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Agriculture - Sustainable Development Issues and Approaches (Webinar) :: Canada

Anouk Bertner — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:19:33 -0500

Start: Jan 29 2010 - 1:00pm

End: Jan 29 2010 - 3:00pm

Timezone: Canada/Eastern

Webinar :: Friday, January 29th from 1-3pm EST

This session will begin with the description of an approach to SD known as "strategic sustainable development". Dr. Mary Beckie will describe how The Natural Step Framework has been adopted by the flax industry to define where they are heading, what they want to achieve with respect to sustainability. This work was championed by the Saskatchewan Flax Development Commission and is part of ABIP Natural Fibres for the Green Economy (NAFGEN) network.

The second presentation will focus on the environmental dimension of sustainability, and, in particular, on the need to look beyond carbon! Dr. Amy Landis will review the carbon and nitrogen cycles, reactive nitrogen and the tradeoffs that are part of conventional agriculture. The final 2 presentations will be on the pulse industry. As nitrogen fixers, pulse crops are "part of the solution" and increasingly farmers are including them in their rotations. Gord Kurbis will describe Pulse Canada's approach to sustainable development, and be joined by Susan MacWilliam who will describe the analytical work underway to model the environmental and socio-economic attributes of pulse products over their lifecycle.

It will follow the format of 4 presentations followed by Q&A. The abstracts can be downloaded below, and the presentations will be available for downloading during the webinar.

To register, please follow the instructions below. It is best to do this ahead of time to avoid being caught with technical glitches at the last minute. On Friday, call in and log on to the webex site 5 to 10 minutes ahead of time as we typically have a high number of participants.

To register for this meeting
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1. Go to https://pwgsc-pm.webex.com/pwgsc-pm/j.php?ED=132167367&RG=1&UID=0&RT=NCMxMQ%3D%3D.

2. Register for the meeting.

Once the host approves your request, you will receive a confirmation email with instructions for joining the meeting.

Canada

Are you the next sustainability leader?

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:48:05 -0500

Online applications for the Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) and Master’s in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation (MSPI) at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden, will be open until January 15th. Both these leading-edge international master’s programmes are based around The Natural Step Framework, and integrate practical, applied course work to empower and enable graduates to make positive change in the world.

This year’s MSLS class consists of 67 students from 21 different countries. Will you join us in the next class?

The MSPI masters will have its inaugural intake in 2010. It builds off BTH’s strong reputation in education for sustainable development, and will incorporate the cutting-edge research conducted at BTH within Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation.

To apply, you will need to complete the online application form at www.studera.nu, and then mail your supporting documents by Feb. 15th, 2010. Spaces in both programmes are limited and successful candidates can receive their decisions in May, with a starting date of classes in late August 2010.

BTH looks forward to receiving your application…

Sweden

Axis Performance Advisors, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:42:36 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Background
Axis Performance Advisors was started in 1990 by Marsha Willard and Darcy Hitchcock as an organizational management consulting firm, specializing ins self-directed work teams. As of today, November 2003, about 53 percent of Axis' work is directly related to sustainability.

Inspiration
In addition to its consulting work, Axis would, on occasion, host one-day think-tank meetings. In 1996, having heard about the concept of sustainability, it hosted a meeting on the subject. At that meeting Hitchcock had an “aha” experience when she realized that Axis was showing companies how to be more efficient and effective in depleting the planet’s resources. She decided that she and Willard had to do “something.” Shortly thereafter Hitchcock was introduced to The Natural Step (TNS) at a Business for Social Responsibility meeting. She says she felt a great relief, because TNS offered the “something” that Axis should do. In 1998 she went to the TNS conference in Chicago and began doing volunteer work for the Oregon Natural Step Network as a speaker and as a contributing writer for the Tool kit.

Action
Upon learning about TNS, Axis first examined the impacts of its own business on the environment. Hitchcock and Willard quickly realized that as a service business, their greatest impact was through their consulting services and the influence they had on their clients. Since they had experience in organizational change, they could help companies become more sustainable.

Axis also examined its internal practices against the four systems conditions. It determined that its greatest impact was greenhouse emissions from energy use, especially transportation, but it was able to take action to reduce its impacts in all four system conditions.

System Condition One (Taking Substances from the Earth's Crust)

Willard and Hitchcock measured their greenhouse gas impact and purchased carbon offsets to be climate neutral with a cost of approximately $20 per year per person (see Appendix 1 for measurements, including tracking alternative transportation).
Hitchcock moved her home office from Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon to reduce travel.
Both Hitchcock and Willard use bicycles and public transportation whenever possible, resulting in 43% of business travel through alternative transportation (up from 0% before 2000)
Hitchcock and Willard both work from their homes, they purchased Green Power for both work and personal consumption.
Hitchcock purchased a Toyota Prius for business and personal use.
Axis purchased Energy Star rated computers (MAC G3s and monitors) and chose not to buy a copying machine.

System Condition Two (Use of Synthetic Substances)

Switched overhead transparency markers to ones that wash off with water instead of isopropyl alcohol.
Decided not to purchase certain products (e.g., glues) that had volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

System Condition Three (Preservation of Natural Resources)

Committed to buying recycled content paper, using 100% post-consumer recycled paper for company stationary.
When copier broke, did not purchase new one. This reduced the number of copies Axis makes.
Transitioned services like its newsletter and Team Booster product to an electronic service to save paper.
Axis does small print runs of the Sustainability SeriesTM booklets so as not to build up a large inventory, which might need to be scrapped later.
Axis has also chosen ShoreBank Pacific for their banking services.

System Condition Four (Meeting Human Needs)

Offered no- or low-cost services for targeted non-profits which would otherwise not be able to afford consulting services and which had a mission related to sustainability (Housing our Families, Planned Parenthood, Oregon Environmental Council, OMSI).
Provided pro bono facilitation services for the Oregon Natural Step Network’s Climate Change Peer Learning Group.

Results
Axis’s expenditures have mainly been in time, although it has paid for some training as well. It characterizes the time and training as R&D because Axis’ goal has been to transform the business to sustainability consulting.

That said, just operating its business more sustainably has saved Axis money over all. It has spent less money on parking fees, equipment not purchased, and printing and postage and has less wear and tear on its vehicles. The combined effect of its transportation efforts resulted in an annual reduction of 4,000 pounds of CO2 emissions. Axis has also learned that measurement does change behavior. It helps inform decisions and makes an immediate impact.

Challenges
One irony is that the more successful Axis becomes the more Hitchcock and Willard have to travel, which will actually increase their environmental impacts. They will address these impacts through the use of offsets.

Because sustainability is the focus of Axis’s business, the biggest challenge is creating a market to sustain all those who want to work in this field. It appears that sustainability is still at the early adopter phase in most sectors so the list of potential customers is limited. Also in tough economic times, people tend to pull back from exploring new options (even if they could save time or money) because they are already feeling stressed and stretched. That said, the challenge for consultants is always: to provide value to customers.

This case study was prepared by Regina Hauser for the Oregon Natural Step Network. For more information contact Darcy Hitchcock (503) 288-7704, darcy@axisperformance.com, or Marsha Willard (503) 284-9132, marsha@axisperformance.com, or visit the Axis Performance Advisors’ Web site, www.pacifier.com/~axis.

Appendix 1

BOORA Archietcts, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:47:08 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

TNS gave us a banner to march behind. It enhanced the spirit that was already here and gave us order and direction. —Eric Miller, BOORA employee Overview BOORA Architects provides architecture, planning, and interior design services to clients throughout the United States and abroad. With one office in Portland, Oregon, BOORA currently has 85 employees and annual gross revenues in excess of $13 million. The firm’s projects include schools, theaters, museums, libraries, office buildings, and recreation facilities.

· LEED implementation: Assisting in the registration and certification of BOORA projects. Currently, four of BOORA’s buildings are LEEDä registered.

· Products library classification: “Greening” BOORA’s interiors and products library so that teams can use the best and most responsible materials available; developing product classifications which describe what makes various products green; and developing a classification form that product representatives can use to provide detailed information
about their product’s sustainability features.

Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead
· Provide leadership from the top. BOORA management communicated to the staff its commitment to the firm’s sustainability efforts through specific goals and objectives
outlined in the annual business plans.

· Commit to education and training. Strongly encouraging all staff to attend a half-day TNS training session at an early date gave everyone the same knowledge base and vocabulary.

· Take calculated risks. Believing that too much analysis can cause paralysis, BOORA did not get bogged down with elaborate cost-benefit examination or require concrete evidence of assured success before moving forward. It continues to implement ideas that intuitively seem like the “right thing to do.”

