Filed Under Leading change

4 Reasons our Current Business Model is Unsustainable - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:11:23 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

Sooner or later, there is a tough message that sustainability champions need to deliver to harried business leaders—the business game they are playing can’t continue. It’s been fun, but if they keep playing the game the way they are, everyone will lose. The rules need to be updated— quickly. That contention is probably not the best conversation-opener with a senior business leader. But, at some point along the line, sustainability champions should be ready to gently help them see that their current model of doing business is not sustainable.

In my July 27, 2010, blog , I described the 5-stage journey that a business follows as it moves from being an unsustainable enterprise in Stages 1, 2 and 3, to being a sustainable enterprise in Stages 4 or 5 (see the above slide). Labeling companies in the first three stages as “unsustainable” deserves further explanation, especially for Stage 3 companies. We will use the 3-nested-dependencies model of sustainability, described in my July 20 blog , to show four reasons why today’s take-make-waste model of commerce is unsustainable.

1. Nature is depleted

Today’s business model encourages companies to relentlessly deplete our natural capital, which companies and communities require for their food, water, energy, and materials. Today’s business rules contribute directly or indirectly to systematic over-extraction and degradation of nature by physical means, such as deforestation, over-harvesting of fish stocks, and depletion of farm lands. Nature cannot regenerate itself fast enough to recover from this abuse. This corporate behavior is unsustainable economically and environmentally.

2. Excessive waste accumulates from the things we dig up

Extractive companies like mining and oil-and-gas companies notoriously leave “tailings” and other waste behind. Business schools use case studies from around the world that highlight the destructive effects of mining and drilling operations on the environment and communities. Refineries and smelters create more air, water and soil pollution. When we use / burn these natural resources for fuel, further waste is produced. So, most companies contribute—directly or indirectly through their supply chains—to the systematic increase in concentrations of waste from substances extracted from the earth’s crust. This is especially alarming when the concentrations of heavy metals, fossil fuels and byproducts get too high. These days, companies can acquire permits to pollute so that their actions comply with regulations (Stage 2). But, these legal actions are still not sustainable. Sooner or later, we are in danger of drowning in our own waste, poisoning ourselves to death, and upsetting long-standing, essential natural equilibriums, like our climate.

3. We create excessive waste from things we make

Similarly, the current rules of the business game allow companies to pollute the air, water, and soil as they make things. Through the production and use of chemicals and toxic synthetics, companies directly or indirectly contribute to the relentless increase in concentrations of hazardous and non-hazardous waste. Today, there are over 70,000 chemicals, dioxins, and PCBs. A century ago, this wasn’t a problem because we didn’t have these man-made pollutants. Now, there are thousands of these health threats. We need to change the rules that allow companies and consumers to externalize the environmental and social costs of this pollution. Such excessive and dangerous polluting is simply unsustainable.

4. Peoples’ needs are prevented from being met

Many business models today contribute—directly or indirectly—to abuses of political or economic power, resulting in unmet human needs for clean air, potable water, nutritious food, adequate shelter, and quality of life. According to Metrics 2.0, the richest 1% owned 40% of global assets in the year 2000, and the richest 10% accounted for 85% of the world’s total assets. In contrast, the bottom 50% of the world’s adult population owned barely 1% of the total global wealth. This chasm has grown in the last ten years and is continuing to widen. Such disparities create social unrest and violent desperation as basic living needs become harder and harder to meet. Something’s got to give. The business models that encourage over-consumption by the haves at the expense of the have-nots is unsustainable.

To recap, today’s take-make-waste business model is no longer feasible. It violates all four of The Natural Step’s systems conditions for a sustainable society.

The old business model was created during the Industrial Revolution. As described by William McDonough and Michael Braungart in their 2002 book, Cradle to Cradle, companies with this system of production are designed to do the following:

“Put billions of pounds of toxic material into the air, water, and soil every year.
“Produce some materials so dangerous that they will require constant vigilance by future generations.
“Result in a gigantic amount of waste.
“Put valuable materials in holes all over the planet where they can never be retrieved.
“Require thousands of complex regulations—not to keep people and natural systems safe, but rather to keep them from being poisoned too quickly.
“Measure productivity by how few people are working.
“Create prosperity by digging up or cutting down natural resources and then burying or burning them.
“Erode the diversity of species and cultural practices.”

Those practices and consequences are what companies were designed to do for the last 150 years. Perhaps, for a minority, that business model worked fine at first, but it’s no longer sustainable. The Earth’s ecosystem is in crisis. It threatens 100% of us. Over-consumption and poor management have resulted in unsustainable use of natural and social capital. Climate change will add further pressure on the natural systems—upon which all of our social systems and economies depend. Our time is limited to prevent a global “tipping point” that could impact all of humankind, including future generations, adversely and permanently.

Stage 3.0 companies slow down their degradation by releasing fewer pounds of toxic wastes into the air, soil, and water every year and producing smaller amounts of useless waste. Stage 3.0 companies are better—“less bad”—than Stage 1 and 2 companies; but, they are still locked in an unsustainable economic paradigm that causes too much collateral damage in the environmental and social spheres. We need a more responsible game plan.

Next week, we will propose a more sustainable business model.

Canada

4 Reasons Why the WBCSD’s Vision 2050 is Significant - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:25:51 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

At the World CEO Forum in New Delhi, India, in February 2010, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) released its Vision 2050: The new agenda for business report. Pulling this together was not a trivial task. It was compiled over an 18-month period by 29 leading global companies who represent 14 industries. It reflects the combined efforts of CEOs and experts, and benefits from dialogues with over 200 companies and external stakeholders in some 20 countries. The effort was significant. So is its content, for four reasons.

1. It is written by business leaders, for business leaders

Not-for-profit organizations are usually the first to propose visions of sustainable communities, sustainable companies, and a sustainable world. Governments may echo these visions, especially municipal governments closest to the people. Often, these visions have to be then sold to the business community in the hopes that they will collaborate on efforts to improve everyone’s quality of life. As described on its website, the WBCSD is “a CEO-led, global association of some 200 companies dealing exclusively with business and sustainable development.” They are business leaders. They sold themselves on the vision of a sustainable world by 2050. CEOs are the most credible sustainability champions for other CEOs. That reality significantly improves the chances of this vision, giving it traction in the business community.

2. It backcasts from a vision of a sustainable world

Vision 2050 doesn’t constrain itself with only what is doable within today’s business models or technological capabilities. It avoids the usual trap of extrapolating from current trends and best practices to describe what is likely to happen in 40 years. Instead, it focuses its lens on what it wants to happen. It describes a desired world 40 years in the future. Then it backcasts from that ideal world to the present business-as-usual world. Knowing where you are going is helpful when starting any trip. Vision 2050 provides a clear destination for any firm’s sustainability journey.

Vision 2050 addresses nine dimensions of a sustainable society.

1) Values and behaviors

2) Human development

3) Economy

4) Agriculture

5) Forests

6) Energy and power

7) Buildings

8) Mobility

9) Materials

The first two dimensions are social, the third is clearly economic, and the last six are primarily environmental. They match well with the three nested circles (Environment, Society, and Economy) in my 5 Criteria for a Sustainable Business Model blog of August 10, 2010, illustrated in this slide.

3. It suggests nine pathways to the Vision 2050 state

Is Vision 2050 a “mission impossible?” Apparently not. This is the most exciting part of the document.

It lays out clear pathways from our business-as-usual world to each of the nine dimensions of a sustainable world listed above—a world in which nine billion people live well and within the resource limits of the planet. For each pathway, the report defines: “must-haves” by 2020; key themes for its “Turbulent Teens” in the intervening 2010-2020 decade; key themes for its subsequent 2020-2050 “Transformation Time;” and measures of success for each dimension of the vision.

It doesn’t mince words about what needs to be done at each stage of the journey, nor does it hold back on how we’ll know when we get there. It provides a clever roadmap against which we can gauge our progress toward desired goals. The above slide is a birds-eye view of the nine pathways. Unfortunately, the type is too small in this slide, so I strongly encourage you to check out the more legible version on pages 12 and 13 of the full Vision 2050 report. While you are on the WBCSD web site, download and browse the pictorial summaries of the report in the Pathway Mural Poster and the wall-sized Pathway Mural. The mural is amazing, and it comes with guidance on how to use it as tool for learning, strategic planning, organizational alignment, and continuous communication. Good stuff!

4. It advocates new measures of success

One of the biggest problems with today’s business model is that it externalizes measurements of a company’s environmental and social impacts. The WBSCD report uses the model in the adjacent slide to show how GDP overlooks important measures of Economic Well-Being, Living Conditions, and Happiness. Vision 2050 encourages new measures of success that are more reflective of true progress on things that matter than the traditional GDP’s myopically-economic measures.

It recommends true-value pricing that reflects external costs and intangible benefits as the basis for new, globally- accepted accounting standards. It advocates subsidy removals and tax shifts to encourage sustainable business and behavior. More good stuff!

For sustainability champions seeking a powerful visual blueprint for what a sustainable society and economy would look like, the Vision 2050 report, poster, and mural are excellent, credible resources.

