(Le texte français suit)

Are you:

• A student between the ages of 19 and 25? OR an IMPACT! Alumni? 
• Passionate about the fate of our planet and its people?
• Ready to do more to champion sustainability in your community?

Then you are invited to apply to be part of the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training in Edmonton on June 21-22, 2012.

A Transformative Approach to Innovation, Strategy, and Results

The Natural Step Canada’s Level 1 Sustainability Course: Foundations in Strategy is an opportunity to apply the core concepts of sustainability. In this compelling 1-day workshop you will work through a hands-on case study using The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, giving you the knowledge and tools to better understand “strategy” and take a systemic approach to planning and managing sustainability initiatives. After this workshop, you will be better equipped to take a sustainability leadership role in your organization to capture value, enable innovation, and drive strategy.

A Transformative Approach to Innovation, Strategy, and Results

The Natural Step Canada has launched its 2012 Sustainability Learning course dates and locations nationwide. These highly-reputable in-person courses are set to take place in Banff, Toronto, and Whistler.

Sustainability has the potential to drive innovation and value creation for businesses and communities around the world. Valued for their rich content, The Natural Step Canada’s courses give you the knowledge, skills, and tools to understand the global sustainability challenge, see the big picture, and make a clear case for why sustainability is crucial to the future success of your business, community, or organization.

30 MBA Students from across Canada convene for 5-day experiential learning

On the fourth day of a five-day Sustainability Leadership boot camp hosted by The Natural Step Canada, some of the 30 MBA students attending were asking for more homework and longer days.

According to The Natural Step principal adviser Pong Leung, this is one example of how the organization that helps companies embed sustainability into their operations was able to achieve its goal of engaging a critical stakeholder group — future leaders of tomorrow.

“The passion and the energy of the students I think were really amazing,” says Pong, adding it was one of the reasons The Natural Step wanted to engage business students who are already interested in sustainability practices.

Held in Calgary, the first-ever Sustainability Leadership Boot Camp took place Feb. 22-26 and saw business students from across the country convene to learn from The Natural Step about how to become sustainability champions in their future workplaces.

It’s been quite a couple of weeks for the sustainability movement in Canada, since Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s comments about “environmental and other radical groups” and their opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

The unfortunate result of the government and media’s framing of the pipeline issue is that we are presented with a false choice: save the economy or save the environment. It is an age-old myth that many people have been working hard for years to overcome by promoting the idea of sustainable development. We should not have to choose between jobs and the environment. As a native Albertan with many personal and professional connections to the energy industry, an academic background in commerce from the University of Alberta, and now a role leading what some might call an “environmental NGO” based in Ottawa, you would think by this framing that I would be very conflicted: Am I on the side of the economy or the side of the environment? But I am not conflicted.

Reflecting on 2011, we at The Natural Step Canada are struck by the year's events that illustrate the global sustainability challenge and the growing sentiment that systemic change is required. To name but a few…

The Arab Spring saw revolution and widespread protest across the Middle East in an effort to combat dictatorship, concentration of wealth and power in few hands, corruption, human rights violations, economic decline, unemployment, and rising food prices.

The United States experienced a record of more than $12 billion of weather disaster-related damage, showing the real and immediate costs of extreme weather related to our changing global climate.

The earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear meltdown in Japan prompted worldwide debate about whether nuclear power should be part of our energy mix in a sustainable future.

And, of course, the Occupy Movement demonstrated a democratic awakening that addresses corporate greed, a growing disparity of wealth, inadequate financial regulation, and corporate influence on politics.

The circumstances that preceded each of these events may seem disparate, but the responses show a growing awareness that a systemic approach will be required to achieve the desired social changes. For example, to develop solutions to the climate change issue, democracy, human rights, and energy issues will all be implicated. In other words, everything is interrelated.