· Little successes add up. Having some tangible achievements, especially if they are recognized publicly, inspires staff to take them to the next level. BOORA has received a PGE EarthSmart Innovator Award for the design of George Fox University’s Stevens Center, and two BOORA-designed buildings were selected for the Ten Plus Northwest exhibition organized by Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development, showcasing the
latest and best in sustainable practices and technologies in the Pacific Northwest.

· Share the responsibility. BOORA created a Sustainability Coordinator position, but the position was eventually eliminated. Because the TNS framework touches every aspect of
BOORA’s practice, from architecture and interiors to specifications, marketing, and technology, the responsibility for integrating TNS was too large and undefined for one individual.

· Find quantifiable industry standards . In the United States, The LEEDä rating system of the U.S. Green Building Council is the standard for assessing sustainability in commercial and institutional buildings. Many local governments, higher education institutions, architects, and engineers are already using this standard to assess the “shades of green” of their construction and renovation projects.

BOORA’s efforts over the past several years have focused on “building” a green BOORA—its people, place, and practice. The biggest challenge BOORA will face in the future will be “marketing” green BOORA. This shift from a more “internalized” focus to an “externalized” approach will advance the practice and business of sustainable design and build BOORA’s
reputation for knowing how to do this work.

Developing marketing communications materials that reflect BOORA’s accomplishments and perspectives, presenting seminars on sustainable design, and promoting recent innovative sustainable design approaches and technical systems in trade newspapers and journals all contribute to BOORA’s reputation as one of the most knowledgeable in this specialty. Resources need to be allocated toward these efforts so they don’t take a back seat when other “billable” efforts are pressing.

Learning to become effective advocates of sustainable design will result in better buildings, more satisfied clients, and a strong referral base for future work. Clients may be wary of the benefits of sustainable design, either because they don't understand it, they think it's too expensive, and/or they don't want to take a risk on unproven technology and equipment. Design professionals need to better learn the language of the building owner, facility manager, and CFO in terms owners can understand--first-cost savings, return on investment, and enhanced productivity--to effectively champion the benefits and value of sustainable design.

This case study was prepared by Mary Van Domelen and Julie Wallis of BOORA for the The Natural Step Network.

Calgary Level One Pilot Takes Off

Sarah Brooks — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:04:56 -0500

www.flickr.com

Last week, I, along with my colleague Pong Leung, had the privilege of joining 24 people in Calgary, Alberta, to spend two days unpacking and playing with application of The Natural Step Framework.This was the first of our Level 1 Learning Programs and as such, really the pilot of our pilot program.

Participants came from a range of backgrounds both public and private and included people experienced in using the Framework and also some that were brand new to it. There were participants who had excellent working knowledge of building and delivering sustainability initiatives, but who were not familiar with the Framework, and there were those that were new to sustainability in general. We had representatives from municipalities, small business and large corporations... Fertile ground in which to play! Click here to see the photos.

As facilitators, the challenge was to make the content relevant for a diverse audience, something that is always interesting, both as facilitator and participant-observer. What was clear, however, particularly once we dove into application of the content, was that the generic nature of the Framework – its ‘scalability’ over place and space appropriate to context – really shone. We had an opportunity to explore how the sustainability challenge and concurrent opportunities may impact organizations – everything from an energy company, to a café, to a small municipality. We explored how to use fundamental principles of sustainability to create innovation goals (a desired future) for an organization or community; confirm these goals against key sustainability challenges (identified through analysis by the sustainability principles); and how to translate that into day-to-day actions over the short- and medium- term so that the goals become operational in practice. The goal of the workshop was to add value to the great work that participants are already doing or considering doing, and to provide tools, techniques, lessons learned and advice to enable use of the Framework in their own context.

There was some excellent output from the session, and we are looking forward to seeing how participants put the Framework to use for themselves and the organizations that they represent. We’re also anticipating our upcoming sessions in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. Stay tuned!

Canada

City of Santa Monica, California, USA

Chas Martin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 21:18:42 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Overview
The City of Santa Monica is located on the western edge of the Los Angeles Basin in southern California. It is a small city of 88,000 people within 8.3 square miles that faces Santa Monica Bay and the Pacific Ocean to the west and is surrounded by other urban areas to the north, east, and south.

The City is defined largely by its relationship to the beach and ocean. Not surprisingly, it was degradation of Santa Monica Bay in the early 1980s that first galvanized action on behalf of the environment by citizens and community leaders.

Santa Monica has generally affluent citizens, high property values, and a strong economy based on high technology, entertainment, tourism, and retail. These factors mean that City government has a strong tax base with which to design and implement programs. The City government has approximately 1800 permanent employees in 13 different departments and an annual budget of $365,000,000.

Background on Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Program
Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Program (SCP) grew out of a Task Force on the Environment appointed by the City Council in 1991 to review the city’s environmental policies and programs. Seeing the concept of sustainability as a unifying theme, the Task Force recommended a program to define what sustainability means for the city, develop a plan to get there, and then implement the plan. After substantial public involvement, City Council adopted the SCP in 1994.

The Role of The Natural Step in Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Program
As part of the general land-use planning process required under California state law, Santa Monica began a review and revision of the conservation element of its general plan in 1998. The conservation element is one of seven state-required general plan elements. The city used this update as an opportunity to incorporate the systems-oriented, holistic approach of the SCP and to codify the SCP into the conservation element. This strategy would strengthen the environmental components of the City’s general plan because all elements of the plan are required by state law to be internally consistent with each other.

The company hired to help re-write the conservation element, Rincon Consulting, proposed using The Natural Step’s (TNS) system conditions as a unifying framework for the document. This was accomplished by developing four core objectives for the conservation element modeled after the TNS system conditions. Each objective is followed by a set of policies, which were taken from the SCP. The objectives in the conservation element read as follows:
Objective 1: Strive for the sustainable use of nonrenewable and limited resources such as fossil fuels, metals, minerals, and water. Related policy topics include energy, water, and others.

Objective 2: Minimize the accumulation of human-made substances in the water, air, and earth. Related policy topics include water, air, waste, and others.

Objective 3: Preserve the productivity and diversity of nature. Related policy topics include Santa Monica Bay, habitat, and others.

Objective 4: Seek to provide for the range of human needs in a fair and efficient manner, with a priority on meeting basic human needs. Related policy topics include environmental health risks to disadvantaged communities, promoting mixed use development, affordable housing, and others.

Attachment 1 is a sample page of the conservation element; showing objective 1 and specific energy policies. Finally, the conservation element charges the SCP with translating these policies into action.

During the revision of Santa Monica’s conservation element, both the City’s Planning Commission and its Task Force on the Environment received presentations about The Natural Step and discussed using it as the unifying framework. Both bodies enthusiastically approved this approach. City staff have not received any specific training in TNS framework, although the City co-sponsored, with the local Chamber of Commerce, a workshop open to the general public; several city staff attended.

TNS framework itself did not play a role in the city’s sustainability effort until after the latter was well underway. The primary role of TNS has been to provide a conceptual framework that gives clarity, elegance, and unity to what was once a complicated SCP. TNS framework is mentioned only as a footnote in the written conservation element, and there are no references to the framework per se in any SCP communications and marketing materials.

The Sustainable City Program Today
As stated above, the SCP is responsible for implementing the policies of the conservation element of the City’s general plan. It includes the following key elements:
1. Guiding principles (adopted in 1994):
    A. The concept of sustainability guides city policy.
    B. Protection, preservation, and restoration of the natural environment is a high priority for the City.
    C. Environmental quality and economic health are mutually dependent.
    D. All decisions have environmental implications.
    E. Community awareness, responsibility, involvement, and education are key
elements of successful programs/policies.
    F. Santa Monica recognizes its linkages with the regional, national, and global
community.
    G. Those environmental issues most important to the community should be
addressed first, and the most cost-effective program and policies should be selected.
    H. The City is committed to procurement decisions which minimize negative environmental and social impacts.
2. Goals in four main areas: resource conservation, transportation, pollution prevention and public health protection, and community and economic development.
3. Targets and indicators for each goal area. Eighteen targets and indicators spread among the four goal areas allow the City to measure progress. Attachment 2 is a copy of the resource conservation indicators and targets.
4. Periodic review to determine program effectiveness. A bi-annual review identifies accomplishments to-date and obstacles to future success.

Results
The SCP has achieved some impressive results:
Resource conservation
• Waste diverted from the landfill increased from 13.8% in 1990 to 55% in 2000.
• Citywide water use decreased 6.3% from 1990 to 2000.
• Greenhouse gas emissions decreased 5.2% citywide from 1990 to 2000.
• Santa Monica now purchases 100% of its energy from renewable sources, and all facilities have been retrofitted to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs.