Bob

Canada

5 Criteria for a Sustainable Business Model - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:25:06 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here

It’s one thing to critically assess how today’s dominant business model is not sustainable; it’s another thing to design one that is. As sustainability champions, we need to have a positive vision of the pot of gold at end of the sustainability rainbow. We need to be able to respond to a “put up or shut up” challenge with a description of a sustainable business model that is better for the environment, society, and the company.

In my August 3, 2010 blog, I described four critical attributes of today’s way of doing business that make it unsustainable. We are facing serious constraints as we experience a rising demand from an exploding world population for increasingly scarce resources. Today’s linear take-make-waste business model is not designed to handle this reality. In fact, it is culpable for contributing to its unsustainability.

When guiding companies on their 5-stage sustainability journeys, we need to know where we are going—what a sustainable company in Stage 4 or 5 looks like. It behooves us to have a blueprint for a sustainable business, one that is simple enough that it is a handy guide to knowing when we’ve arrived at our destination.Here are five characteristics of a sustainable, cyclical, borrow-use-return business paradigm, overlaid on the 3-nested-dependencies model of a sustainable society, described in my July 20 blog.

1. Radical resource productivity

Companies stretch natural resources by increasing productivity for a given amount of a resource by factors of 5, 10, or even 100. They work to eliminate dependencies on materials and energy from resources dug from the earth’s crust. This commitment addresses issues of overharvesting and depletion of natural capital.

2. Investment in natural capital

Companies restore, maintain, and expand ecosystems to sustain society and business needs.

3. Ecological redesign

Companies use closed-loop production systems in which waste from production and end-of-life disposal is treated as a resource and reused, rather than sent to a landfill. Companies acknowledge they can’t throw things away because there is no “away.” They also work to eliminate man-made toxic chemicals from their production processes.

4. Service and flow economy

Companies replace their goods with services. They lease products and their solutions instead of selling them. When the product becomes obsolete or is unable to produce its service, the company takes it back and recycles or remanufactures the returned product.

5. Responsible consumption

Although it sounds like an oxymoron, responsible consumption reduces the demand for stuff and its associated pollution and waste, as graphically explained in The Story of Stuff. The company promotes responsible consumption by educating consumers so they can make more informed decisions about their purchases based on products’ location of origin, the labor conditions under which they were made, their ingredients, their packaging, their life-cycle ecological footprints, and other sustainability-related criteria. New forms of company ownership and profit sharing ensure company success is more equitably shared among employees and other stakeholders. The company avoids any inadvertent interference with people’s ability to meet their basic needs.

The sustainable borrow-use-return model enables companies to perform as described by William Donough and Michael Braungart in Cradle to Cradle.

“Buildings that, like trees, produce more energy than they consume and purify their own waste water.
“Factories that produce effluents that are drinking water.
“Products that, when their useful life is over, do not become useless waste but can be tossed onto the ground to decompose and become food for plants and animals and nutrients for the soil; or, alternately, they can return to industrial cycles to supply high-quality raw materials for new products.
“Billions, even trillions, of dollars’ worth of materials accrued for human and natural purposes each year.
“Transportation that improve the quality of life while delivering goods and services.
“A world of abundance, not one of limits, pollution, and waste.”

Isn’t that an exciting business model? You bet. And it is achievable. It is a win-win-win for the environment, society, and the company. Next week, we’ll look at four stepping stones that take companies from an unsustainable business model to this sustainable one.

Canada

A 15-Link Generic Business Value Chain - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 12:31:19 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

.The March-April 1994 issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) featured a seminal article, “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” by James L. Heskett, Thomas O. Jones, Gary W. Loveman, W. Earl Sasser, Jr., and Leonard A. Schlesinger. At that time, I was working in IBM Canada’s Leadership Development department.

The article was a welcome reinforcement for the important role that mangers play in building an energizing and empowering work environment for their employees—a foundational link in a chain of value leading to company success.

HBR reprinted that article in its July-August 2008 issue in its “Best of HBR” series. By then, I was eight years into my next career as an author and speaker on the business relevance of sustainability-based strategies. I’m still impressed by how the service-profit chain provides a valuable web of interrelated business goals which sustainability-related strategies can help achieve better and faster. I am convinced that the credibility and effectiveness of sustainability champions is improved if we show how our suggested approaches contribute to the success of one or more links in the business value chain. This week, we’ll look at a few versions of the value chain, and conclude with a touchstone generic business version to add to sustainability champions’ toolkits.

The HBR 9-link service-profit chain

HBR’s “Putting the Service-Profit Chain to Work” article focused on the value of designing a workplace environment that creates satisfied, productive employees. Why? Satisfied, productive employees serve customers better. Satisfied customers are more loyal. Loyal customers buy more, which generates higher revenue, profits, and growth. The HBR article establishes a generic set of connections from engaged employees through to higher profits.

There is no mention of corporate social responsibility or sustainability in this value chain. It is about how to run a successful business, period.

The Gallup 8-link value chain

Gallup Consulting’s “Employee Engagement” brochure, published in 2008, includes the adjacent figure. In the brochure, the S-curve is labeled “Gallup Path Microeconomics: A behavioral economic model for organizations.” The dotted Human Sigma© circle in the middle connects engaged employees to engaged customers, and indirectly to subsequent improved growth, profit, and stock price.

Great managers contribute to engaged employees; so does the “right fit” for the employee in the organization. Just as the previous HBR service-profit chain shows, the Gallup economic model emphasizes the human / employee element as the gate to stronger profits.

The Hay Group 7-circle business model

When I was in Leadership Development in IBM Canada, we used a corporate leadership model from the Hay Group, one of the world’s largest human resources consulting firms. The Hay Group model portrays seven critical and intertwined aspects of any business that managers must address for their company’s success. We liked it because it reinforces the importance of leaders’ styles and competencies when creating an engaging organizational climate for employees.

Hay Group’s research has shown that 20 to 30% of the variance in revenue and profit in organizations can be attributed to the differences in organizational climate. We called the leadership competencies, leadership styles, and organizational climate the “soft stuff,” and used the 7-circle model to show their critical importance when achieving the “hard Stuff”—business results.

A 15-link generic business value chain

Building on elements in the above three value chains, I propose the adjacent 15-link model. It shows what it takes for a company—any company—to be successful. It’s generic. It applies to any for-profit company, in any industry, anywhere. It connects the dots between the soft stuff, like workplace culture and employee engagement, and the hard stuff, like better quality products, services, and profits.

It is robust, complete, and shows the interdependencies between the foundational, organizational culture elements on the left and the business results on the right.

So, now we have a clear model of a successful business for our tool kit. It is our credibility credential. Using it shows that we know what it takes for any business to be successful. We want the company to be a winner—with stronger links in its value chain than its competitors. That’s why we’re recommending our (sustainability) strategies as a way to energize one or more critical business building blocks / links. That is, hard-nosed business leaders will pay attention to our recommendations because they are relevant to their company’s success. We will explore more about setting up that relevance next week.

Bob

Canada

Another Elephant in the Sustainability Room: Over-Consumption - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:22:15 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

In my August 24, 2010, blog, we explored a dilemma for sustainable companies: growth. This week we will discuss its Siamese twin: over-consumption. It’s the second undiscussable elephant in the board rooms of companies aspiring to be sustainable enterprises. Consumption is the root cause of growth, since companies grow when the demand for their products grows.

If there is no market for a company’s goods and services, it stops producing them and lays off its workers. Laid-off workers can’t afford to buy goods and services, so the downward economic spiral continues. No wonder President Eisenhower encouraged consumerism as a way to address the 1950s recession, as did George Bush after 9/11 as a way to fight another economic speed bump. In fact, increased consumption has become politicians’ panacea for economic slow-downs and recessions.

There’s nothing wrong with consumption of basic goods and services. It’s when consumption takes on a life of its own that we risk overshooting the carrying capacity of the planet, as illustrated in Our Ecological Footprint, by Mathis Wackernagel and William Rees. We don’t really “consume” most goods. We just use them and throw them away. The resulting build-up of hazardous and non-hazardous waste is not sustainable. That’s why green packaging, green supply chains, and green products are receiving so much attention.

Annie Leonard’s The Story of Stuff video illustrates how over-consumption contributes to environmental degradation. Whether out of a sense of patriotic duty or as a proxy for fulfillment, consumers have a severe case of “affluenza” and are borrowing themselves into perilous debt in many “developed” nations. Some consumer addicts use their home equity as a cash machine. Their never-ending spending sprees precipitate social and economic ruin. Consumption comes in many guises: for the sake of consumption, as a time-filler, in the quest for social status, to satisfy artificial needs, to keep up with the Jones, or because we feel that we deserve to over-reward ourselves for minor accomplishments.

It’s not sustainable. Despite the tee shirts and bumper stickers in praise of copious possessions, the one who dies with the most toys does not win. In fact, we all lose. The over-consumption mindset can be overcome with a sustainability mindset, but changing mindsets is always difficult. Sustainability champions help people envision the repercussions of their behavior, exemplifying the replacement of over-consumption with investments in healthier and more fulfilling relationships. It is a difficult conversation, but it’s one that needs to happen.

