Global Sustainability Hub

Undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Waterloo are working together to promote sustainability and solve sustainability challenges. Shown below, student led initiatives in sustainability include the Undergraduate Student created E-books, the Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship and the Graduate Student created Status on Sustainability Infosheets & Infographics.

Each year since 2020, as part of CIVE 230 – Engineering and Sustainable Development, undergraduate students are required to complete a deliverable for the sustainability project. This project enables students to explore sustainability challenges and solutions in various regions around the world. The results of these projects are compiled into E-Books that can be found on the Open Educational Resources (OER) Commons page, showcasing the students' work on global sustainability issues. Each of the six E-Books from 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 are pictured below.

Starting in 2023, the University of Waterloo partnered with Harvey Mudd College and the Turkstra Chair in Urban Design. The Sustainability and Social Engineering Fellowship aims to bring 3^rd year engineering students from around the world together to solve multiple sustainability projects.

In 2025, the Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship featured a joint experience between the Sustainability and Social Entrepreneurship Fellowship upper year engineering students and the We Accelerate Students, who are 1st and 2nd year students at the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering and the University of Waterloo Faculty of Environment

The Pearl Sullivan Engineering IDEAs Clinic was home to this program for the past 9 weeks. The Fellows come from 5 universities: University of Waterloo (Canada), Conestoga College (Canada), Harvey Mudd College (United States), Khalifa University (United Arab Emirates), and Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico).

Through working with the Halton Region and with the support of Andrew Farr (CAO of Halton Region, and the Douglas Wright Engineer in Residence) and Lisa Kohler (Executive Lead of Climate Change & Reconciliation, Strategic Initiatives & Government Relations in CAO's Office, Halton Region). The students were able to tackle sustainability challenges that were relevant and urgent to a real-world setting. The end result of this industry-academic collaboration experience was solution recommendations to Halton Region: 6 projects by the Fellows, and 6 projects by the We Accelerate students, together with policy briefs.

Sustainabilty and Social Entrepreneurship Fellows: 

• Afra and Julia: Sustainable and Affordable Housing Retrofits for Energy and Water Efficiency
• Punit and Nouf: SMRT LITE
• Mohammad and Michelle: Net Zero Design Strategies for Halton’s New Paramedic HQ
• Alysha and Mahra: Community-Scale Solar and Storage
• Abani, Rebecca, and Cristina: Implementing an MLE-Configured MBBR System for Nitrous Oxide Reduction at Mid-Halton WWTP
• Zenen, Micah, and Ghalia: Promoting Economic Circularity: Dynamic Material Passports

We Accelerate: 

• Rowan, Martina, Naomi: Retrofitting community housing for climate resilience
• Adam, Manhei, Hephzibah: Improving community access to public transportation
• Chelsea, Nil, Samuel: Productive uses for by-products of wastewater treatment
• Simran, Rudransh: Tracking and predicting NOx emissions from wastewater treatment
• Vaishali and Rae: Green roof retrofitting
• Taili, Tomas, Duc Nghia: Improving the sustainability of last mile transportation

In 2024, with the support of Andrew Farr, Commissioner of Public Works in Halton Region, and Douglas Wright, Engineer in Residence at the University of Waterloo, students from Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico), Harvey Mudd College (USA), Khalifa University (United Arab Emirates), and the University of Waterloo (Canada) are collaborating in Waterloo to explore the transition to a circular economy. Their focus is on ensuring that essential services such as water, wastewater, solid waste management, and transportation in Halton Region remain both environmentally and financially sustainable.

Through lectures delivered by various faculty members from the University of Waterloo and professionals from the public sector, students gain a comprehensive understanding of the region's infrastructure systems. Following the lectures, students are tasked with developing sustainable engineering solutions for Halton Region, culminating in a final presentation to regional officials.

Students prepared the posters below to present to Halton Region. Click on the links to download the posters.

Students prepared the posters below for the 2023 presentations to the City of London. Click on the links to download the posters.

Funded in part by the Sustainability Action Fund (SAF) at the University of Waterloo, graduate engineering students have created 7 peer reviewed sustainability infographic sheets on topics including: Air Quality, Building Adaptation, Building Performance, Building Systems & Materials, Energy, Transportation and Urban Infrastructure. Each sheet investigates a topic on a global, national (Canada), provincial (Ontario), municipal (Waterloo Region) and University level (University of Waterloo). Click on the links below to view or download the sheets.

The University of Waterloo has been working with many Engineers in Residence from various municipalities/regions/cities who have created books showcasing their municipalities/regions/cities work towards the Canadian Engineering Grand Challenges (CEGC). Click on the links below to view or download the books.