Transportation
• Annual ridership on the City’s Big Blue Bus increased 17% from 1990 to 2000. Big Blue was ranked the number one urban transit system in the US in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 (based on a comparative study by the University of North Carolina’s Center of Interdisciplinary Transportation Studies).
• The percentage of City fleet vehicles operating on reduced emissions (natural gas and electricity) increased from 10% in 1993 to 70% in 2000.

Pollution Prevention and Public Health Protection
• Untreated, dry-weather urban runoff entering Santa Monica Bay from City outfalls decreased by approximately 95% from 1990 to 2000.
• Citywide wastewater flows have been reduced more than 14% between 1990 and 1999.
• The City’s Urban Runoff Reclamation Facility (SMURRF) came on-line in 2001. It treats up to 500,000 gallons per day of urban runoff that can be reused for landscape irrigation and indoor toilet flushing at various sites around the City.

Community and Economic Development
• The number of publicly assisted affordable housing units in the City increased by 47% between 1990 and 1998.
• The total amount of open space in the City increased by 10% between 1990 and 2000.
• The number of trees in public spaces increased 8% between 1995 and 2000.

Lessons Learned
• Bring TNS into the discussion as early as possible. Had TNS framework been around when the SCP was developed, it would have helped Santa Monica’s sustainability effort achieve a clarity of purpose and a simpler, more coherent organizing framework sooner. Because the framework is simple and easy to understand, it helps build consensus on the vision of where a sustainability effort is trying to go. It helps people understand the problem and defines a shared goal.

• Start small. The SCP did not try to solve every problem immediately. Instead, it focused on the obvious problems and the low-hanging fruit to demonstrate early success and then used those successes to help sell the next steps. Also, the SCP often took a pilot project approach to an issue that began with a limited scope and resources. If successful, the pilot was then replicated on a larger scale, incorporating lessons learned from the pilot.

Example: Toxics-Use Reduction Program. Santa Monica began its Toxics-Use Reduction Program as part of its effort to reduce its use of hazardous materials. It targeted custodial cleaning supplies because there was a clear risk to both employee health and public health as well as the environment. The process relied heavily on involvement of custodial staff and testing the effectiveness of alternative products. The project resulted in 1) replacement of 15 of 17 cleaning product categories with less-toxic but equally effective alternatives; 2) reduced hazardous materials use by approximately 3200 pounds per year and saved approximately 5% in costs; 3) a set of procurement specifications for custodial cleaning products; and 4) improved morale of custodial staff. Equally important, the custodian pilot served as a successful model that has now been replicated in fleet maintenance, public facilities maintenance (painting, plumbing, and woodworking), printing, and pest management.

• Start where the issues and conflicts are in your community. Don’t try to force people to pay attention to things that are not on their radar screen, especially in the beginning. This is especially true if there is a local environmental “crisis” of some sort: use the issue at the heart of the crisis to begin the process towards sustainability.

• Set specific targets. SCP staff believes that specific targets drove policy change and accelerated action. Targets make the effort more compelling to the public and elected officials. If elected officials adopt the targets, they feel responsible for achieving them. Also, targets demand periodic performance reviews and set in motion continuous improvement.

Example: Bus ridership. The initial target was to increase ridership by 10% between 1990 and 2000. By 1995, however, ridership had dropped by almost 8%. The City Council said this was not acceptable and tasked the Transportation Department to develop a strategy to meet the target. The department started a service improvement program that included hiring a technical consulting firm to review operations and survey riders on what they liked and disliked. This led to improved safety en route and at bus stops, route changes, smaller and larger buses on specific routes, and schedule changes. These changes were implemented in 1997, and ridership started increasing shortly thereafter. By 2000, the City had surpassed its target, with ridership 17% greater than in 1990, and it had been voted the number one urban transit service in the US four years in a row.

• Support from the top matters. SM received support from the top elected and appointed officials early on. The city manager incorporated meeting SCP goals into performance criteria for department heads. This level of support gets all players on board, especially those who may resist the concept of sustainability or change in general.

• Respond to the public’s specific needs. Whenever possible, talk to public audiences about specific problems and the actions needed to fix those problems. People can relate to a polluted bay and the specific actions needed to clean it up; they cannot relate to vague terms like sustainability or The Natural Step.

The Future
City staff do not see any direct threat to the SCP because it has strong support among city leadership, and the city has a strong economic base. Also, the program only has one staff person who coordinates activities with staff in other departments. This keeps program overhead low. Finally, the staff has developed a variety of partnerships with other cities and the business community in support of the program and several other general public outreach tools. The business partnerships include annual Sustainable Quality Awards for businesses that meet certain criteria as well as a Sustainable Works program that provides free technical assistance to local businesses. General public outreach tools include an environmental directory for all city residents; a “Green Map,” which includes, not only parks and green spaces, but also electric vehicle stations, green buildings, green retailers, and other environmental resources; educational programs in schools taught by local nonprofits; a web site; and publicity around is bi-annual progress reports.

The SCP faces three challenges in the future:
1. Resource use in the City is increasing, both generally and on a per capita basis, despite the success of the SCP. This is the result of a strong local economy and a high day-time occupancy rate, which is due to the strong tourism component to the economy and the large number of people who work but do not live in the City (often because they cannot afford to do so). The high day-time occupancy rate also leads to greater regional traffic congestion and pollution.

2. Affordable housing is declining. Teachers, service sector employees, and other middle income earners often cannot afford to live in the City due to high property values and high rental rates. Also, the State of California recently passed a vacancy decontrol regulation that hampers the ability of local governments to control rent.

3. Social equity and economic development concerns should be included in the SCP.
The initial focus of the SCP was on environmental concerns; the program is just now expanding to include social and economic concerns. The City has been doing significant work related to homelessness, seniors, and children and spends more per capita in these areas than neighboring cities. But it is just now starting to formally and explicitly include these areas in the SCP by educating city staff who work on social and economic issues about their role in sustainability and involving them in development of new indicators and targets.

Attachment 1

Source
Interviews with Dean Kubani, Sustainable City Program Coordinator, City of Santa Monica, in November and December 2001.

This case study was prepared by Mike Riley of Conservation for Central Oregon (dba The Recycling Team), Bend, Oregon, for the Oregon Natural Step Network. You can reach Dean Kubani at (310)458-2227 or dean-kubani@ci.santa-monica.ca.us. The Web site for the Sustainable City Program is http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/environment/policy/. Copyright 2002 Oregon Natural Step Network City of Santa Monica
Attachment 1
Copyright 2002 Oregon Natural Step Network City of Santa Monica

Clearing the Air in Leeds

Anouk Bertner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:58:14 -0400

Leeds City Council (UK) is leaving other municipalities in the dust by using a clearer, more strategic approach to reducing their air pollution.

The Natural Step in the UK (under the banner of Forum for the Future), in collaboration with consultants from the London-based engineering firm of Arup, recently delivered workshops to study the City’s new Air Quality Action Plan. While national regulations only require cities to reduce local levels of 7 common types of air pollution, this review presented a huge opportunity to broaden the conversation and take a more comprehensive approach.

The workshop brought together stakeholders from Council departments such as Transport and Spatial Planning, as well as the Environment Agency, Leeds University, two major supermarkets, and a local campaign group representing Stop Climate Chaos. The day was structured around how air quality can be addressed using each of the five levels of The Natural Step Framework.

Participants first mapped the pollutants, causes of pollutants, pathways and receptors in society and ecosystems, stakeholders, regulations, and so forth. The single biggest problem was identified as Nitrous Oxide (NOx) emissions from transport, although many other substances and sources were found to contribute to the City’s poor air quality. The workshop leaders also helped to highlight how the City’s air emissions affect soils in surrounding national parks and the international health implications of air pollution.

This more holistic view of air pollution enabled participants to develop a vision of success that was far more comprehensive than simply the regulation of seven particular substances. “Workshop participants developed a vision for future success that would go beyond transport and NOx and beyond the idea of ‘safe limits’ or acceptable levels of air pollution,” noted Tom Chambers of Forum for the Future.

“Overall the workshop was a success,” said Chambers. “Whilst national standards remain important, they can become part of a more holistic vision of working towards clean air in, and beyond, the city.” For more on Forum’s work, visit their website at http://www.forumforthefuture.org/.

