Self-diagnosis

What USR practices does your university implement? And based on that, what can you do to take it further? To find out, complete the quiz below! It consists of 26 questions and should take you between 15 minutes and an hour to complete.

Component 1: Organizational Culture

1/26. Are sustainability and the SDGs integrated into your university’s strategic goals?

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2/26. At your university, is there a person or department that deals with sustainability?

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3/26. Does your university have formal sustainability guidelines?

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4/26. At your university, are faculty, management and staff aware of sustainability?

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5/26. Does your university involve its students in its RSU process?

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Component 2: Governance

6/26. Does your university ensure that its leadership profiles are representative and diverse?

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7/26. Does your university provide decent working relationships and conditions for its employees?

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8/26. Does your university ensure gender equality?

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9/26. Does your university ensure that the decisions that are made on its campus are fair?

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10/26. Does your university fight discrimination?

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Component 3: Environmental Management

11/26. Does your university ensure the sustainability and resilience of its new buildings?

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12/26. Is your university committed to sustainable procurement?

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13/26. Is your university working to reduce and manage its waste?

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14/26. Is your university working to reduce food waste?

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15/26. Is your university contributing to the fight against climate change?

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16/26. Does your university contribute to the protection of ecosystems?

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17/26. Does your university provide its employees and students with free access to clean water and sanitation facilities?

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Component 4: Education and Research

18/26. Does your university include sustainable development and the SDGs in its training offer?

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19/26. Does your university support its students in their learning and skill development?

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20/26. Does your university include sustainable development and the SDGs in the research priorities?

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Component 5: Territorial anchoring

21/26. Is your university working to reduce the financial insecurity of its employees and students?

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22/26. Does your university promote the health of its employees and students?

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23/26. Does your university participate in labor market development?

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24/26. Does your university consult with the community to ensure its relevance to the community?

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25/26. Does your university educate and raise awareness about the challenges of sustainable development?

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26/26. Does your university make its culturally significant facilities accessible to the public?

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Component 1 : $score1, Component 2 : $score2, Component 3 : $score3, Component 4 : $score4, Component 5 : $score5
Total score : $score_total

WHAT IS THE PROFILE OF YOUR UNIVERSITY?

Novice: Your university doesn’t seem to have begun to think deeply about sustainability and the SDGs. But it may already be contributing to some of the sustainability goals. To go further, you would need to start by embedding sustainability in your university’s organizational culture. To do this, you would need to engage in a discussion with management about the benefits of an SSR approach. Next, you would need to mandate or even hire a person to deal with sustainability. Your university could then set a goal of implementing an initial set of basic practices in one or two areas by next year. Using previously determined indicators, it will then be a matter of tracking them to improve the following year and set new goals. You have just completed the quiz, it is an excellent starting point!

Beginner: Your university appears to have begun thinking about sustainability and the SDGs. It has engaged some practices, mostly at the elementary level, in several practice categories and streams. It is on the right track! To move forward, your university would benefit from implementing more of the basic practices and formalizing its thinking and commitment with intermediate practices in more of the streams. In this sense, you should ensure that communication is fluid between the person in charge of sustainability at your institution and management. It would also be appropriate to communicate progress and the university’s commitment to improvement to its employees and student bodies to get them more involved, and to develop and implement policies and procedures that allow for more systematic behaviors. To better address the challenges that a USR approach can present, your university would benefit from participating in USR events that bring together multiple universities.

Intermediate: Your university appears to have launched a formal sustainability initiative with implemented policies and procedures. Congratulations, you should be proud! To go further, more practices at different levels should be implemented in more categories of practices in each stream. In particular, it is suggested that advanced practices be implemented. This will require securing the continued support of your university’s leadership, staff, and students. It will also require reaching out more to the public and creating partnerships with members of the surrounding community such as local residents and businesses, vendors, funders, government and non-government organizations in the region and across the country. For example, your university could partner with cooperative actors to increase its funding opportunities and help it organize outreach activities.

Advanced: Your university stands out on the issue of sustainability and RSU. Not only does it implement basic and intermediate practices, but it also implements advanced practices. To go further, it is suggested that you review all the practices described in the guide to identify those that your institution has not yet implemented. In parallel, you should consult the guidelines for submitting an application to various university rankings based on sustainability indicators. Your university is ready or almost ready!