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:
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- 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.
Kathy Kinloch, Past President, BCIT“Signing on to this crucial Accord advances BCIT’s commitment to the development of sustainability skills through access to campus infrastructure and information, demonstration of leading-edge technologies and equipment, and opportunities to conceptualize, design, and implement solutions for global sustainability”
SDG Accord Reporting
A key requirement of the Accord is to openly and annually account for progress and to share BCIT’s experience and learning from implementing the SDGs.
The reports provide an annual overview of the higher education sector and how it is contributing to the SDGs globally. BCIT will be submitting our first SDG Accord report in spring 2023. Our data will be compiled with that of other signatories to produce a SDG Accord Annual Report for 2023 that will be presented at the UN High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development with BCIT listed as a reporting signatory. It will also be made available as a resource publicly and be will be promoted widely through the SDG Accord Endorsing Partners Networks which includes CICan.
The fourth annual SDG report; ‘Progress towards the Global Goals in the University and College sector’ was released in 2021 and is available to browse on the internet or as a downloadable PDF.