Community Sustainability Planning Course in Toronto, Ontario

Youth Storyteller — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:46:28 -0500

Submitted by Laur Fisher

www.flickr.com

As you walked into the Hilton Garden Inn conference room on December 8th, you could hear the energy pulsing around the room. In fact, it was difficult to quiet it. Here, council members, NGO and government staff, students, independent consultants, and unofficial-yet-passionate community leaders were sharing experiences from their communities. >See pictures here.

The first person I met was Barb Ryan, who had flown in from Fox Creek, Alberta, her town of 2,200 a couple hours north of Edmonton. A reporter by profession but activist by necessity, she is her community’s self-proclaimed director of sustainability. And in this mission, she’s alone. “People in my town just don’t get it. They’re in denial,” she said, exasperated. “I don’t know what to do. I’ve hit a wall.” This is why she is here today – “this is my challenge.”

Dayle Eshelby was invigorated. Fourteen months ago she was appointed the Sustainability Coordinator for her island town of Lockport, Nova Scotia. A small community of only 650, she had to start from scratch, as Lockport had no official stance on sustainability and climate change before. “I only wish I knew about The Natural Step fourteen months ago!” she laughed, “I now have somewhere to begin. How can I bring the four TNS principles down to a language that my community will understand? How can I turn this into a community plan?”

This is why they, among twenty-five others, enrolled in the Community Sustainability Planning Course, a five-month online program hosted by The Natural Step. The goal of the course is to guide community leaders through the creation and activation of their own Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP). This was the first of two in-person workshops; the rest of the course is conducted through file sharing sessions and webinars held once a month. So while the participants had known each other since October, this was the first time many of them were able to meet each other face-to-face. And there was much to discuss:

How do we understand the complexity of a community’s unsustainability? What are the traits of a successful society? And how do we get gain town-wide consensus to move toward a collective vision?

The purpose of the workshop was to address this “sustainability gap” – the space that lies between where we are today and where we want to be in a successful, sustainable future. Throughout the day, they dissected issues such as how to choose between engagement approaches, turn “emotional” into “creative” tension, define current sustainability challenges, and create a progressive vision for the future that everyone in the community can support. Personally, my favorite part was a fun, though challenging, backcasting exercise which guided us through the process of closing the sustainability gap:

First, we described the community systems – what do they look like now? And how are they failing us? We broke into teams and scribbled our ideas on post-it notes, sticking them on the wall, discussing, debating, returning back to the four system conditions for guidance. The more we brainstormed, the more our community’s main challenges and problem areas became obvious to us.

Then we imagined what these systems would look like if they were flourishing, and more post-it notes went up on the wall. Through this exercise, we were able to, even for a moment, speak as though we were living in this successful, sustainable world. It suddenly became tangible, possible. We then created system objectives to capture and symbolize this image.

Last, there was the step we had all been waiting for. We knew what the challenges facing our communities were, we know the kind of world we want to create – now we could brainstorm how to get there. This is where we let creativity loose. A flurry of post-its celebrated the power of possibility -- all that we can do as citizens and members of our community to create this world that we have envisioned.

It was a small group of 25 attending this workshop. But as Margaret Mead once said, “never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” I saw the energy and empowerment in the room that day. Barb and Dayle might have their work cut out for them, but they are now equipped with tools to use to move forward. Stay tuned, because while politicians stall in Parliament and in Copenhagen, these thoughtful, committed citizens are the ones already taking action to change the world.

Canada

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

Gerding/Edlen Development Company, LLC, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:54:05 -0400

A Natural Step Case Study

Background
Gerding/Edlen Development Company is a commercial real estate development firm, specializing in mixed-use urban renewal projects. Its projects include condominiums and apartments; build-to-suit projects for high-tech clients; public-private partnerships; and mixed-income housing. It currently has 17 employees (including the managing partners). The firm was created in 1996 when developer Mark Edlen joined forces with Gerding Investment Company.

Bob Gerding, one of the founders, has long been concerned about environmental and social issues, but it wasn’t until 1993 when he was able to put those values into practice at work. The Pacific Gas Transmission building in Portland was the first private energy demonstration project, funded by the Oregon Department of Energy, giving his firm experience in a number of leading edge energy saving technologies including solar studies, certain window glazing, light shelves, and an ice-generating system to cool the building. While the construction costs, with the help of government tax credits, were comparable to other buildings, the building’s energy use was half that of similar buildings.

Inspiration
Through Bob Gerding’s long-standing relationships with members of the Northwest Earth Institute (the founder of the Oregon Natural Step Network), Gerding was invited to workshops on The Natural Step in 1997. Perceiving that the TNS Framework made business sense, Gerding encouraged his firm to hire someone who could apply it at the project level. The firm hired Dennis Wilde as senior project manager in 1997 to champion the effort.

Action
Wilde describes his initial efforts as “not cohesive.” Using peer pressure he tried to educate and influence employees, architects, and contractors. In 1998 the firm conducted an internal executive briefing on TNS, closely followed by training for the rest of the staff. While the training was useful in introducing the TNS framework to employees, the firm did not follow up with a vision for using the framework in its development projects. A watershed event for Wilde was participating on the Oregon Natural Step Network construction peer-learning group, in which a group of architects, engineers and designers applied the backcasting process to commercial buildings. The peer-learning group published a paper about its experience and created a vision for a sustainable commercial building. The resulting paper gave Gerding/Edlen specific outcomes to pursue and a clear vision it could share with others.

Around the same time, LEED was also being developed. The managing partners at Gerding/Edlen committed to pursuing LEED certification for their own Brewery Blocks projects. Wilde saw LEED as a useful tool, but the Natural Step helped him see all that it did not include. “LEED, by itself, doesn’t provide
a comprehensive overview. It’s really only a yardstick. For us, TNS provides the framework.” And so with each ensuing project, Wilde pushed the teams to exceed the accomplishments of the earlier ones.

Each project within the Brewery Blocks has included efforts that go beyond LEED such as, reduction of PVC-based materials, a central chilled water plant to improve energy efficiency, eco-roofs, even photovoltaic panels. Gerding/Edlen's goal is to create buildings that create more energy than they use, keep all stormwater on site, eliminate toxic materials, and create a sustainable environment for people to live and work.

Bob Gerding describes the business this way: “We sell being the thoughtful, responsible developers. We walk the talk and can tell people, 'we’ve done this in our own buildings and we can prove the long-term benefits, that this will save you money.’”

Gerding/Edlen has integrated The Natural Step framework into its integrated design process. “I can’t imagine doing a traditional design anymore,” says Wilde. “All the different players have to understand how their decisions affect the others so you can come up with an optimal solution.”

In particular, Gerding/Edlen has embedded the Natural Step backcasting process into its ecocharrettes (design meetings). “We spend most of our time talking about the system conditions and backcasting, trying to envision the building as sustainable and working backward from there. We spend a very little time at the end on the LEED score sheet.” See the appendix for a more detailed agenda.

Gerding/Edlen also has tried to influence its tenants through the creation of a tenant manual that explains the importance of green design and gives the tenants suggestions for how they can be more sustainable. It is working with its janitorial vendor to provide environmentally preferable cleaning products to the tenants as well.

Results
Wilde strongly believes that pursuing sustainability has made good business sense, for Gerding/Edlen and its clients. The extra construction costs of the Brewery Blocks for green design were approximately $700,000. However, Gerding/Edlen was able to offset these costs two-fold with grants, assistance, and tax credits. The most obvious source of funds to offset the cost of energy improvement measures is the State of Oregon Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC). Other sources of assistance include : Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance (NEEA), The Energy Trust of Oregon, the City of Portland Office of Sustainable Development, the Climate Trust, PGE EarthAdvantage and PPL FinAnswer programs.

At the time of this writing, Gerding/Edlen's condominium project, "The Henry" has sold out in record time at record high prices in a bad economy. Wilde estimates that the average homeowner will save $600 per year in utilities based on the green design features around energy and water use. About 10 percent of condominium buyers said that the sustainability features were important to their purchasing decision and another 25 percent said they were really glad to have them, in part because of the energy saving features.

Wilde concedes that many customers won’t pay extra for green features. To convince reluctant building owners, he emphasizes both the tangible and intangible savings: reduced operating costs, tenant comfort and retention, employee productivity, reduced absenteeism, resale value, etc.

When Gerding/Edlen first began its emphasis on green building, many of its contractors were resistant and charged higher rates to use non-traditional building techniques. Now, many of its consultants are bringing them position papers, having analyzed alternative materials or systems in light of the system conditions. (See the sidebar listing of existing position papers.) And as its contractors gain experience in green design, cost premiums are coming down. In addition, job candidates are seeking positions within the firm. “Young people, in particular, are drawn to this,” says Wilde.

