Our Commitment
Our Commitment
At McMaster, we understand the important role we play as a university in implementing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
We are committed to developing solutions and preparing future innovators with the skills that will enable them to contribute to achieving the 17 SDGs. This commitment involves collaboration, knowledge sharing, and generating awareness about the development goals, in our community and beyond.
Our Approach
McMaster University has been recognized for its deep commitment to the SDGs, placing among the top 40 universities globally by the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings for two years running. But our success is about far more than accolades. It’s about real-world impact, and advancing the greater social good in our communities and in our world.
Information Box Group
Sustainable Development Goals Report Download Report
Read our 2023 Sustainable Development Goals Report to see how we’re meeting the 17 goals and their targets through our research, operations and initiatives across campus.
WHY UNIVERSITIES AND THE SDGS?
Universities are well positioned to address the global goals in four main areas: Teaching and learning, research, governance, and public engagement.
These four areas are sub-categories of our overarching purpose, which is ultimately to serve society. At McMaster, the development goals drive the work we do, in our service to society and in our contributions to building a better world.
The global goals provide a framework for higher education institutions. They are lofty goals, but as higher education institutions we have an obligation to do our part in achieving them
ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY IMPACT RANKINGS
Introduced in 2019, the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings are the only global performance tables that assess universities against the UN’s SDGs.
McMaster has been recognized for its commitment to the development goals and performed well across key SDG categories, including good health and well-being and decent work and economic growth, placing first among Canadian universities in both.
GOVERNMENT FUNDING
This website has been funded in part by the Government of Canada’s Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC): Sustainable Development Goals Funding Program.
In March 2020, McMaster University’s Associate Vice-President of Global Health, Andrea Baumann, and her team in the Global Health Office, received a grant from the Government of Canada for a project focused on McMaster’s contributions to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Baumann is Principal Investigator of the project and Ruth Adair is Co-Principal Investigator.
Titled ‘Sharing sustainability: A how-to for higher education’, the project aims to highlight McMaster’s deep commitment to the 17 development goals by showcasing SDG-targeted research and initiatives across the university.
For more on the SDGs, click here.