Resources & Events

The President asks the Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability to report annually on their activities and progress. These annual reports are made available to the University’s Governing Council during the annual governance cycle and they are publicly available on this site.

This page also contains links to documents and other material prepared or curated by the CECCS.

Sustainability Inventories

The Expanded Student Engagement (ESE) project, funded by the Faculty of Arts & Science and the Provost’s Office from mid 2017 to April 2019 was successfully completed as of Spring 2019. The main focus of the ESE group, comprised of five undergraduate students, included a report on sustainability curricular pathways, and the creation of four inventories. The inventories can be accessed through the links below: have been updated for 2020-2021 year.

U of T News: U of T to divest from fossil fuel investments, create climate-positive campus

U of T recently announced to divest from all direct investments in fossil fuel companies within the next 12 months, and from indirect investments by 2030 at the latest. The University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation will allocate 10 per cent of its endowment portfolio to sustainable and low-carbon investments by 2025, and commit to an endowment portfolio that has net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

Go to U of T News to read the full article

White Paper: Implications of appointed actors’ academic-operational positioning on prioritised domains for sustainability work: Insights from three universities in Europe and North America

This paper compares sustainability governance at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, the University of Edinburgh in the United Kingdom and the University of Toronto. Drawing from mixed-method, qualitative case-studies of the three universities, this paper seeks to understand how the academic and/or operational positioning of sustainability actors within the institutions influence the prioritization of certain domains over others in the advancement of sustainability at the universities. The purpose of this paper is twofold:

Help upper management and staff at universities understand the benefits and challenges according to the positioning of sustainability actors or centres within their institution’s hierarchical structure;
provide “Sustainability in Higher Education” (SHE) academics with additional insight on recent developments of sustainability in universities.

This work was made possible by the kind donation of Wendy Adams.

Download the Sustainability Governance Paper

Op-ed: How U of T is focusing investments on a climate-secure future

CECCS Presidential Advisor and Chair, Professor John Robinson, recently wrote a Op-ed for The Varsity about U of T’s work on sustainability. Go to The Varsity to read the full article

The 2020 Annual Report of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change, and Sustainability

Download the 2020 Annual Report

CECCS’ Business Air Travel Report

Download the Business Air Travel Report

In 2019-2020 CECCS worked on a report to the President on three areas:

Estimating Scope 3 business air travel emissions
Approaches reducing air travel
Mitigating business air travel that does take place

Adams Sustainability Celebration

The second annual Adams Sustainability Celebration has concluded. This virtual event series was held from February 23 to April 9, 2022. The inaugural Adams Sustainability Celebration series occurred from September 22, 2020 to January 21, 2021. The celebration is a tribute to the sustainability-minded community at U of T and an opportunity to build relationships and deepen collaboration around sustainability. As part of the celebration, CECCS awards $55,500 in grants and prizes. We encourage all U of T students, staff, and faculty to be on the lookout for news on the next Adams Sustainability Celebration.