Gerding/Edlen has position papers on the following products:
* Building Integrated Photovoltaics
* Solar Domestic Water Heating
* Radiant Heating and Cooling System
* Rainwater Recovery
* Living Machine
* Elimination of Mercury from Lamps
* Elimination of all PVC from Electrical

Products
One of the biggest benefits is the publicity and visibility. Wilde said, “We couldn’t have bought all the PR that this has brought us. We’ve had one or two articles published about us or our projects every week for the past two years.” Managers are being interviewed by local and national media. Hundreds of people have toured their buildings. This is all part of creating awareness about green design, developing the demand, and promoting themselves as leaders. Wilde confesses: “Initially, we had to try to identify the benefits. We were fearful of spending more. Our customers weren’t asking for it. People wanted to know if we could afford to go green. But at some point, you take the plunge and then you discover paybacks you never dreamed were there.”

Challenges
Despite all their success, keeping sustainability on the front burner is still a challenge:

· Leadership takes time, attention, and money. Bob Gerding admits that the firm has sometimes trimmed its profit margins to implement leading-edge building practices. “If you’re trying to build something at the lowest cost to maximize profits, you can’t lead. Like all the greatest companies, you have to reinvest in R&D. But I’d rather lead than follow. Being a leader is a marketing advantage.”

· Getting everyone on board. While sustainability is here to stay at Gerding/Edlen, Wilde is still the biggest advocate, pushing to raise the bar on each project. “If something happened to me, would Gerding/Edlen continue to pursue sustainability? Sure. Would it make as fast progress? Maybe not.” And as it has grown, it has been a challenge to bring new employees up to speed. Public workshops are not always available when they need them.

· Finding sustainable alternatives. It can be a challenge to find a product that is environmentally preferable and that performs as well as its environmentally inferior counterpart. For example, Gerding/Edlen was thrilled to have recently discovered a paint to use on metal stairs that is as durable as previously used products but has a low level of VOCs (Voluble Organic Compounds). Wilde would like to make a PVC-free building but this goal has proven elusive because he has been unable to find alternatives to some of the PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride) products such as electrical conduit, water and soil pipes, electrical insulation, roofing, wall covering, flooring, carpeting, paint, rubber base mold, and many others that are found throughout virtually all buildings. Wilde and his colleagues continue to search for alternatives, and with each project, they uncover a few more products that can be integrated into future designs.

· Focusing internally. Gerding/Edlen has focused most of its attention to applying sustainability in its building projects as opposed to in its own office. The firm's building projects certainly create the greatest environmental impacts. However, the firm believes that it should be more systematic about applying sustainability in its internal operations to maintain its credibility. . It has switched to highrecycled
content paper, encouraged recycling and switched to environmentally friendly janitorial products. Nevertheless, the firm struggles with how much effort it should expend on greening its internal operations and what to take on next.

· Making sense of system condition #4. Gerding/Edlen has made great strides reducing the environmental footprint of its projects. However, the firm struggles with the social side, what Wilde refers to as “how to move beyond our consumptive lifestyles.” Gerding/Edlen does take into account the impact its projects have on the community but it could do more to integrate the fourth system condition into its decision-making and practices.

Appendix
TNS Backcasting Charrettes for Sustainable Developments
Over the past several years, owners, architectural design professionals and consultants, and contractors have utilized a number of techniques to optimize integrated design teams through eco-charrettes (also referred to as sustainable design workshops), to optimize the performance of energy-efficient and environmentally responsible buildings. In the mid-1990’s, eco-charrettes were an effective means of bringing together a project’s team early in the design process to identify environmental performance goals and strategies through brainstorming and the formulation of goals and objectives. With the launch of the US Green Building Council’s LEED rating system in 2000, eco-charrettes became redirected to focus upon the attainment of a LEED rating, by directing the design and construction team, point by point, through all 69 potential points. While LEED provides valuable performance metrics and a means to structure building performance evaluations, it does not address the overarching sustainability goals for projects, such as those represented by the four System Conditions of The Natural Step. A TNS backcasting charrette can be a high-leverage collaborative planning mechanism for a group, regardless of whether planning for an architectural design project or an organizational development venture.
Backcasting charrettes are generally composed of three sequential steps:
1. Formulating aspirations and a vision for a preferred future
2. Conducting a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) of current conditions, and
3. Projecting back from a time in the future (30 to 50 years) to the present and mapping the key
elements that contributed to the preferred future.
Backcasting charrettes can be designed to last from a half-day to two days, depending upon the complexity of the project, the size of the group, and the level of detail desired. The following represents a sample agenda for a half-day TNS backcasting charrette involving approximately eighteen multi-disciplinary individuals for a commercial building project:

8:00 – 8:30 (30 minutes) Welcome, purpose, and introductions
8:30 – 8:45 (15 minutes) Project overview
8:45 – 9:00 (15 minutes) TNS overview
9:00 – 9:45 (45 minutes) Future scenario
9:45 – 10:15 (30 minutes) SWOT analysis
10:15 – 11:15 (60 minutes) Backcasting
11:15 – 11:45 (30 minutes) Action plan
11:45 – 12:00 (15 minutes) Concluding remarks

Backcasting charrettes utilizing the System Conditions of The Natural Step hold the potential to yield multiple results. One of the most direct impacts of backcasting charrettes is to expand the time frame of participant’s reference for decisions, from short-term to long term. The process of dialogue and disclosure among a design team in a charrette process results in a robust strategy for a given project towards a preferred future.

This case study was written for The Natural Step Network by Darcy Hitchcock, president of AXIS Performance Advisors with assistance by Dennis Wilde and Kelly Saito of Gerding/Edlen Development Company in January 2004.

Glossary

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 23:22:14 -0400

ABCD method: A strategic tool for backcasting from sustainability principles. The letters represent the following steps:

A – Gain awareness of the ecological and social systems your organisation operates within, based on an understanding of the principles for sustainability. From this understanding, create a vision of what your organisation would look like if it operated within these principles;
B – Undertake a baseline assessment of today’s current reality. Note where violations of the principles for sustainability occur and identify organisational assets;
C – Create solutions to the issues discovered in the B step without technological, political or other constraints – this is brainstorming. Imagine measures to achieve these. Be creative!
D – Decide on priorities. Prioritise the actions developed during ‘C’ by asking: i) Does this action move us in the right direction (toward alignment with the sustainability principles)? ii) Can this action be built upon in future? (Ie. is this a flexible platform?) iii) Does this action bring an acceptable financial, ecological and/or social return on investment?

Backcasting: A fancy word for a strategic planning method where a successful future is envisioned first. The current reality of today is then assessed against the vision. More here.

Basic human needs: A comprehensive set of fundamental human needs that are culturally and historically universal, non-overlapping, non-substitutable, complimentary to one another, and must be satisfied on a continual basis. They are: subsistence, protection, affection, idleness, identity, freedom, creativity, participation and understanding. This list of basic human needs was created by the Chilean economist, Manfred Max-Neef, and is used to define human needs for the fourth system condition of The Natural Step.

Biosphere: The portion of the Earth and its atmosphere that is capable of supporting life.

Capacity-building: The transfer of knowledge from experts to practitioners with the intent of strengthening the skills and ability necessary for them to act self-sufficiently.

Community Planning: Any planning that is done for a community. This may include, but is not limited to, Official Community Plans, Municipal Planning Strategies, and/or Integrated Community Sustainability Plans. Community planning may encompass a variety of aspects, such as planning for sustainability, water use, economic development, parks, and/or land-use.

Community Engagement: The involvement of the community in the creation and implementation of major decisions.

Continuous improvement: In the context of management systems, this means the continuous focus on improving an organization’s performance - from assembly line to the CEO - is a permanent objective.

Decision-maker: A person who has the authority to make decisions. Decision-makers do not always have formal authority; they can also be the individuals within an organization or community that make decisions behind the scenes.

Downstream Solutions: Solutions that deal with the symptoms of larger systemic problems. These solutions are often developed in reaction to the obvious symptoms without examining the cause of the symptom.

Early Adopter Program: This is a program that brings together local businesses, organisations, community groups, concerned citizens and, ideally, the local municipal government. Early Adopters commit to becoming leaders by introducing and incorporating sustainability into their respective organizations and by working together towards community sustainability. As Early Adopters implement their sustainability plans, they become local success stories and share the lessons, knowledge and energy they have gained with the rest of the community.

The Natural Step pioneered this approach in Whistler, British Columbia by providing a training program for Early Adopter organisations, which focused on building community capacity. The program helped develop a common understanding and shared language for sustainability among a variety of community stakeholders.

