The University of Ottawa was recently recognized for its commitment to sustainability by The Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which highlights institutional contributions to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In 2022, uOttawa had a strong showing in several areas, ranking:

SDG 1: No Poverty

Brief description: Ending poverty in all its forms everywhere.

Specific actions taken: uOttawa Free Store

News articles: A Win-Win Situation: Getting Retailers to Donate Excess Inventory

Research papers:

• Fishing, farming and factories: adaptive development in coastal Cambodia (Climate and Development)
• Self-employment, financial knowledge, and retirement planning (Journal of Small Business Management)
• Collective Learning at the Boundaries of Communities of Practice: Inclusive Policymaking at the World Bank (Global Society)
• Rural Ict Business in Bangladesh: A Credible Development Agent? (South Asia Research)
• Beyond corporate social responsibility: global leadership virtues that make a difference (Research Handbook of Global Leadership: Making a Difference)

SDG 2: Zero Hunger

Brief description: Ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

Specific actions taken: 

• Food Recovery Program
• Food Bank
• Community gardens
• Free Food Alert App

News articles: Sustainable food systems at uOttawa

Research papers:

• Traditionally fermented pickles: How the microbial diversity associated with their nutritional and health benefits? (Journal of Functional Foods)
• Emerging and practical food innovations for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 2.2 (Trends in Food Science and Technology)
• Dietary diversity and undernutrition in children aged 6–23 months in sub-saharan africa (Nutrients)
• Experiences of Food Bank Access and Food Insecurity in Ottawa, Canada (Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition)
• More food for thought: a follow-up qualitative study on experiences of food bank access and food insecurity in Ottawa, Canada (BMC Public Health)

SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being

Brief description: Ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages.

Specific actions taken: 

• Student Health and Wellness Centre
• Organic Farmer's Box
• uOttawa partners with federal government and teachers to improve mental health of Canadian educators
• uOttawa and partners embrace leadership role in understanding heart-brain connection

News articles: 

• New kidney MRI dye promises more accurate, personalized mapping
• uOttawa partners with federal government and teachers to improve mental health of Canadian educators
• uOttawa and partners embrace leadership role in understanding heart-brain connection

Research papers:

• Global Matrix 4.0 Physical Activity Report Card Grades for Children and Adolescents: Results and Analyses From 57 Countries (Journal of Physical Activity and Health)
• Timing and number of antenatal care contacts in low-and middle-income countries: Analysis in the Countdown to 2030 priority countries (Journal of Global Health)
• Health intersectoralism in the Sustainable Development Goal era: From theory to practice (Globalization and Health)
• Predictors of skilled birth attendance among married women in Cameroon: further analysis of 2018 Cameroon Demographic and Health Survey (Reproductive Health)
• Prevalence and predictors of taking tetanus toxoid vaccine in pregnancy: A cross-sectional study of 8,722 women in Sierra Leone (BMC Public Health)

SDG 4: Quality Education

Brief description: Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all.

Specific actions taken: 

• uOttawa supports student success and resilience from elementary school to university
• "Unlearning” colonialism through teacher education

News articles:

• uOttawa supports student success and resilience from elementary school to university
• New research highlights importance of equity in education
• "Unlearning” colonialism through teacher education

Research papers:

• The temporal sequence of bullying victimization, academic achievement, and school attendance: A review of the literature (Aggression and Violent Behavior)
• Perceptions and experiences of inclusive education among parents of children with disabilities in Lagos, Nigeria (International Journal of Inclusive Education)
• Could Education Quality Audit Enhance Human Resources Management Processes of the Higher Education Institutions? (Vision)
• Infusing disability into coach education and development: a critical review and agenda for change (Physical Education and Sport Pedagogy)
• Career aspirations and workplace expectations among youth with physical disabilities (Disability and Rehabilitation)

SDG 5: Gender Equality

Brief description: Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls.

Specific actions taken: 

• Period Project
• Feminist Resource Centre
• uOttawa students help improve services to BIPOC women and LGBTQ2+ community

News articles: 

• University of Ottawa Launches Health Equity for the Aged Lab
• uOttawa students help improve services to BIPOC women and LGBTQ2+ community
• Talking about gender diversity and inclusion in Canadian education

Research papers:

• COVID-19 pandemic and violence: rising risks and decreasing urgent care-seeking for sexual assault and domestic violence survivors (BMC Medicine)
• Progress or pinkwashing: who benefits from digital women-focused capital funds? (Small Business Economics)
• The distribution of authors and reviewers in EPS (European Political Science)
• Prevalence and Predictors of Intimate Partner Violence Among Married Women in Egypt (Journal of Interpersonal Violence)
• Exploring a women-only training program for coach developers (Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal)

SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation

Brief description: Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Specific actions taken: 

• Bottled Water Free Campus
• Water Law and Governance

News articles:

Research papers:

• Quantifying the vulnerability of Arctic water supply lakes through paleolimnological assessment: The case of Igloolik, Nunavut, Canada (Holocene)
• Building the Treaty #3 Nibi Declaration Using an Anishinaabe Methodology of Ceremony, Language and Engagement (Water)
• Development and characterization of magnetic eggshell membranes for lead removal from wastewater (Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety)
• Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
• The effect of legacy gold mining on methylmercury cycling and microbial community structure in northern freshwater lakes (Environmental Science: Processes and Impacts)

SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy

Brief description: Ensuring access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

Specific actions taken: 

• Low Carbon Energy
• Sunny forecast for a uOttawa start-up driving the shift to a zero-carbon future
• Professor Monica Gattinger Appointed to Ontario's Electrification and Energy Transition Panel

News articles: Sunny forecast for a uOttawa start-up driving the shift to a zero-carbon future

Research papers:

• High Voc solution-processed organic solar cells containing silicon phthalocyanine as a non-fullerene electron acceptor (Organic Electronics)
• An Energy Trade Framework Using Smart Contracts: Overview and Challenges (IEEE Network)
• Modeling the transport of CO2, N2, and their binary mixtures through highly permeable silicalite-1 membranes using Maxwell−Stefan equations (Chemosphere)
• Impacts of seasonal flow variation on riverine hydrokinetic energy resources and optimal turbine location (Renewable Energy)
• Modulating the Electronic Structure on Cobalt Sites by Compatible Heterojunction Fabrication for Greatly Improved Overall Water/Seawater Electrolysis (ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering)

SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Brief description: Promoting sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

Specific actions taken: uOttawa and TELUS partner to fuel connectivity, innovation, and economic growth in the National Capital Region

News articles: Professor Monica Gattinger Appointed to Ontario's Electrification and Energy Transition Panel

Research papers:

• Exploring livelihood transitions in the Mekong delta (Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography)
• Alternatives : Transforming Alberta: an investment-based strategy for combatting Western alienation and climate change in Canada (Studies in Political Economy)
• La politique du salaire minimum: Le rôle des partis politiques dans les pays de l'OCDE (1960-2014) (Canadian Journal of Political Science)
• Non-profit Sector and Informal Economy: Entrepreneurial Spirit in Action (Civil Society and Pakistan’s Economy: Robber Barons and Meritocracy)

SDG 9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Brief description: Building resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.

Specific actions taken: 

• Leed certified green buildings on campus
• Scientists at uOttawa streamline a widely used chemical reaction, creating new manufacturing opportunities
• A uOttawa researcher receives the prestigious Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship
• uOttawa takes quantum research to the next level

News articles:

• Scientists at uOttawa streamline a widely used chemical reaction, creating new manufacturing opportunities
• A uOttawa researcher receives the prestigious Arthur B. McDonald Fellowship
• uOttawa takes quantum research to the next level

Research papers:

• Infusing inuit and local knowledge into the low impact shipping corridors: An adaptation to increased shipping activity and climate change in Arctic Canada (Environmental Science and Policy)
• Numerical analysis of storm surges on Canada’s western arctic coastline (Journal of Marine Science and Engineering)
• Systematic stakeholder inclusion in digital agriculture: A framework and application to Canada (Sustainability (Switzerland))
• Rooted in place: Regional innovation, assets, and the politics of electric vehicle leadership in California, Norway, and Québec (Energy Research and Social Science)
• A research agenda for evaluating living labs as an open innovation model for environmental and agricultural sustainability (Environmental Challenges)

SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities

Brief description: Reduce inequality within and among countries.

Specific actions taken: 

• Talking about gender diversity and inclusion in Canadian education
• University of Ottawa Launches Health Equity for the Aged Lab
• Making careers in computing more inclusive for women
• CFI to fund the creation of a unique lab to research Indigenous knowledge and well-being

News articles:

• CFI to fund the creation of a unique lab to research Indigenous knowledge and well-being
• Engineering research with an EDI perspective
• Making careers in computing more inclusive for women
• IT, ADHD and Inclusion: Towards Better Practices for Staff and Managers

Research papers:

• Beyond free market: Social inclusion and globalization (Beyond Free Market: Social Inclusion and Globalization)
• The temporal evolution of income polarization in Canada's largest CMAs (PLoS ONE)
• The impact of self-government, comprehensive land claims, and opt-in arrangements on income inequality in indigenous communities in Canada (Canadian Public Policy)
• Hiding in plain sight: the absence of consideration of the gendered dimensions in ‘source’ country perspectives on health worker migration (Human Resources for Health)
• One country, two crises: what Covid-19 reveals about health inequalities among BAME communities in the United Kingdom and the sustainability of its health system? (International Journal for Equity in Health)

SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities

Brief description: Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable.

