There is no more pressing global priority than the need to embrace a more sustainable way of living. Through our teaching, our research and our own practices, York University has contributed substantially to our understanding of sustainability best practices which are as much about what we do as what we are purposely choosing not to do.
— Rhonda Lenton, President and Vice-Chancellor
SUSTAINABILITY IS EVERYTHING
At York, sustainability is more than a promise to control our waste and energy. It is the lens through which we see everything we do. It is in the character that we all have, in the space we all occupy, and in the culture we create for everyone—on campus and in our communities. Most importantly, it is the challenge that we must all agree to tackle together.
What York is doing
York University has long been recognized as an international leader in sustainability-relevant research, teaching, partnerships, and campus practices. By challenging ourselves to deepen this work, and to track and report on our contributions, we reaffirm our longstanding York values of social justice, equity, sustainability, and excellence in all that we do.
York has embedded sustainable principles in every aspect of university life. We plan to right the future with our whole-institution approach to sustainability.
Find your way around our sustainable campuses!
The Glendon and Keele campuses at York University feature a wide array of sustainability features.
Check out the interactive map for more information.
A University-Wide Challenge
Our University Academic Plan 2020-2025 (UAP), included a university-wide challenge to elevate York’s contributions to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Creating a sustainable future starts now and it starts with us.
Are you up for the challenge?
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Watch this video to understand York's Land Acknowledgement.
York University acknowledges its presence on the traditional territory of many Indigenous Nations. The area known as Tkaronto has been care taken by the Anishinabek Nation, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, the Huron-Wendat, and the Métis. It is now home to many Indigenous Peoples. We acknowledge the current treaty holders, the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is subject of the Dish With One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, an agreement to peaceably share and care for the Great Lakes region.
We also understand that Indigenous peoples around the world have important knowledge about how to live sustainably:
Sophisticated knowledge of the natural world is not confined to science. Human societies all across the globe have developed rich sets of experiences and explanations relating to the environments they live in. These ‘other knowledge systems’ are today often referred to as traditional ecological knowledge or Indigenous or local knowledge. They encompass the sophisticated arrays of information, understandings and interpretations that guide human societies around the globe in their innumerable interactions with the natural milieu. comprehensive research-intensive institution, York University is home to a proud tradition of scholarship and the pursuit of discovery and innovation.