Inside the most sustainable university in the world

Right from the start of their time with us, during orientation in fact, we make our students aware of the huge range of opportunities U of T offers in sustainability learning and activities, and the tools we’ve developed to make it easy for them to explore the options.

So, no matter what programme they’re in, our students can get engaged and gain experience. They can join one of some 240 sustainability related student groups across our three campuses, participate in advisory groups or contribute to a growing list of over 450 on- and off-campus projects through our Campus as a Living Lab and Community Engaged Learning programmes.

Then, of course, at the heart of our academic mission there’s our incredibly rich course offerings. On the latest count, we offer more than 2,000 courses focused on or related to sustainability – and that’s a full 25 per cent of our total course offerings across the entire university.  

To give just a few highlights, U of T offers a professional Master of Science in Sustainability Management, to equip future managers to be sustainability leaders in business, government and civil society organisations.

We’ve also launched some very successful institution-wide strategic initiatives, such as Climate Positive Energy, our centre for interdisciplinary research in clean energy, and SDGs@UofT, which promotes research collaboration and knowledge mobilisation in sustainable development.

At the same time, U of T is committed to offering sustainability learning and engagement opportunities to all of our students, in addition to those enrolled in one of our sustainability-related degree programmes.

Through our Sustainability Pathways Program all U of T students can access minor or certificate programmes and co-curricular options and receive recognition on their transcript or official co-curricular record when they graduate.  

Students have been a driving force behind so many sustainability initiatives at U of T – from encouraging the university to advance decarbonisation through its investment practices and conducting research informing our air travel emissions mitigation initiative to the myriad solutions developed through the Campus as a Living Lab programme (which itself was created with input from students).

Students are also deeply involved in the work of the President’s Advisory Committee on Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability. This year I made seven new student appointments to the committee, giving students an equal voice with faculty and staff, and the committee established a Student Leadership Subcommittee to elevate their perspectives even more, in helping to guide sustainability efforts at U of T and in society as a whole.  

We believe that all jobs can be green jobs. This informs everything we do in our sustainability-focused degree programmes and in the Pathways programme I mentioned, which encourages all our students to gain knowledge and experience in sustainability, regardless of their focus in their studies.

We also offer sustainability-related internships, career development and agent-of-change leadership training programmes and mentoring. These opportunities help students prepare to realise their potential as sustainability leaders at every stage of their careers.  

We’ve heard from employers and alumni that coming from U of T is a big asset in the labour market. We believe that this reflects our academic excellence and the way we integrate sustainability into everything we do.

Our commitment to sustainability is all-encompassing, across our academic mission of teaching, research and innovation, our operations and investments, and our engagement in the wider community.

That commitment is widely recognised, by our local and national governments, our industry partners and our peer institutions, including the University Climate Change Coalition (UC3), the U7+ Alliance of World Universities and the International Sustainable Campus Network.

Employers are increasingly looking to new recruits to help advance their sustainability goals. At U of T, we are walking the talk and enabling our students to enter the job market ready to do just that.