Bob

Canada

Applications Open - Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry 2012

Richard Blume — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 08:13:18 -0500

Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and The Natural Step (TNS) are once again running a unique 10-month customized industry course for business leaders and working professionals in the chemical sector and related value chains.

Commencing April 2012 and now entering its third year, the Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry course combines theory with implementation of projects in the participating organizations or with customers and suppliers. The schedule and course content is specifically designed for professionals working in the industry to apply sustainability concepts in their day to day work.

Past participants have come from a range of leading companies in various parts of the chemical sector such as Beckers, Dow, Omya, Chemson, BASF, Hydro Polymers, Akzo Nobel, Tarkett and Baerlocher. In the 2012 course we will be seeking to encourage participation and collaboration from companies tackling sustainability at various positions in a value chain.

Help us spread the word!

Schedule: The next course will run from April to December 2012. Course participants should allow 8-10 days for webinars with experts and three industry workshops in Europe, plus time for project work with coaching from a Sustainability Advisor.

Apply: Register interest at www.thenaturalstep.org/lcsci or by contacting Richard Blume at The Natural Step (richard.blume@thenaturalstep.org, +46 768 32196). The deadline for application is 24 February 2012.

Learn more: visit the course website at www.bth.se/lcsci.

Sweden

Building with Bricks - The Co-operators recognized for leadership in sustainability

Marieke — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:52:39 -0400

Congratulations to our corporate partners, The Co-operators, who have just been ranked number two among the 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada by Corporate Knights!

This is the result of several years of hard work on the sustainability front, led by Barb Turley-McIntyre, Director of Corporate Citizenship.

The Co-operators has been working with The Natural Step since 2006 and has made great leaps towards sustainability ever since. They want to act as a catalyst for a sustainable society and one of their efforts towards this goal is the Impact conference, bringing together youth from across the country to talk about sustainability.

Click on the video below to hear The Co-operators CEO Kathy Bardswick talk about their sustainability accomplishments and challenges.

Source: Corporate Knights

Canada

Business as Usual With a Coat of Green Paint?

Youth Storyteller — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 11:48:42 -0400

Last week The Natural Step Network-USA and Illahee hosted Boston College sociology professor and author Juliet Schor, who spoke about her most recent book Plenitude: The New Economics of True Wealth. Schor has examined the intersection of our economic and social systems for many years. In Plenitude, she addresses the question many of us asked in the aftermath of the 2008 financial meltdown: where do we go from here? Schor’s answer is her theory of “plenitude,” which goes hand-in-hand with a recent talk by Canadian scientist and professor Bill Rees, as well as the underlying principles of The Natural Step Framework:

…the individual principles of plenitude: work and spend less, create and connect more. In turn they yield ecological benefits- emit and degrade less- and human ones- enjoy and thrive more.

Not only has our culture of consumerism been challenged, but also our definition of wealth. What is needed for a sustainable future is a complete re-structuring of both our economic system as well as our way of thinking. The U.S. business-as-usual approach does not recognize, nor give any weight to, the social wealth that can result from realizing that we really can “get more for less.” Schor explains: “if we can admit that full-time jobs need not require so many hours, it’ll be possible to slow down ecological degradation, address unemployment, and make time for family and community.”

We have either forgotten or no longer realize that what is good for the environment is also good for people. In addressing the 4th system condition that must be met to achieve true sustainability, choosing to be sustainable does not mean we have to sacrifice our quality of life. It simply means we need to change what we consider our “needs” and stop buying in (literally) to the “more is better” lifestyle.

New technology and higher energy prices alone cannot solve our problems; what is needed is a collective effort and change of interest to become more in-tune with natural systems. Bill Rees, originator of the ecological footprint, describes the dilemma of our current situation in his speech “Is humanity inherently unsustainable?” on April 15:

Unsustainability…is the modern mind interacting with Nature. It's the way we think, in terms of the beliefs, values, and assumptions under which we operate…Our economies, are so far removed from the way in which natural systems function, that there is no way that you can compatibly integrate the two.

Rees gives the following example: if a developing country with a population similar to China’s reaches a level of consumption equivalent to that of the U.S., that single country will exceed the Earth’s total ecological output available. His solution? Not only Americans, but all of “the rich countries have to slow down” and change our habits of excessive consumption, which he calls “contraction and convergence.” Much like the Natural Step sustainability principles emphasize, we must find ways to become more efficient and effective, in addition to reducing both what we take from the earth as well as what we make. By not only changing our needs to require fewer natural resources and reduce disruption of natural system cycles, we can “create the ecological space necessary for [populations of other countries] who deserve to grow” and live at a “decent standard.” As Schor says, “business-as-usual with a coat of green paint is not enough.”

Access Bill Rees’ speech transcript and audio.

By Brooke Beadle, Intern, The Natural Step US

CEW Eco Beauty Award

Richard Blume — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 18:24:25 -0400

Eco Beauty Award

sponsored by Givaudan

The Natural Step is pleased to be providing the assessment criteria for Cosmetic Executive Women's Eco Beauty Award. Sponsored by Givaudan, the award is a new initiative intended to reward products that demonstrate best practice and progress toward sustainability.

We are excited to work with CEW on the shortlisting of entries and assessing the submissions through the lens of The Natural Step Framework.

>About CEW Beauty Awards

Rationale for the Criteria

The criteria for the Award are a direct translation of The Natural Step system conditions, which offer a credible, science-based definition of sustainability, acting as basic principles to guide actions toward the goal of a sustainable society.

Applicants are asked to demonstrate life cycle thinking and to take account of the full scope of sustainability - i.e. how does the product perform against the four sustainability principles over its lifecycle?

Using sustainability principles helps to deal with trade-offs and make strategic choices. Progress in one area of sustainability needs to be checked to ensure that it does not just transfer the problem elsewhere. For example, replacing an ingredient from a crude oil feedstock with a bio-sourced alternative may seem like a smart move. However, unless the bio-sourced alternative is sustainably sourced it merely substitutes one sustainability issue (principle 1) with another (principle 3).

News

February 2011 - CEW Announces Finalists for Eco Beauty Award
October 2010 - CEW Announces Call for 2011 Beauty Award

Resources for the Beauty Industry

Leading the change: new industry sustainability course
Take the next step toward sustainability with The Natural Step’s award winning one-hour sustainability e-learning program, by clicking here.
Learn more about The Natural Step system conditions, Framework and its application, by clicking here.
To learn how The Natural Step supports businesses with corporate sustainability and to read case studies please click here.
Tool: Sustainability Life Cycle Assessment (SLCA)
Tool: Probe for Sustainable Business - Best Practice Benchmarking

Championing Sustainabiltiy in Your Organization

Kimberley Larocque — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 10:10:58 -0400

Start: Jan 12 2010 - 1:30pm

End: Jan 12 2010 - 2:30pm

Timezone: Canada/Eastern

Bob Willard, (http://sustainabilityadvantage.com/) author of the Sustainability Advantage and other books, will explain how you can champion sustainability in your organization. Learn how to be credible and stay credible, to advance transformational and lasting change.

Canada

CO-CREATE THE FUTURE - STORIES OF SUCCESS IN SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE

Simon Harvey — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 06:58:42 -0400

Start: Nov 29 2010 - 2:00pm

End: Nov 29 2010 - 7:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT+12

The best little conference, with the biggest ideas. And it's FREE.

Learn and be inspired by leaders in business, local government and education as they tell their success stories on integrating sustainable practice into the heart of what they do.

PLUS have the opportunity to network with others who share a passion for collaborating on the challenge of designing a sustainable and prosperous future.

Be inspired, Be innovative, Lead the way forward

For further details and to register click here or click on the link to the brochure below.

New Zealand

Creating sustainability change agents within the chemical industry and related value chains

Richard Blume — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:27:28 -0400

Chemicals are the building blocks of life and are used in products all throughout society. The challenges for sustainable chemical use span across industries and multiple value chains, and to make meaningful progress, collaboration is essential. Course partners, Blekinge Institute of Technology and The Natural Step, are therefore pleased to announce that the second Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry course kicked off on April 28, 2011.

This course is a means to build competence of industry leaders, facilitate value chain dialogue and deliver business results to participating companies. These objectives will be met through online lectures, face-to-face workshops, and collaborative project work between April and November 2011. A key feature of the course is the combination of theory and practice. Participants will learn about scientifically robust methods and will be teamed up with professional sustainability advisors from The Natural Step's global sustainability network for support to apply them in their respective organizations.

This year's course welcomes participants from seven countries (UK, Austria, Sweden, Kuwait, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Colombia) and various value chains dependent on industrial chemical production. Participating companies include Chemson, Beckers Industrial Coatings, Ernst & Young, the Dow Chemical Company, and DSM. The participants will be trained over several months to become change agents for economic, social and ecological sustainable development within their respective companies.