Eco-municipality: An eco-municipality aspires to develop an ecologically, economically and socially healthy community for the long term, using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development for sustainability as a guide, and a democratic, highly participative development process as the method. The eco-municipality becomes the driving force for involving citizens and sectors of the larger community in the process of becoming a sustainable community. Eco-municipalities collaborate with other organisations and communities regionally, nationally, and internationally to learn from and assist each other. Networks of eco-municipalities are found in Canada, Sweden and the United States.

Five level model framework: A generic framework for planning and decision making in complex systems utilizing 5 distinct, non-overlapping levels: (1) System Level, (2) Success Level, (3) Strategy Level, (4) Action Level, and (5) Tools Level. More here.

Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD): Describes a generic five level framework used to understand and plan progress towards a sustainable society using backcasting from sustainability principles to prioritize strategic actions.

Full-cost accounting: a method of accounting where the full costs and benefits of the decision are weighed (ie. costs are estimated for the long term impacts of the decision, hidden costs, externalities, overhead and indirect costs are included).

Funnel metaphor: A metaphor that demonstrates the sustainability challenge that results from continuing along our current path. More here.

Integrated Community Sustainability Plan (ICSP): An over-arching long-term plan based on consultation with community members that provides direction for the community to realize its sustainability objectives.

Greenhouse gasses: Gasses in the atmosphere which reduce the loss of heat into space. Human-induced emissions of greenhouse gasses are believed to be a main driver of current global temperature increases and increasingly erratic weather.

Indicators: Measures used to assess whether an organisation is moving towards its vision and goals.

Mental models: Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalisations, or pictures and images which influence how we understand the world and take action.

Municipal Sustainability Plan: (see ICSP)

The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development: A planning and decision-making framework that allows individuals to understand the root causes of un-sustainability and then move strategically toward sustainability. More here.

The Natural Step (Organization): An international not-for-profit organisation founded in Sweden in 1989 by Swedish scientist Karl-Henrik Robèrt. The Natural Step has pioneered a "Backcasting from Principles" approach to effectively move society towards sustainability. The organization is committed to helping to create a sustainable human society using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development to communicate the scope and scale of the current problem and empower individuals to move towards strategic solutions. More here.

Photosynthesis: The process by which plants use solar energy to convert water and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen.

Precautionary Principle: A moral and political principle which states that if an action or policy might cause severe or irreversible harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of a scientific consensus that harm would not ensue, the burden of proof falls on those who advocate for the action or policy.

Procurement guidelines (aligned with sustainability principles): A set of guidelines to help in the combined functions of purchasing, inventory control, traffic and transportation, receiving, inspection, store keeping, and salvage and disposal operations to ensure that an organisation’s procurement decisions help move society toward sustainability.

Risk: The ‘probability of a consequence occurring’ multiplied by ‘the magnitude of the consequence’.

Root Cause: The most basic reason for the presence of a problem, which, if eliminated, would prevent its recurrence.

Shareholder: A person or group who owns shares of stock in a corporation or mutual fund.

Stakeholder: Any person or group who has an interest (a stake) in an organisation or community.

Strategic planning: An organisation's process of defining its strategy or direction and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy, including its capital and people.

Strategic prioritization questions: Three questions for effective backcasting used to make strategic decisions toward sustainability

Strategic sustainable development (SSD): Development and planning based on first-order principles for sustainability. This field was pioneered by a network of sustainability researchers in cooperation with the international non-governmental organization, The Natural Step.

Sustainability: A state in which society does not systematically undermine natural or social systems within the biosphere. Achieving sustainability would happen when the four system conditions of The Natural Step are met.

Sustainability plan: Encompasses comprehensive, or integrated, objectives including social, economic and environmental. An environmental plan focuses primarily on the environment. This integrated planning approach sets it apart from other traditional community plans. Because sustainability problems are often complex and overlapping, they cannot be solved in isolation and are best addressed using a comprehensive, systems-based approach that focuses on the root of the problem, rather than only the symptoms. For example, toxic effluent in rivers affects fish health (environmental), which affect people (social) and financial prosperity (economic). All of these elements and their connections must be considered to arrive at optimal solutions.

Sustainability principles: First-order principles for sustainability that are designed for backcasting from sustainability. These principles state that, in a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:

Materials drawn from the earth’s crust;
Substances produced by society;
Degradation of natural systems by physical means;
And in this sustainable society, people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their own needs

System Conditions: Four conditions for achieving sustainability. The conditions are stated in the negative to create the constraints within which creativity can flourish. They are:

In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically increasing:

Concentrations of substances extracted from the earth’s crust
Concentrations of substances produced by society
Degradation by physical means
and people are not subject to conditions that systematically undermine their capacity to meet their needs

For more on system conditions vs sustainability principles.

Systems-thinking: An approach to problem-solving that assumes that the individual problem is part of a much larger system. The intent is to solve the problem in a way that does not create further problems down the road. This approach is particularly important in complex systems where we do not always understand the inter-connection between parts. See systems thinking FAQ.

Technosphere: Refers to the human system as a sub-system within the biosphere, in which materials, industries and their products interrelate and interact.

Upstream Solutions: Proactive solutions that address the source of the original problem, as opposed to the effects of it.

Visioning: The process of imagining a desired future.

List of acronyms:
ICSP: Integrated Community Sustainability Plan
FSSD: Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development
MSP: Municipal Sustainability Plan
SC: system condition
SP: sustainability principle
SSD: Strategic Sustainable Development
TNS: The Natural Step

Interface reduces water use 80% per unit since 1996

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:53:19 -0400

By: Erin Meezan, Vice President, Sustainability, Interface

Interface, Inc. today uses only 20% as much water to make products as they did in 1996. This is an impressive accomplishment, especially for a materials manufacturer, and shows the benefits of looking at a business through the lens of sustainability.

Sixteen years ago, Interface Inc. started on a journey led by their founder, Ray Anderson. The company adopted a bold new vision - “To be the first company that, by its deeds, shows the entire industrial world what sustainability is in all its dimensions: People, process, product, place and profits - and in doing so- become restorative through the power of influence”. Reaching this vision meant that Interface would need to evolve into an entirely different kind of organization, but here was no blueprint for this kind of organization in business.

Interface started by asking how they could translate the operations of nature into a model for business. They relied heavily on the Natural Step Framework to guide their thinking as they mapped out how to change their business. Interface ultimately developed the Seven Fronts of sustainability – seven key areas where Interface would focus to remake their company. Over the last 16 years, Interface has followed these Fronts and made progress reducing the impacts of the company and its reliance on natural resources. This has included a strong focus on the manufacturing operations where they traditionally used large amounts of raw materials, energy and water.

As Interface approached the management of their manufacturing operations through a sustainability lens, they were able to identify numerous opportunities to not only conserve resources, but also cut costs.

Some savings have been the result of making fundamental shifts in how Interface manufactures its flooring products. For instance, engineers at Interface‘s Bentley Prince Street factory in California reconsidered the way they made carpet that resulted in a reduction of the water used to manufacture each unit by 47%. The company simply moved away from the energy water and chemical-intensive dye-injection and yarn dye methods for adding colors and patterns to their products. Dye-injection involved using a large machine, much like a big ink-jet printer, to apply colors to long lengths of carpet. The yarn-dye method involved soaking fibers in dye solution before tufting it into carpet. In pursuit of their sustainability objectives, Interface Bentley Prince Street totally phased out the use of dye-injection carpet printing in 1999 and reduced carpet made with the yarn-dye process from 45 percent of its output in 2001 to 1 percent in 2009.

As a substitute, the company shifted its focus to two alternative processes - piece dyeing and solution dyed yarns. The piece dyeing process involves manufacturing a blank slate of white carpet, and then adding patterns and colors on a made-to-order basis. This process of customization is far more energy and resource efficient than the sweeping dye-injection method.

The company also reconsidered the process of creating the carpet yarn itself. Instead of soaking fibers in dyes, the switch was made to the use of yarn filaments that are extruded from solutions already impregnated with pigment. This dyeing method drastically reduces the amount of water energy and chemicals required in the process and at InterfaceFLOR’s modular carpet factory in Georgia, this change in the manufacturing process resulted in a savings of over 88% in water per unit of production.

Interface has also taken advantage of the low hanging fruit available to them by making easy changes in building operations. At InterfaceFLOR in Thailand, they have reduced total water usage by 30% percent water through the installation of water efficient toilets, showers and sinks. Outside, they selected plants for their landscape plan that only required one year of temporary irrigation.

