Development of Second Sustainability Plan

About the Inaugural Plan

The inaugural Sustainability Plan (2019-2025) is coming to term. It was Lakehead’s first formal university-wide commitment to sustainability, and it created a governance framework and coordinating bodies to support and lead sustainability initiatives at Lakehead - including the Office of Sustainability, the Sustainability Stewardship Council and its Working Groups, and the Sustainability Executive Advisory Committee (see Sustainability Governance Framework for more information).

This first Plan played an important role in formally organizing and defining sustainability, building relationships, creating frameworks, and situating sustainability within the Lakehead context.

Highlights

There were many achievements during the timeline of the Plan, some of the most notable include our decision to divest the endowment of fossil fuels, our declaration of a Year of Climate Action (2021-2022), our repeated scoring within the top 100 universities worldwide in the Time Higher Education Impact Rankings, and the installation of electric vehicle charging stations on the Thunder Bay campus.

Reflecting on Lessons Learned

Now we have the opportunity to reflect on our lessons learned. What were our highlights and strengths? What were our pain points? What were the gaps? How can we translate these lessons into a renewed vision for sustainability. This second opportunity is also a time to further ground the Plan in the community, and align with its various other Plans, so sustainability reflects Lakehead's context. For a sustainability program to flourish at Lakehead, it also needs to reflect the context of our community, and the community needs to feel a shared ownership of the program. 

The Office of Sustainability alongside the Sustainability Stewardship Council, created an internal progress report that identified successes, challenges and barriers to the first plan. We are using this to help guide the process. We have also established a steering committee, comprised of members of the Sustainability Stewardship Council, who are guiding the our engagement strategy for the second Plan.

Community feedback was invited through the following methods: online survey, group engagement sessions, and one-on-one conversations.

Engagement Strategy Timeline

Engagement Indicators

The following table illustrates the number of people we have engaged with to date (May 22, 2025)

We are currently analyzing and synthesizing the feedback we have received, formulating a rough sketch to bring to key department heads. We look forward to continuing this process and look forward to what the next Plan brings!