Blekinge Institute of Technology and The Natural Step developed the original course concept with support from the chemical industry companies Hydro Polymers, Rohm and Haas and Chemson in 2008. The second edition of the course is being organized with support from the Dow Chemical Company. Some of the guest lectures announced for the course include Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt and Dr. Göran Broman, both professors at BTH, Bob Willard, author of The Sustainability Advantage, and Dr. Jason Leadbitter, Sustainability Manager, IneosChlorVinyls.

For enquiries about subsequent courses and collaboration opportunities, please contact Treva Wetherell (treva.wetherell [at] bth.se) at Blekinge Institute of Technology, or Richard Blume (richard.blume [at] thenaturalstep.org) at The Natural Step.

Sweden

CSR Efforts and Employee Engagement Drive Business Results - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 08:50:59 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could show that companies which embrace corporate social responsibility (CSR) reap financial rewards? Sustainability champions armed with this information would be welcomed by business leaders seeking new ways to get the most from their companies’ resources and efforts. Fortunately, the links between CSR efforts, employee engagement, and business results are becoming clearer.

In last week’s September 28, 2010, blog, we pieced together a sustainability-enabled business value chain. A version of it is in the adjacent slide. It shows that there is a pattern of connections among key tangible and intangible pieces of the business model puzzle that lead to the most important piece—profit and free cash flow.

It also shows that sustainability-related strategies like those around the perimeter strengthen the links in the chain and support the generic business model in the middle, described in my September 21, 2010, blog.

This week, we’ll review two studies that show how one of those sustainability-related strategies at the top of the slide—Engage employees in CSR programs—strengthens the “Employee Engagement, Productivity, and Innovation” link in the value chain.

The Hewitt / CBSR study

In 2009, Hewitt Associates partnered with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) to study the relationships between companies’ CSR efforts, employee engagement, and other business factors. Building on findings from Hewitt Associates’ Best Employers in Canada studies, Hewitt and CBSR gathered opinions from over 100,000 employees and 2,000 leaders at more than 230 workplaces.

They found that the benefits of CSR efforts and the benefits of high employee engagement are complementary and interdependent, as shown in the above slide.

The business benefits echo the links in the sustainability-enabled value chain slide, above. Note that the findings include the risks to various links in the value chain of not capitalizing on high engagement and CSR efforts, as well as the benefits from doing so. The adjacent slide summarizes their finding that “there is clear evidence that high employee engagement is related to improved organizational results.”

Gallup Consulting study

Another study by Gallup Consulting of data from over 125 organizations builds on the idea of comparing the upside of having an engaged workforce with the downside of having a disengaged workforce. Gallup compared the performance of companies in the top quartile of engaged employees with the performance of companies in the bottom quartile of (dis)engaged employees.

There was a dramatic difference between the top and bottom quartile companies track records in safety incidents, employee turnover, and absenteeism. More importantly, Gallup has proven that companies with highly engaged workgroups have 18% greater productivity, 12% higher profitability, and 2.6 times the earnings per share (EPS) growth rate compared to organizations with lower engagement in their same industry. Wow!

Do companies want lower absenteeism, lower employee turnover, and fewer safety incidents? Yes. Do they want higher customer satisfaction, higher employee productivity, greater profitability, and faster EPS growth? You bet. If these benefits come from more engaged employees, and if CSR efforts contribute to that higher level of engagement, then companies wanting to be successful would be well advised to focus more on meaningful, impactful CSR efforts. We’ll explore the exciting linkage between CSR efforts and employee engagement more next week.

Bob

Canada

CSR Efforts Correlate with Employee Engagement - A weekly blog by sustainability expert Bob Willard

Marieke — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 08:26:14 -0400

For the original post and to leave Bob a comment, please click here.

“People buy from people they trust.” That was a slogan we used in sales training at IBM. We used it to reinforce the human element of a customer-supplier transaction. No trust, no sale. There’s a similar dynamic in the relationship between employees and their companies.

If employees’ values resonate with their company’s values, and if they trust that their company genuinely cares about the same things they care about, then they are more energized and productive. A company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts signal what it cares about. Their co-benefit is that they seem to increase employee engagement.

In my September 28, 2010, blog, I introduced a sustainability-enabled business value chain, shown in the adjacent slide. The blue sustainability strategies strengthen the links in the generic business value chain. Last week, in my October 5, 2010, blog, we zeroed-in on the connection between the “Engage employees in CSR programs” strategy and how doing so energizes the “Employee Engagement, Productivity, and Innovation” link.

This week, we will explore those linkages further.

Have a good suite of worthy CSR programs

If a company wants its employees to applaud its CSR programs, it needs to have a good variety of dimensions to those programs. Hewitt Associates, the global human resources consulting and outsourcing company that conducts the Best Employers in Canada study each year, suggests CSR programs should encompass the seven dimensions in the adjacent slide

The corporate governance (1) and employee relations (2) factors both cover how the company treats its employees. The company’s relationship with its customers (3) and suppliers (4), including human rights (5), are also included. The ones that provide the best opportunity for employee volunteerism are the programs that address the company’s impacts on the environment (6) and on the community / society (7). This is a wonderfully holistic template for corporate CSR programs. It shows that there’s no magic, silver bullet; and that companies must avoid “green-washing” in all seven areas to be deemed a good corporate citizen by its own employees.

Have metrics for employee engagement

If we are to assess the correlation between employees’ engagement and their perception of the company’s CSR programs, we need to know how we would recognize an engaged employee if we saw one. Again, Hewitt Associates provides a helpful definition, as shown in the adjacent slide:

“Capturing the hearts and minds of employees” is the holy grail of managers and human resources professionals. The “Say” behavior helps to attract top talent to the organization through word-of-mouth; the “Stay” behavior mitigates attrition of top talent who are already working in the company; and the “Strive” behavior augments engagement and productivity as employees “strive to achieve above and beyond what is expected in their daily lives.” It’s the “Strive” / engagement behavior that interests us today.

As referenced in my October 5, 2010, blog, Hewitt Associates partnered with Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) to understand the relationships between employees’ perceptions of their companies’ CSR efforts, their engagement, and other work-environment factors. Building on data from Hewitt Associates Best Employers in Canada studies, Hewitt and CBSR gathered opinions from over 100,000 employees and 2,000 leaders from more than 230 workplaces. I love the above chart from their study. This straight-line correlation shows that the more employees agree that their company is proactively pursuing worthy environmental and social activities, the more they are engaged. Intuitively, we might have suspected that. Happily, the study supports our intuition.

The study reinforces the connection between the “Engage employees in CSR programs” strategy and how it energizes the “Employee Engagement, Productivity, and Innovation” link. It’s hard to prove a cause-and-effect relationship; but at a minimum, it’s a happy correlation. A good CSR reputation is one of 21 factors that Hewitt has identified which correlate positively with employee engagement. They found that if a company reduces its focus on its CSR programs, employee engagement tends to fall off. So, if CEOs want to maintain or improve the level of their employees’ engagement, and strengthen the path to better business results, they might pay more attention to their CSR initiatives.

It also turns out that giving employees a chance to personally participate in the company’s CSR programs further invigorates their level of engagement. I will explore that connection next week.

Bob

Canada

Delivering Sustainable Schools 'What does it take to design a step change in the sustainable performance of a school?'

simonharvey — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:47:49 -0400

By Jerome Partington

Jerome Partington, Sustainability Manager at Jasmax Architects and an accredited advisor for TNS NZ has been working in parallel with Project Architect Justin Evatt on Avondale College, West Auckland. This is a significant rebuilding programme as part of a Masterplan Vision developed for the school. The project represents replacement and refurbishment of the equivalent of 88 of the college’s existing classrooms.

The question for Jasmax was to see how we could move on from small incremental efficiencies in building designs by delivering a step change in the wider sustainable performance of the school. Avondale College has an enviable and longstanding track record for student academic achievement and our aim was to match this in the sustainability arena.

Jasmax is known for designing schools that meet the needs of each school community in terms of their unique visions and aspirations; and which provide progressive, effective learning environments. And sustainability is increasingly becoming an important foundation element of the design process.

At Avondale we have been trialing the Integrated Sustainable Design (ISD) approach. Jerome ran a series of workshops to raise awareness of sustainability for the school leaders and design team, so they could understand it as a systems problem and then take a strategic approach to solving it in an education context. The workshops developed a project vision, identified key strategic commitments and a number of performance targets.

The school is aiming to use 35% less energy than currently with similar targets for waste, water and a significant increase in the biodiversity of the campus. The strategic workshop process opened up the problem to gain buy-in and ideas from all the team members and from them a number of innovations were identified which include:

The design team working (more) collaboratively rather than in our familiar safe silo roles.
Using Thermomass walls which have excellent thermal properties, minimal waste and are very durable.
Identifying the EnviroChallenege program for the College which engages the students in sustainable behaviour change
Energy audits on existing retained buildings to reduce peak demand and design out unnecessary infrastructure.

The first stage of the project is out for tender and construction is due to commence in July with continued design work currently progressing for the next stages of the over all masterplan.