Specific actions taken: 

• LEED Certified Buildings
• uOttawa improving campus sustainability with addition of 20 Level 2 electric vehicle charging stations
• Urban biodiversity programs

News articles: Environmental Projects to promote biodiversity and sustaiability

Research papers:

• Quantitative analysis of SARS-CoV-2 RNA from wastewater solids in communities with low COVID-19 incidence and prevalence (Water Research)
• Federated learning in smart city sensing: Challenges and opportunities (Sensors (Switzerland))
• An ISO/IEEE 11073 Standardized Digital Twin Framework for Health and Well-Being in Smart Cities (IEEE Access)
• Effectiveness of permanent supportive housing and income assistance interventions for homeless individuals in high-income countries: a systematic review (The Lancet Public Health)
• A Review on Swarm Intelligence and Evolutionary Algorithms for Solving the Traffic Signal Control Problem (IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems)

SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Brief description: Ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Specific actions taken: 

• Furniture Reuse Program
• Waste diversion programs

News articles:

• A Win-Win Situation: Getting Retailers to Donate Excess Inventory
• The Sustainability Impact of Transparency Policies in Supply Chains

Research papers:

• Does corporate social responsibility influence corporate innovation? International evidence (Emerging Markets Review)
• How do firms achieve corporate social performance? An integrated perspective (Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management)
• Corporate social responsibility spending as a building block for sustainable corporate ethical identity: Lessons from Indian business groups (Managerial and Decision Economics)
• The clean label trend: An ineffective heuristic that disserves both consumers and the food industry? (Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety)
• Extractives Companies’ Social Media Portrayals of Their Funding of Sport for Development in Indigenous Communities in Canada and Australia (Communication and Sport)

SDG 13: Climate Action

Brief description: Taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

Specific actions taken: Climate Action

News articles:

• Weathering climate change: uOttawa receives $1M from TD Ready Challenge for new mitigation initiative to benefit Indigenous communities
• Education as a driver for climate action
• Climate crisis and biodiversity: the Centre for Environmental Law and Global Sustainability goes international to expand outreach

Research papers:

• Direct capture of carbon dioxide from air via lime-based sorbents (Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change)
• Racing against change: Understanding dispersal and persistence to improve species' conservation prospects: Climate change and species conservation (Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences)
• Sila qanuippa? (how’s the weather?): Integrating inuit qaujimajatuqangit and environmental forecasting products to support travel safety around pond inlet, nunavut, in a changing climate (Weather, Climate, and Society)
• The roles of emergency managers and emergency social services directors to support disaster risk reduction in Canada (International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction)
• Fishing, farming and factories: adaptive development in coastal Cambodia (Climate and Development)

SDG 14: Life Below Water

Brief description: Conserving and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.

Specific actions taken: Environmental monitoring

News articles: Improving how we manage oceans

Research papers:

• Infusing inuit and local knowledge into the low impact shipping corridors: An adaptation to increased shipping activity and climate change in Arctic Canada (Environmental Science and Policy)
• Using western science and Inuit knowledge to model ship-source noise exposure for cetaceans (marine mammals) in Tallurutiup Imanga (Lancaster Sound), Nunavut, Canada (Marine Policy)
• Precarious livelihoods: Examining the intersection of fish work and ecological change in coastal Jamaica (People and Nature)
• GIS-based modeling of snowmelt-induced landslide susceptibility of sensitive marine clays (Geoenvironmental Disasters)
• Lagrangian Modeling of Marine Microplastics Fate and Transport: The State of the Science (Journal of Marine Science and Engineering)

SDG 15: Life and Land

Brief description: Protecting, restoring, and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.

Specific actions taken: Nature Positive Pledge

News articles:

• New study finds that non-native plants enhance butterfly diet on Vancouver Island
• Wildlife mitigating measures no help for Ottawa’s freshwater turtles

Research papers:

• Climate change contributes to widespread declines among bumble bees across continents (Science)
• Agrochemicals disrupt multiple endocrine axes in amphibians (Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology)
• Species distribution models for the eastern blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, and the Lyme disease pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, in Ontario, Canada (PLoS ONE)
• Local plant richness predicts bee abundance and diversity in a study of urban residential yards (Basic and Applied Ecology)
• The Effects of Ditch Management in Agroecosystems on Embryonic and Tadpole Survival, Growth, and Development of Northern Leopard Frogs (Lithobates pipiens) (Archives of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology)

SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Brief description: Promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable, and inclusive institutions at all levels.

Specific actions taken: uOttawa joins other global universities to call on G7 leaders to prioritize and advance peace and security

News articles:

• uOttawa joins other global universities to call on G7 leaders to prioritize and advance peace and security
• Professor Vanessa MacDonnell co-leads major $1.7 million international project on constitutional law

Research papers:

• The “Refugee Crisis,” Immigration Attitudes, and Euroscepticism (International Migration Review)
• How is Political Violence Gendered? Disentangling Motives, Forms, and Impacts (Political Studies)
• The Politics of Vigilantism (Comparative Political Studies)
• Sex workers’ access to police assistance in safety emergencies and means of escape from situations of violence and confinement under an “end demand” criminalization model: A five city study in Canada (Social Sciences)
• Meta-Analysis on Interventions for Children Exposed to Intimate Partner Violence (Trauma, Violence, and Abuse)

SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

Brief description: Strengthening the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Specific actions taken: 

• The University of Ottawa and McMaster University join forces to prepare Canada for future pandemics
• Building on over 15 years of collaboration
• French research institution opens Canadian office at uOttawa

News articles:

• The University of Ottawa and McMaster University join forces to prepare Canada for future pandemics
• Building on over 15 years of collaboration
• French research institution opens Canadian office at uOttawa

Research papers: