

• University of British Columbia, British Columbia – Building the Future of Climate Hub: Let's Shape It Together ­– An engagement opportunity to share ideas about the governance, programs, and priorities of the Climate Hub and help shape its future.
• LaSalle College, British Columbia – The Fashion Games – A competition to reshape the future of fashion by embracing zero waste and upcycling techniques.
• University of Alberta, Alberta – Building SDGs into Curriculum – A panel session to support faculty and educators with ideas on including the SDGs in their curriculum.
• Red River College Polytechnic, Manitoba – 17 Sustainable Development Goals, 94 Calls to Action – A lunch and learn on how the SDGs support Truth and Reconciliation.
• Western University, Ontario – Rooted Resilience: Eco-distress & Messy Hope Discussion – Creating space for dialogue and reflection around the variety of emotions people may be feeling about climate change.       
• University of Windsor, Ontario – The power, potential, and problems of open education for sustainable development – A session to explore how open educational practices can support sustainable development, surface some of the challenges to this goal, and discuss possible ways forward.
• Université Laval, Québec – The intersectional approach to understanding the differentiated impacts of climate change on social inequalities – A conference focused on climate justice, exploring the varied impact of climate change on social inequalities through an intersectional perspective.
• Nova Scotia Community College, Nova Scotia – (Un)learning Pasts to Build Better Futures – A workshop focused on three themes of climate action all of which are essential in the journey toward reaching net-zero, mitigation, adaptation, and education.
• Acadia University, Nova Scotia – Clothing Swap and Mending Workshop – Installation of collection bins for clothing donations that encouraged recycling and upcycling of textile waste to divert clothing from landfills.