For further details about this project, or about the use of Natural Step approaches in the construction industry, contact Jerome Partington - Sustainability Manager - Jasmax Auckland jnp@jasmax.co.nz.

New Zealand

Dr. Robèrt at TEDxMälaren, June 15th

Anouk Bertner — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:08:12 -0400

We’re pleased to announce that the Founder of The Natural Step Founder, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, will be participating in TEDxMälaren, in Stockholm, Sweden on June 15th, 1-5 pm. TEDxMälaren is a Swedish conference that brings people together to share a TED-like experience. The name Malaren comes from Lake Mälaren, the third largest lake in Sweden. Just like Lake Mälaren that connects towns across Sweden, TEDxMälaren will connect topics in featuring a holistic perspective of inter-linked global issues through the audience, the organizers and speakers of diverse backgrounds, with different forms of media.

TEDxMälaren aims to reach beyond the Scandinavian seas and explore the influence of cultural, political and socio-economic diversity on the way we think, and ought to think for a better future. To register or learn more, click here.

Sweden

Eco-work moves from margin to mainstream:: The Vancouver Sun

Jennifer Reid — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:59:37 -0400

Environmental professionals are in development in Canada and around the globe

When the municipality of Whistler wanted to prepare itself for the 2010 Winter Olympics, officials turned to Kelly Hawke Baxter to help them develop a sustainability plan, Whistler 2020, to transform every aspect of how the town approached its development. Baxter is the executive director of The Natural Step Canada, a non-governmental organization that educates and instructs individuals in private industry and the public sector how integrate to environmental considerations into their operations.

"We're moving from lip service to really looking at how we can use environmental responsibility and sustainability to drive innovation and value creation so that we can be part of the new economy," says Baxter.

The new economy is all about green jobs, she says. "It's really gone from the margins to the
mainstream. It's a huge opportunity for those that want green careers to either enter the green sector or the traditional sector where there are more and more green jobs."

Sustainability departments are being established in everything from retail chains such as Walmart to the largest cellphone manufacturer in the world, Nokia. Don Gorber is president of SENES Consultants Ltd., a company that specializes in environmental, nuclear and energy services with offices in Canada, the United States, India and South America. He has seen the industry change dramatically during his career and believes demand for highly skilled environmental workers will continue to rise.Worthy candidates for his firm, he says, "should have a good education with some technical or social background that allows you to start here."

Given the demand for good people, lack of experience isn't necessarily a critical liability. "We'll hire people with little experience and train them," he says.The specialized nature of many environmental jobs means they are in demand in almost every industry and sector -- from private to public and NGOs to university research departments. However, job seekers eager to enter the field should be aware the term "green job" is sometimes used loosely, says Grant Trump, president of the federally funded sector council Environmental Careers Organization Canada.

"I know that a lot of folks want to be involved in that sort of area, but artificially putting that label on it is not going to help," says Trump. But he has no doubt legitimate opportunities for well-educated environmental professionals will steadily increase.

"Those folks generally have very good, transferable skills, so they could work in the IT sector or a variety of sectors of the economy," says Trump. "We have to recognize that those folks are in high demand not just in Canada, but other industrialized countries around the globe."

Baxter's Natural Step won ECO Canada's 2010 Environmental Employer of the Year Award in the small-to medium-sized category, and she credits much of it to the initial reason people go into the field.

"People want to work for industries that are doing the right thing, and that's becoming an increasing draw for employers and an increasing liability for those that aren't doing anything yet," says Baxter.
Employees in the environmental sector want the same things as anybody else, says Gorber, and in a highly competitive, rapidly evolving and emerging field, that means competition for workers is high.

"It's providing people with enough challenging projects to work on, enough independence to work on them, enough mentoring so they're learning and getting better, enough compensation so they're not going to be challenged to go elsewhere," says Gorber.

Governments around the world are investing in green technology and major infrastructure projects as they work toward environmental solutions, while industry leaders are clamouring to be the first out of the gate with the next environmental solution for their customers.The trend is creating a beneficial side-effect for employees who specialize in environmental jobs: "Sustainability is also about taking care of your people -- social responsibility -- so that's a big priority for us," says Baxter.

Gorber advises students contemplating a career in an environmental field to weigh their options carefully. They should decide whether they want to approach it from a generalist point of view or specialize and then determine where those skills and passions fit into the economy.

"A person first has to decide they want to be in the environmental field because they like it, not just because it's the latest flavour of the week," he says.

Article Author: Derek Sankey, for Canwest News Service

Article Source: The Vancouver Sun

Article in PDF

Canada

Emerging Leaders Engage in World Café Dialogue with Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt

Anouk Bertner — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:27:11 -0400

On Wednesday, October 20th, a committed and enthusiastic group of 30-plus students and young professionals gathered in Toronto for a unique opportunity to engage in a dialogue about sustainability with The Natural Step’s Founder Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt. The event was a Leadership Cafe in which participants heard from Dr. Robèrt on the challenges of the leadership in the current system and then discussed using the question: how can young people act most strategically toward sustainability across all sectors?

Themes of collaboration, cooperation, starting 'where you are at' including changing one's own personal behavior and acting in their own sphere of influence were predominant. This was a very empowered, active group of young people who were passionate about changing the world and are continuing their search for the tools and experiences to get there.

The event was generously co-hosted by our partners Corporate Knights Magazine and AIESEC Canada and sponsored through funding from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Canada

European PVC industry launches new ten year sustainability commitment

Richard Blume — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:00:08 -0400

Yesterday the European Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) industry launched VinylPlus – a new voluntary commitment to enhance the sustainable production and use of PVC by 2020. The Natural Step has provided guidance and input to the initiative to map out the challenges for PVC, offer capacity building workshops, gather stakeholder views and provide recommendations on the formulation of goals, targets and guiding principles. Executive Ambassador, David Cook and Senior Advisor, Richard Blume from our team in Stockholm were on hand in Brussels for the launch, which also marked the culmination of the first 10 year commitment – Vinyl2010. You can listen to what industry representatives and politicians had to say about progress and plans for the future and you can read more in the press release and related links below.

For our part we are pleased to see an increased level of ambition in VinylPlus and believe it sets out a clear roadmap for the industry. The Natural Step will continue to provide updates and share lessons and insights from our involvement in the sector.

More information:

VinylPlus website www.vinylplus.eu
Related press - visit our media page
Our involvement in VinylPlus - VinylPlus Project Profile
Background on our work with the industry - www.thenaturalstep.org/pvc

Sweden

Everyone can be a change-maker – round-up from Ashoka Globalizer Summit

Richard Blume — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 04:15:57 -0400

Last week I had the privilege of attending Ashoka’s Social Entrepreneurship Forum in Stockholm where The Natural Step Founder was officially welcomed into Ashoka’s fellowship. The event topped off what was, by all accounts, a fantastic weekend for Ashoka’s Globalizer programme.

Selected from more than 2500 individuals in over 70 countries, Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt is one of 16 social entrepreneurs participating in the 2011 Globalizer programme, which aims to match “ready to globalize” innovations - like the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development promoted by The Natural Step - with the resources needed to rapidly and effectively achieve global scale.

When asked about what becoming an Ashoka fellow means to him, Karl-Henrik said:

“Institutionalizing an innovation is not the same as developing it. Ashoka really want to help us scale up. We try to help business executives who are suffering because they don’t know what to do on sustainability and it can be exhausting after a while, so when somebody wants to help you, it almost brings tears to your eyes. Bill Drayton and his team are really there to help. It has been an amazing journey.”

So what insights did the assembled panel of business leaders and experts provide Karl-Henrik and The Natural Step? Here follows a round-up of lessons we are taking from the event:

Speak up! – The panel was impressed by the achievements connected to The Natural Step, the wider network of collaborators and the Framework we promote and recommended enhanced communications and greater brand visibility to increase our impact.
Show the pathway – In order to demonstrate the extent of our work and more meaningfully engage people, we must be clearer about describing learning pathways and providing recognition for competence in the methods we promote.
Work through others to achieve scale – far from sending us back to the drawing board with our transition plans, this advice reinforced our resolve to build a global sustainability network of change agents and gave tangible insights into how to empower some of our closest supporters. Stay tuned…
Emerging markets – We have long seen the need from a sustainability perspective to engage in rapidly growing markets like China, but we have not had the ability to realize this. We are extremely grateful to Ashoka’s network for connecting us with the right people and hope to share more news in due course.

A personal highlight from the award ceremony was hearing a panel of Ashoka fellows present their inspiring stories – from Jerry White, landmine victim and Founder of Survivor Corps (USA) distilling the essence of ‘survivor-hood’, to Mary Gordon’s work fostering empathy in children (Roots of Empathy, Canada), to Jack Sim’s socialization of toilets (World Toilet Organization, Singapore) and to Johan Koss’s work overcoming social barriers that prevent children from developing life-long skills through play (Right to Play, Canada).

Along with Dr Robèrt, the following social entrepreneurs were then acknowledged as Ashoka’s first Scandinavian fellows:

Anders Wilhelmson, Founder of Peepoople (Sweden)
Sofie Applegren, Founder, Mitt Liv (Sweden)
Thorkil Sonne, Founder, Specialist People Foundation (Denmark)
Hanne Finstad, Founder, Forskerfabrikken (Norway)
Orri Vigfusson, Founder, The North Atlantic Salmon Fund (Iceland).

Capping it all off was Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka, outlining his vision for a world where everyone is a change maker.

After being in the company of such inspiring people, I left the event feeling that with courage and commitment to follow your convictions, everyone can be a change-maker.

Richard Blume, Senior Advisor, The Natural Step International.

The Natural Step congratulates all the Ashoka fellows for their important work and would like to extend a special thanks to the Ashoka team and network for all their support.

For feedback on The Natural Step’s transition plans, our collaboration with Ashoka or to lend your support, you can contact us at transition@thenaturalstep.org.

More information:

Canada

Greening Our Workshops: TNS’s Efforts to “Walk the Talk”

Dwayne Hodgson — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:33:07 -0400

At the Natural Step Canada, we organize a lot of learning events on how individuals and organizations can take meaningful actions to become more sustainable. Where possible, we encourage our clients to make use of our award-winning eLearning programs and online webinars, thus minimizing the need for travel and reducing their carbon footprint.

However, we still find that the quality of learning and community-building that face-to-face workshops provide is hard to beat, and so we continue to offer in-person sustainability leadership programs across the country.

Of course if you are going to talk about sustainability, you have to do your best to walk that talk. We strive to make these meetings as sustainable as possible with regards to decisions around travel, food and beverage, energy and other resource use. For example:

1. We choose workshop locations that are easily accessible by public transit (bus, intercity bus and train where possible) and cycling.

2. We purchase carbon offsets annually for all of our air, rail or car travel undertaken as an organization. While not a perfect solution, the money raised from carbon offsets supports projects that reduce greenhouse gases. Here are two gold-standard providers of offsets for Canada: Less and Offsetters.

3. We do our best to reduce waste by avoiding disposables, and reusing and recycling what we can of any workshop materials (e.g. name tags, flip chart paper, post-its, tape, handouts).

4. We print any handouts and guidebooks on post-consumer recycled paper.

5. For every learning event that we host, we estimate how much electricity we’ll use for A/V equipment and lights. We then purchase the equivalent amount of "green electricity" from Bullfrog Power, a company that produces small hydro and wind-powered electricity. TNS Canada also uses Bullfrog Power for its day-to-day office operations.

6. We ask that our caterers, where possible, should:

Purchase fair trade, organic coffee, tea & sugar.
Recycle cans, metal tins, bottles, and paper
Purchase local products -- organic if possible -- for meals and snacks
Use bulk condiments wherever possible (vs. individual packets for sugar)
Have pre-consumer composting in the kitchen (what is PRE-consumer composting??)
Use reusable mugs and glasses instead of Styrofoam containers , as these are derived from petroleum.
Provide pitchers of tap water and glasses instead of water in plastic bottles.

7. In our pre-course Learning Needs & Resource Assessments, we describe what we are doing to become more sustainable and invite our workshop participants to choose one action that they'll undertake to reduce the impact of their participation. We then discuss this during the workshop. It's a great way to get people thinking about -- and acting on-- the topic.

Some Good Initial Steps, But We're Not There Just Yet
Making our actions truly sustainable is an ongoing process. Although we haven't figured it all out (for example, we still need to find a recyclable marker supplier, and we still rely on flying facilitators to courses in other cities), we're pleased that with a bit of creativity, and a modest extra cost, we are able to walk the talk.

For additional ideas on how to green your learning events and meetings, please see:

Your Turn:
What is your best idea for making learning events or other meetings more sustainable? Please post your comments below.

Dwayne Hodgson is the Manager of Sustainability Learning Programs at The Natural Step Canada. He also blogs about learning design and facilitation at www.learningcycle.ca

Canada

Leading Change - the rationale for a framework for strategic sustainable development - with Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt (webinar)

Richard Blume — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:37:19 -0400

Start: May 9 2011 - 2:00pm

End: May 9 2011 - 5:00pm

Timezone: Europe/Stockholm

This webinar is a unique and intimate opportunity to engage with world-renowned sustainability expert, Ashoka fellow and Founder of The Natural Step, Dr Karl-Henrik Robèrt. The topic of conversation is the rationale behind the framework for strategic sustainable development, commonly known as The Natural Step Framework.

The webinar is exclusive to participants and stakeholders in the Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry programme, an initiative run in collaboration between The Natural Step and Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. The programme aims to support proactive organisations achieve strategic advantage and build a network of sustainability leaders with the skills to transform the chemical industry and related sectors.

For more information or to get involved, contact us today.

Sweden

Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry (Free information & pre-registration webinar)

Richard Blume — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:46:48 -0500

Start: Feb 23 2012 - 4:00pm

End: Feb 23 2012 - 5:00pm

Timezone: Europe/Stockholm

This 1 hr information webinar will provide an overview of the Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry course and give interested parties an opportunity to ask questions before registering their participation in the 2012 course (runs from April – Dec 2012).

About the course:

This 10 month programme for industry professionals is offered by The Natural Step and Blekinge Institute of Technology in collaboration with The Dow Chemical Company.

What: Methods combined with practice using a proven science-based approach to help you understand sustainability, risk and opportunity and be strategic about implementation within business.
Who: leaders within organisations both within the chemical sector and entire value chains reliant upon it: executives, managers, function leaders & specialists dealing with sustainability, CSR or EHS issues.
How: online access (elearning, readings, videos, expert webinars x10), project work and 3 workshops held in Europe.
When: Spread over 10 months from April – December 2012 with 8-10 scheduled days + project , work + study.

Features and benefits:

Award winning content based on the internationally recognized framework for strategic sustainable development promoted by The Natural Step.
Flexible delivery to suit working professionals.
Cutting edge insight from industry peers and sustainability experts.
Networking with peers, customers and suppliers.
Apply methods in your business with customized support from experienced sustainability advisors.
Cost-effective professional development providing a university-accredited Advanced Certificate (7.5 ECTS credits).

Sweden

Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industy - 2 day workshop (Zurich)

Richard Blume — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 11:31:26 -0400

Start: Sep 28 2011 - 12:00am

End: Sep 29 2011 - 11:59pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry: The second workshop in this year’s customized course for professionals in the chemical industry and related value chains will take place on 27-28th September, 2011. Participants are convening to report on sustainable business projects conducted over the last few months, and to explore value chain collaboration.

The workshop is being kindly hosted by The Dow Chemical Company near Zurich Switzerland.

Contact Richard.Blume@thenaturalstep.org to learn how you can get involved in next year’s programme.

Sweden

Manukau City walks the sustainability talk with TNS and Transition Towns

simonharvey — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 07:36:35 -0400

By Simon Harvey - Chief Exec TNS NZ

The Natural Step and Transition Towns have been working in partnership with Manukau City Council on designing a sustainable future for the communities of Manukau

The Natural Step NZ and Transition Towns teams have been working in partnership with Manukau City Council on the Towards 2060 project. The Towards 2060 programme has been developed, and is being led, by Maggie Lawton, Manager of Strategy and Policy for the council. Maggie is an accredited Natural Step advisor and accomplished sustainability practitioner in her own right.

Towards 2060 is based around a series of open invitation Design the Future workshops in each of the Manukau City wards. The workshops have two main aims. They are to provide a platform for the sustainable development of communities in Manukau, and provide community members with an enhanced ability to think about their own long-term needs, their own actions and advocacy.

The combined knowledge, resources and skills of the council, The Natural Step and Transition Towns teams have been usefully combined to help communities come to grips with taking control of their own future. The Natural Step framework has served as the anchor for the process by providing a solid basis for understanding the challenges, and underpinning a more strategic approach to planning for the future. James Samuel, the National Coordinator for Transition Towns Aotearoa, has played a leading role through the series workshops. James has brought his considerable experience of inspiring communities into action at the local level, with a multitude of examples of how local communities can make a real difference.

Design the Future workshops have been rolled out in seven ward areas of Manukau – Botany, Clevedon, Howick, Mangere, Manurewa, Otara and Papaptoetoe with Pakuranga being the eighth. The products and outputs from the community sessions are available on the Towards 2060 website with more to come as the work is completed. The programme is also being extended into a number of local schools, and additional sessions are being run for the disabled community and the business community in the coming months.

“Combining the simple strategic vision enabled by the Natural Step framework with the practical local action of Transition Towns has been immensely valuable”, says TNS NZ Chief Executive Simon Harvey. “Manukau City Council has shown genuine leadership and true stewardship of its communities with Towards 2060. The programme has gently exposed local community leaders to the many unspoken realities of our current development trajectory, and then used the experience of the Natural Step and Transition Towns teams to provide an opportunity for them to decide how they want the future to really pan out. It’s been enlightening to see how many people want a future that is quite different to what they are currently being given. I think people are generally disappointed in the way that central and local government are ignoring a sustainable development approach in favour of the business-as-usual, short-term approach that leaves them with a costly legacy to pay for in the future.”

James Samuel is keen to add that the Manukau City Council team have been truly fantastic to work with. “The energy of the council team has been inspiring, and the combination of Natural Step and Transition Towns has worked really well. Using a back-casting approach for planning, we’ve enabled many communities to realise that they can achieve the ideal future they’re looking for by starting with some simple steps today. It’s been marvellous to see how strong and cohesive the local communities in Manukau are.”

Towards 2060 will gently wind down in the run up to the new Auckland Council launch in November this year. In its wake the programme will leave local community members and leaders who are far better informed about the future, and who have a much stronger belief in their ability to aim higher for their communities. As Maggie Lawton explains, “The central purpose of Twoards 2060 is to enable communities to ask better questions of their leaders and themselves. People are quite capable of understanding the issues when they’re clearly explained, and have a real desire to own local community outcomes. What they’ve often lacked in the past is a comprehensive and understandable framework to help them structure their thoughts and ideas. The Natural Step has filled that gap very well, and I can see the framework being put to great use across New Zealand at a community level to help us develop stronger local resilience and a more proactive approach to sustainable development at both an economic and community level.”

The Towards 2060 website is itself a legacy to the community. It’s packed full of community facilitation tools and resources, as well as slideshows and a host of useful videos. Just go to the website and use the navigation toolbar on the left hand side to have a look around.

For further information about the Towards 2060 programme you visit the website; or contact Maggie Lawton at Manukau City, Simon Harvey at TNS NZ or James Samuel of Transition Towns.

New Zealand

Max Hamburgers :: New Case Study Released

Kaj Torok — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 15:33:56 -0400

The Natural Step is proud to partner with Max Hamburgers in creating the most sustainable fast food possible. Download the case study below to read more about Max.

Introduction: Changing the Fast Food Industry from Within:

In 2007, Pär Larshans, then Director of Human Resources at Max Hamburger Restaurants, was asked to investigate what other fast food chains were doing about climate change. He discovered that there wasn’t much to discover and Max saw an opportunity to break ahead of the pack. Sustainable leadership could clearly distinguish Max from its formidable competitors such as McDonalds and Burger King and allow them to use their business to make a positive impact on the planet.

Partnering with The Natural Step, Max looked deeper into the sustainability challenges of their business. This was the beginning of an exciting and ongoing journey exploring the possibility of sustainable fast food. Today, Mr. Larshans’ title is Sustainability Director, all Max’s restaurants are wind powered, their menu is carbon labeled, Max basks in worldwide media exposure and continues to make significant strides towards sustainability.

Download the case study and press release below.

Sweden

MESSAGE FROM THE CANADIAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Corporate Social Responsibility is dead

Kelly Hawke Baxter — Thu, 12 May 2011 08:00:30 -0400

There is a new consciousness emerging that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is dead. It’s not enough to be adding environmental and social priorities to a business-as-usual agenda. It’s not enough to be doing less bad by being more eco-efficient, but still headed in an unsustainable direction.

More and more people realize that our urgent and growing sustainability crises are not isolated issues, but are interconnected. Climate change, water shortages, pollution, toxicity: they are the result of a way of thinking whose time has passed. While the “take-make-waste” industrial age has brought great progress, people are realizing that the side effects are inherently unsustainable.

Companies that are leading the sustainability revolution are those that see sustainability as a key business strategy and driver of innovation. Those companies are not asking, “Based on our business plan, what should our CSR strategy be?” but rather, “In light of sustainability, what should our business plan be?”

In Bob Willard’s latest blog post, he suggests that it’s time to raise the bar for companies claiming to be sustainable. “When we celebrate companies ranked as being the most sustainable,” Bob asks, “are they really just the best of a bad lot? How would we recognize a sustainable enterprise if we saw one? Are we ready for a more rigorous assessment of where Mother Earth would position a company on its journey toward being a truly sustainable enterprise?” Bob thinks so, and we agree.

Truly sustainable enterprises will no longer undermine the Earth’s capacity to sustain us nor will they undermine our ability to meet human needs. They will work within the non-negotiable principles of the larger natural world. Gil Friend does a great job of articulating what this might look like in Natural Logic’s Declaration of Sustainable Business Leadership.

More and more people are starting to realize that sustainability is not about being less bad or more efficient. It’s about inventing a completely different kind of future.

To get there, we’ll need a radical shift in the way we think, make decisions, and work together. That requires a dramatic increase in sustainability literacy: the attitudes, knowledge, and skills we need to contribute to a more sustainable world.

Sustainability requires deep, transformative change. Sustainability thinking must be integrated into the core strategy and DNA of an organization or community, informing all levels of policy, governance, products, services, and relationships. It must be firmly embedded into the corporate culture.

That means going beyond greening the office toward more challenging, deeper engagement. It has to be about more than saving paper, recycling, getting rid of the Styrofoam cups, car-pooling, and turning off the lights—as important as those things are.

The good news is that employees are ready for deeper engagement. In a recent blog post, The Natural Step Canada’s Chad Park reminded us that people are striving for meaning and purpose in their work. Tapping into this in an authentic way is the most significant part of the business case for sustainability. To truly capture the potential benefit of more engaged employees, their sustainability effort has to touch the organization’s core business, including its products, services, operations, suppliers, and clients.

People have to feel that by doing their job—doing the business of the business—they are contributing to positive change and their efforts are stepping stones toward something greater. Only then do they begin to believe that their personal values are genuinely reflected in the values of the organization. The creativity and innovation that can be unleashed by engaging employees in the change process cannot be underestimated.

We’re living in exciting times. There is more and more evidence that sustainability thinking is here to stay, but if we are to succeed in reversing current unsustainable trends, we need to move from CSR to a new closed loop, regenerative economic model; from addressing sustainability at the periphery to embedding it into the core of our businesses and communities. We need to dramatically increase sustainability literacy. And we need the kind of inspiring bold vision and commitment as outlined in Natural Logic’s Declaration of Sustainable Business Leadership. Because, as Natural Logic reminds us, incrementalism didn’t get us to the moon.

The Natural Step Canada is working with leading businesses, communities, and other organizations to address these key issues, ask the right questions, and make genuine progress toward sustainability. To find out how we can help, please contact us today.

Canada

MESSAGE FROM THE CANADIAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Helping leaders create a better tomorrow, today

Kelly Hawke Baxter — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 08:17:44 -0400

It’s a fantastic reflection on the progress society has made in the past decade to realize that our job is no longer to convince people that sustainability is important. The sustainability imperative has never been clearer and there is more and more evidence that sustainability is here to stay as a driver of innovation and change.

Sustainability is becoming more and more mainstream as corporations, municipalities, and civil society work to understand and adopt sustainability strategies within their organizations. From sustainable supply chains to life cycle analysis, from community sustainability planning and smart growth, and from sustainable procurement to packaging, there’s no shortage of activity underway.

So, if everyone understands that sustainability is important and that we all must understand and work towards it, can we all pack up and go home? Not yet. We have a long road ahead of us.

Sustainability is about long-term, transformative change. It’s about changing the way we think about our relationship with the planet and with each other. It requires a fundamental rethink of the way we design our products and services, the way we operate and govern our organizations, the way we engage our stakeholders, and the way we collaborate together to change the systems we live and work within.

If we are to succeed as a society in redesigning our future, it will take unprecedented leadership and long-term commitment. So what are the key characteristics of sustainability leaders?

In our experience, the best companies and the best leaders are no longer trying to address sustainability as a standalone issue or an add-on initiative. They are integrating sustainability into the core of their business strategies and the heart of their municipal planning efforts. The best leaders understand that sustainability must be embedded into the culture of an organization if it is to succeed. And that requires widespread employee training, engagement, and buy-in.

In The Sustainability Champions Guidebook, Bob Willard, a well-known sustainability expert and member of The Natural Step Canada’s Board of Directors, defines the characteristics of successful sustainability leaders.

Sustainability leaders are successful because they establish personal credibility not only as authentic champions of sustainability but also as successful leaders, Willard says. They are pursuing sustainability because they want their businesses or communities to thrive. And they are committed to the challenge and have the trust, integrity, and competence to lead change and mobilize commitment around them.

One of the most well known examples of this kind of leader is Interface’s Ray Anderson who’s “spear in the chest” moment has become known to so many of us in the sustainability field. Another great example closer to home is Kathy Bardswick, who as CEO of The Co-operators has made a commitment to embedding sustainability into the long-term strategy and operations of the Canadian insurance co-operative. Her commitment is felt not only throughout the company, but she is also a strong champion for sustainability throughout the insurance and finance sector. We need more voices like these.

Successful leaders also engage their employees and stakeholders through effective dialogue and communications. By educating employees and external stakeholders about what sustainability is and what it means to their business or community, leaders are able to harness the creativity and ingenuity of the entire company. Working together, they are better able to find solutions that embed sustainability into the culture of the organization and accelerate change toward sustainability.