Interface’s significant reduction in water use is just one example of how managing the environmental impacts of business can bring about meaningful change. By relentlessly pursuing sustainability-focused innovation, Interface is racing to fulfill its long-term vision of becoming a “restorative company,” and is continuing to set the pace as a world leader in next generation manufacturing.

Interface, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Chas Martin — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:31:49 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Overview
Interface was founded in 1973 to produce the first free-lay carpet tiles in America. Now the world's largest producer of commercial floor coverings, Interface manufactures and sells 40 percent of all the carpet tiles used in commercial buildings in the world. The company has expanded into specialty fabrics, architectural products such as raised access flooring, and chemicals used in commercial office installations. Interface is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. It has 25 production facilities in six countries, sales offices in 110 countries and 6,300 employees. Annual sales are approximately $1 billion (U.S.).

Introduction of The Natural Step
In August 1994, Chairman and CEO Ray Anderson was asked by a research division task force to give a keynote address about the company's environmental vision. His words describe the situation best:

" Frankly, I didn't have a vision, except 'comply, comply, comply.' I sweated for three weeks over what to say to that group. Then, through what seemed like pure serendipity, somebody sent me a book, Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce. I read it, and it changed my life. It was an epiphany. I wasn't halfway through it before the vision I sought became clear, along with a powerful sense of urgency to do something. ... I agreed with his central thesis. ... Business is the largest, wealthiest, most pervasive institution on Earth, and responsible for most of the damage. It must take the lead in directing the Earth away from collapse, and toward sustainability. ... "

As a result, Anderson decided that his mission should be making Interface the first name in industrial ecology worldwide.

Fortunately, Interface already had a mechanism to help implement this vision. QUEST (Quality Utilizing Employee Suggestions and Teamwork) had been initiated earlier that year as a vehicle for improvement. As the Interface group of companies grew, new management wanted to create a single program that would integrate each company's efficiency and quality programs and unify all employees. QUEST did so.

Under QUEST, Interface focused on eliminating waste, which it defined as anything that goes into a product that doesn't come out as value to the customer. It set a three-year goal of 50 percent waste cost reduction. Cross-functional teams of 15 to 18 people brainstormed ways to conserve time and materials. Bonuses reflected the unit's waste reduction performance.

Anderson's address inspired the task force. It established a program called EcoSense within the research division to carry out sustainability initiatives, and chose a vice president to head it. The research division helps Interface businesses examine all manufacturing processes--analyzing the impact of each step on product quality, process efficiency and the environment. It developed a list of objectives and a point system to reward business units when they reach each objective. In February 1996 Interface merged QUEST and EcoSense. It formed 18 teams with an assigned scope of investigation and implementation. Every six months about 80 people from these teams meet for three days.

Meanwhile, Anderson asked experts in the area of sustainability to join his "Dream Team" to guide the company. Paul Hawken, chair of TNS US, joined this team in the fall of 1995 and interested Anderson in TNS as a conceptual framework for EcoSense. In January 1996 several executives went to Stockholm to learn more about TNS.

In June of 1996, Anderson declared his intention to redesign Interface's business practices to conform to TNS's four system conditions. He announced the decision at a gala event in Atlanta, co-sponsored by Georgia Institute of Technology and The Georgia Conservancy. The audience included 400 individuals representing a broad range of companies and organizations.

Training
In April 1996, Anderson hired Hawken to lead a two-day workshop about TNS for about 50 managers. In June TNS founder Karl-Henrik Robèrt spent a day with the group. In August Hawken gave them an in-depth two-day training. As a result, Interface decided to train all employees in TNS.

A group of Interface employees, guided by the Southeast TNS coordinator, Georgia Tech, and TNS US trainers, began to develop a curriculum. In 1997 Interface bought the consulting company that had been training its employees in "Play to Win," an experiential, risk-taking, team-building program. This company, One World Learning, integrated "Play to Win" with the TNS materials to develop an one-day training program.

In May 1997, 14 key executives attended a one-week TNS US training session led by Robèrt and Hawken. In June, One World Learning began conducting trainings for all employees, in groups of 75 to 400. In addition to the formal training, the company increases awareness through its EcoSense Net Letter on the World Wide Web, information kiosks, and an employee survey designed to monitor progress.

Sustainability Goals & Targets
· Organic Nutrient Carpet: Invent a product of completely organic material.
· Recycled Fiber: Identify recyclable fibers and develop incentives for suppliers to "get hooked" on sustainability.
· Emissions: Move beyond compliance by identifying ways to achieve zero emissions.
· Energy Efficiency: Decrease dependence on petrochemical energy sources.
· EcoMetrics: Under the slogan, "what gets measured gets done," Interface gauges the ecological impact of its business practices and provides quick feedback for decision-making.
· Toxics Elimination: Reduce Interface's toxic-materials-disposal responsibility and financial liability and look for alternatives to toxic inputs.
· Education and Communications: Increase awareness among employees and customers about the mission and progress of Interface's sustainability initiatives, including information about the company's environmental and business impacts.
· Scrap and Waste Reduction: Identify sources of and reduce scrap through production improvements, decreased packaging and accurate measurement.
· Yarn Waste: Achieve zero yarn waste by limiting scrap, overages and errors.
· PVC Paste Reduction: Minimize the use of PVC paste on products.
· Solvent Reduction: Measure and reduce effects of solvent emissions by modifying equipment and procedures.

Results
Today Interface has over 400 sustainability initiatives. Eighty Interface task force members meet for three days twice a year to share progress, discuss challenges and increase their understanding of sustainability.

Waste Reduction
Goal: To create zero waste.
Achievements:
· Engineers in one Interface factory found 25 different waste streams and calculated that by eliminating them, they could save $70 million in disposal costs.
· In 1996 solid waste was reduced company-wide by 2,874 tons. For example, due to construction changes and thousands of small steps to reduce waste, Interface Flooring Systems didn't have to buy 2.5 million pounds of nylon. And by converting to a metric sizing system, it reduced trim waste by 20,000 square yards.
· The Prince Street business unit recycled 480 tons of construction waste in one year, saving
over $35,000.

Toxics Reduction
Goal: To eliminate all harmful emissions into the ecosphere.
Achievements:
· Bentley Mills replaced its flat goods dryer with a high-efficiency dryer, reducing NOx emissions by approximately 50 percent.
· By redesigning its printing process, Interface Flooring Systems Canada eliminated all sources of water pollution.
· Interface Europe has reduced or completely eliminated dyestuffs containing heavy metals.
· Interface Architectural Resources eliminated all toxics by refining the adhesive system in its panel assembly and finish lines.

Fossil Fuel Reduction
Goal: To run the company on benign energy sources so, as Anderson puts it, "we never have to take another drop of oil from the ground." Interface worked with Rocky Mountain Institute, Georgia Tech and Georgia Power to develop the strategic plan for this objective.
Strategy 1: Reducing demand for power by increasing efficiency.
Achievements:
· Interface Flooring Systems Canada reduced consumption of electricity and natural gas per unit of production by 16 percent and 47 percent respectively.
· Interface Flooring Systems discovered an energy savings opportunity of 61 percent by conducting an energy audit and correcting improperly-installed fans.
· Bentley Mills and Interface Europe installed high-efficiency dryers, reducing gas consumption by 25 percent and 30 percent respectively.
Strategy 2: Investing in renewable energy technologies.
Achievement:
· Interface Flooring Systems Canada is the first customer of wind-generated "green power" from Ontario Hydro.

Resource Recovery and Reuse
Goal: To align its practices with cyclical principles of biological systems wherein "waste equals food" and resource use is highly efficient. One key is a shift from thinking of products as things to understanding products as a means to deliver a service.
Achievements:
· Interface has established a perpetual carpet lease; the customer uses the carpet, but Interface owns it and is responsible for replacing worn pieces and taking back the product at the end of its useful life. Instead of buying the carpet and paying for its installation and disposal, customers pay only a monthly fee and receive fresh-looking and functional carpeting.
· Interface's research unit is experimenting with ways to recycle the carpet fiber and backing. Interface Europe has produced the first fusion-bonded carpet made of 100 percent postconsumer recycled yarn. Its US counterpart is working to achieve the same product. The company also challenges its suppliers to develop 100 percent natural fiber products using industrial hemp, flax and natural dyes.

Resource-efficient Transportation
Goal: To eliminate the use of petrochemicals for transportation and reduce transportation-related emissions.
Achievements:
· Interface Research Corporation is experimenting with natural gas-powered fleet cars.
· The company also joined a "Trees for Travel" program that plants trees in the tropics. It is hoped that these trees will absorb carbon dioxide in sufficient quantity to offset the emissions from company-related air travel.