A great example of this kind of leadership can be found at Landmark Group of Builders, an Alberta-based construction company that has been embedding sustainability into its core business strategy since 2009. Led by CEO Reza Nasseri and COO Bijan Mannani, Landmark recently held a workshop for all staff to engage them in the organization’s sustainability journey and achieved astonishing results. You can read about Landmark’s sustainability journey here.

Successful leaders build buy-in and create alignment around a shared vision for the organization. They understand that sustainability is not about incremental improvements over how we did yesterday. Rather it’s about imagining a new future where we have designed the root causes of sustainability out of the way we live, work, and play.

Effective sustainability champions help employees and stakeholders understand the gap between where they are today and where they want to be in a sustainable future. They help create goals to drive the innovation and strategic actions that will lead their organizations to a sustainable future.

These are some of the characteristics that Bob Willard outlines in The Sustainability Champions Guidebook. And these are the characteristics we recognize in the leaders that we’ve had the privilege of working with and learning from over the past 10 years in Canada. Leaders like I’ve mentioned above and other visionaries like Ken Melamed, Mayor of the Resort Municipality of Whistler; Ron Casey, Mayor of the Town of Canmore; and the team of CEO Randy Peacock, COO Randy Heaps, and Senior Urban Designer Terry Myles at ISL Engineering and Land Services. We congratulate their efforts and hope we will see many more like them in the years to come.

But, of course, leaders don’t have to be CEOs. Leaders can be champions for change anywhere in the organization. Indeed, often sustainability efforts do not start in the executive suite. They often start with a committed and passionate champion or team of champions who build the buy-in they need to influence change within their organizations.

What gives us tremendous hope is the new generation of emerging leaders in Canadian universities and colleges across the country. In business schools and across all disciplines, this generation of young people entering the work force are passionate and ferocious advocates for a better world. We see huge opportunities in helping them to build their capacity to succeed in being effective change agents, and we're looking forward to launching a new pilot program for MBA students later this year.

At The Natural Step Canada, we help leaders create a better tomorrow, today. We invite you to become one of those leaders and join us on the journey toward sustainability. Learn more about our programs. Take one of our sustainability courses. Download one of our free toolkits. And get involved in sustainability in your organization. The journey to sustainability begins one natural step at a time.

Canada

MESSAGE FROM THE CANADIAN EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Looking back, looking forward

Kelly Hawke Baxter — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:46:33 -0500

By all measures, 2010 was a busy year for The Natural Step Canada—one of significant change and development. We re-organized our work into five clear audience-focused program areas, hired seven new people, reached 10,000 people through outreach and education initiatives, and worked closely with over 1,000 students, leaders, and change agents in 25 businesses, municipalities, and institutions across Canada.

(Read about our exciting plans for 2011 in our January newsletter.)

Our Emerging Leaders Program was formally launched in 2010 with generous support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and The Co-operators. We inspired students to become sustainability change agents by speaking at a number of conferences and events, we trained over 20 university co-op students to develop a sustainability plan and mentored them through co-op placements, and we provided hands-on sustainability training for three interns here at The Natural Step Canada. (Read about our Emerging Leaders Program plans for 2011 here.)

2010 was also a strong year for our growing Sustainable Business Program, with a strong emphasis on developing our service offerings for the early stages of a business’ sustainability journey. We worked with five businesses at various stages of their sustainability journeys to help them with sustainability value assessments, the development of their sustainability road maps, as well as advanced sustainability strategy development.

We are proud of the accomplishments of our corporate partners, Landmark Group of Builders, ISL Engineering and Land Services, and The Co-operators, who continue to show tremendous leadership in their strategic approach to long-term sustainability in their organizations. (Read about our Sustainable Business Program plans for 2011 here.)

In our Sustainable Communities Program, we worked with 12 communities and cities across Canada, helping them to develop integrated community sustainability plans, providing municipal staff with sustainability education and training, engaging stakeholders, and providing advice on sustainability strategies. We extend our sincere congratulations to Williams Lake for their award-winning sustainability plan.

We also wrapped up our 4-year project with the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and delivered the final year of sustainability training for an Ontario Trillium Foundation project with Ottawa area NGOs. We are pleased to have expanded our work in Quebec this past year with generous support from Rio Tinto Alcan and partnerships with CQDD, Optim Ressources, and NATIONAL. We look forward to continuing to support sustainability efforts in the Saguenay and Lac-Saint-Jean region, Rivière-du-Loup, Bromont, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, and Gatineau. (Read about our Sustainable Communities Program plans for 2011 here.)

With generous support from The Co-operators, in 2010 The Natural Step Exchange established itself as a successful sustainability network, enabling members to learn from each other, share best practices, and create innovative sustainability solutions. Over 100 members from 42 organizations participated in sustainability dialogues and webinars throughout the year. As well, our 150 learning program graduates were invited to join The Exchange with a complementary 1-year introductory membership. (Read about our 2011 plans for The Natural Step Exchange here.)

This past year we also delivered 8 sessions of our Sustainability for Leaders Course – Level 1: Foundations in cities across Canada, from Halifax to Vancouver. These 2-day public sessions drew over 150 participants. Thanks to our workshop sponsors: Halifax Regional Municipality, The City of Edmonton, Landmark Group of Builders, and Pratt & Whitney Canada. As well, we provided on-line sustainability education to over 6,000 learners through delivery of our online eLearning course, which is available in 3-hour and 1-hour versions in English and French—Swedish, too! (Read about our Sustainability Learning Program plans for 2011 here.)

One of the key highlights of the year was welcoming our founder Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt who came over from Sweden to keynote at a number of business events, including the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility’s Annual Summit, Royal Bank of Canada’s breakfast series, a keynote at Sheridan College, and an engaging fireside chat at InterfaceFLOR’s Toronto showroom. Dr. Robèrt also headlined EcoCare, the only conference in Canada to address sustainability and health care. (Watch this short interview that Dr. Robèrt gave to 3BL Media’s Chris Jarvis while he was in Canada.)

In addition to Dr. Robèrt’s visit, we delivered over 10 speeches and presentations at conferences and sustainability events across Canada. We launched our social medial strategy and developed a strong following on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

And one of the pinnacle moments of the year was our first-ever fundraising event, Sustainabili-TEA: Helping leaders create a better tomorrow, today, which drew a crowd of 150 in Ottawa in November to support The Natural Step Canada’s important work.

We’re excited about our plans for 2011 which will see continued growth and development in each of our program areas. In particular, we’re excited about our new service offerings for our Sustainable Business and Sustainable Communities Programs, and the launch of our Emerging Leaders MBA boot camp. We look forward to working with partners new and old to help their organizations accelerate the change toward sustainability.

(For more about our plans in 2011, please read our January newsletter here.)

Canada

Message from the Executive Director: Sustainability doesn’t get a vacation

Marieke — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:29:31 -0400

At The Natural Step, we usually look forward to a slightly slower pace in the summer so that we can take full advantage of the beautiful Canadian summer weather and extended daylight hours. But this summer we find ourselves busier than ever. It seems sustainable development doesn’t take the summer off.

As the world shows increasingly alarming signals of our unsustainable way of life, never has the need for proven, strategic, applicable tools and methodologies to create on-the-ground sustainable solutions and system-wide change been stronger.

In our latest newsletter, you can read about why we’re so busy. We have brought six new staff members on board since January to help deliver our five new programs areas:

We are so pleased to see a number of partners we have and continue to work with being honoured for their sustainability leadership.

Congratulations to ISL Engineering and Land Services and The Co-operators who we have worked with in our Sustainable Business program. Both companies were named to the list of Canada’s Green 30—organizations whose employees are most positive about their record on environmental stewardship. And The Co-operators was also ranked second in Corporate Knights’ Best 50 Corporate Citizens in Canada.

Congratulations to Williams Lake who we worked with this year as part of our Sustainable Communities program. Williams Lake just won the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Sustainable Community Award for their sustainable community planning process.

And kudos to our partners at The Resort Municipality of Whistler and Whistler Blackcomb for recently being included on the 2010 list of Canada’s 50 Greenest Employers by Mediacorp Canada Inc., the editors of Canada’s Top 100 Employers project.

We’re very excited to be announcing a new schedule of Sustainability Learning programs for the upcoming fall and winter, with courses taking place from coast to coast. Visit our Sustainable Learning page for full details.

Our Emerging Leaders program is now in full swing following another successful pilot program with the University of Western Ontario. If you are in university or college and interested in hands on sustainability training and mentoring, give us a call.

The Natural Step Exchange now has 175+ members and we’re busy with a full schedule of webinars and peer learning events over the coming months.

And last but not least, one of the big highlights of the coming months will be October 17-22, when we will be welcoming the Founder of The Natural Step, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, back to Canada. Dr. Robèrt will be delivering the keynote at Canadian Business for Social Responsibility’s Annual Summit on October 21 in Toronto, as well as their CEO Round Table on October 20, sponsored by InterfaceFLOR and The Co-operators. He will also be delivering a keynote at the London Health Sciences Centre’s EcoCare 2010 Conference on October 17, and engaging in several other Toronto-area events throughout the week. Visit our web site for further details soon.

Canada