Applying TNS Outside the Workplace
Goal: To encourage employees to continue their commitment to sustainability at home.
Achievements:
· Interface Flooring Systems Canada subsidizes employees' home energy audits and retrofits to conserve energy.
· Several Interface companies have joined local "Adopt-A-Stream" programs, taking responsibility for the waterways that border their properties.
· Interface Europe in Northern Ireland established a challenge program to fund winning environmental proposals from local schools.
· Interface Flooring Systems Canada is working with local community leaders to promote TNS in local government, industries and institutions.

Benefits and Lessons Learned
Employees are enthusiastic about the importance of sustainability and what they can do to achieve it. They especially like hands-on activities. For example, Anderson turned a week-long company retreat at a luxurious Hawaiian resort into an exercise to encourage employees to reduce their environmental impacts. His Dream Team acted as consultants. They measured consumption patterns on the first day of the retreat to establish baseline metrics. After that, attendees received daily reports about their use of energy, water and other resources. Between plenary sessions, attendees heard presentations about the implications of their resource use and how they could reduce it. By the end of the week, the group was using 21 percent less electricity, 48 percent less propane and 48 percent less water while producing 34 percent less solid waste. Interface has learned which implementation techniques are effective:
· What propels Interface's sustainability initiatives is Ray Anderson's passion and commitment. If it weren't for this, it would be easy for employees to push environmental objectives aside under pressure to "get my work done."
· Broad directives from management such as "We've joined EPA's Green Lights program; carry it out." don't work well. As Interface has discovered, monetary and recognition incentives are much more effective. Employees compete informally to complete sustainability projects so they can receive recognition at the company's semi-annual task force meetings.
· Good PR always helps. The company promotes its successes through its Sustainability Report.
These many efforts are paying off for Interface. In 1996 company sales increased by $200 million even though Interface used no more raw material than in 1995. This saved the company $29 million (US). In this way, Interface expects to save $76 million between 1994 and 1998.

Sources
1. Telephone interviews with Jenier DuBose, EcoSense Program Manager and Sue Wooten,
Interface Research Corp., December 1997.
2. Telephone interview with Bryan Basham, V.P. of Customer Service and Quest, December, 1997.
3. Interface Sustainability Report, 1997.

This case study was prepared by Jeanne Roy for the Oregon Natural Step Network.

Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development, Distance Course, Sweden

Anouk Bertner — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:26:07 -0400

Greetings from Karlskrona, Sweden!

We are glad to announce the next offering of our Master's level distance course, Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development!

This year, we have switched to a new and improved online webinar system (Adobe Connect), which makes it easier for students from around the world to follow the course and interact with other sustainability leaders.

Master’s level: Introduction to Strategic Sustainable Development (7.5 ECTS credits) No tuition fees! Likely for the last edition, this course is free of charge during Fall 2010.

Online applications open July 30th – August 14th and the course runs from late September to the end of December 2010. The course is part-time with an estimated workload of approximately 8-10 hours a week including readings, lectures, assignments.

>Learn more here

Since the course requires that you send in original transcripts and proof of English ability to BTH, please begin preparing these now!

(Please beware that many Universities may take a long summer break, so if you want to apply prepare your documents in advance!)

Important: since tuition fees are coming to Sweden from 2011 for non EU students, this may be the last edition of the course free of tuitions fees! Especially if you are outside the EU, this may be the last chance to get this University level distance course free of charge!

Testimonials:

“First congratulations. This was the best thing I've done in twenty five years. I view the FSSD as one of the phenomenal "just-in-time" socio-intellectual innovations that may tip the scale towards sustainability success. Truly a remarkable phenomenon, product, and process”

Consultant - USA

“I could not believe how relevant and appropriate this course was to me! Thanks, I certainly am recommending it to others!”

Entrepreneur - Hong Kong

Interested in a full degree? Please visit our website

Master’s in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability - www.bth.se/msls :: One-Year on campus

Master’s in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation www.bth.se/mspi :: Two-Year on campus

Applications are closed for these two masters programmes, but we encourage you to consider an application for the Fall 2011 class!

For more information on all of our courses, please see www.bth.se/sustainability

Best regards,

The MI2407 team

Introduction to The Natural Step (Webinar)

Franco Varriano — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:55:40 -0400

Start: Oct 27 2010 - 1:30pm

End: Oct 27 2010 - 2:30pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT-4

A free, 1-hour webinar introducing The Natural Step Framework for strategic sustainable development and our work. You’ll discover how this approach can help you accelerate the transformation to sustainability in your business, community, or organization.

Cost:

FREE for everyone

Canada

Master's Programme in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation (MSPI)

Anouk Bertner — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:28:16 -0500

The aim of this Masters programme, in-line with the main purpose of research in sustainable product and service innovation at the university, are:

To support the sustainable development of global economy and society, and
To strengthen Swedish industry in the increasingly sustainability-driven global market.

Those who work with product innovation must have expertise in strategic sustainable development and have the ability to evaluate a product's positive and negative socio-ecological impact during its life cycle, as well as the related economic conditions and implications. It is therefore necessary to have a structured overview of the system "society in the biosphere" -- and this is exactly what we will share with you in this programme!

More specifically, the academic goals of participating students are to be able to:

Analyze sustainability challenges for an organization in a scientific manner.
Introduce a strategic perspective of sustainability to a product innovation process in a company.
Use new methods and tools, and former engineering specialty, to work with sustainable product and service innovation in industry.
Support a transition towards a more service-oriented economy.

An important objective of the program is that students will gain insight and knowledge of how different companies work. Early in the programme, students will begin to spend time with company partners. Throughout the course, students will increasingly work together with companies, culminating in a thesis carried out in partnership with a company.

Overview: http://www.bth.se/tek/mspi.nsf/pages/mspi-overview

Master's Programme in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation (MSPI)

Anouk Bertner — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 16:28:16 -0500

Blekinge Institute of Technology now offers a unique international masters program in Sustainable Product-Service System Innovation, which is aimed at engineers and industrial economists with at least a three-year university degree.

The aim of this Masters programme, in-line with the main purpose of research in sustainable product and service innovation at the university, are:

To support the sustainable development of global economy and society, and
To strengthen Swedish industry in the increasingly sustainability-driven global market.

The program will include the concepts, methods and tools within the areas of strategic sustainable development, strategic life cycle modeling and simulation, creativity, methodology, entrepreneurship, business development, product planning, product development, product design, modeling and simulation-driven design and product realization.

Those who work with product innovation must have expertise in strategic sustainable development and have the ability to evaluate a product's positive and negative socio-ecological impact during its life cycle, as well as the related economic conditions and implications. It is therefore necessary to have a structured overview of the system "society in the biosphere" -- and this is exactly what we will share with you in this programme!

More specifically, the academic goals of participating students are to be able to:

Analyze sustainability challenges for an organization in a scientific manner.
Introduce a strategic perspective of sustainability to a product innovation process in a company.
Use new methods and tools, and former engineering specialty, to work with sustainable product and service innovation in industry.
Support a transition towards a more service-oriented economy.

>More on the BTH website.

OMSI - Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:29:54 -0400

Learning by doing: A museum’s mission for sustainability education

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry
• Founded in 1944
• One million visitors annually
• 200 employees and 400 volunteers
• Hand-on exhibits, interactive labs, OMNIMAX films and planetarium

Summary
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is a premiere science and technology museum that is visited by more than one million people each year. OMSI has 501(c)(3) status and relies upon donations, admissions, and memberships from its 75,000 members. Nancy Steuber, made sustainability a priority when she became president of OMSI in 2000. Inspired by The Natural Step Framework, Steuber invited AXIS Performance Advisors to help OMSI develop a steering committee to create and implement a sustainability plan. This plan includes goals of carbon neutrality, waste elimination, sustainably-produced exhibits, and sustainability education for museum visitors. OMSI’s initiatives include recycling and composting, efficient lighting and HVAC, and bioswales that filter stormwater runoff. The effectiveness of these projects is tracked by OMSI’s metrics team. As OMSI integrates The Natural Step into its decision-making, it also strives to make sustainability part of what OMSI does best: provide fun, interactive education on science and technology.

Background
The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is “a scientific, educational, and cultural resource center” on the banks of the Willamette River in the heart of Portland. Offering hands-on exhibits, interactive labs, OMNIMAX films, and a planetarium, it provides the public with entertaining education on science and technology. It was founded in 1944 and is an independent 501 (c)(3) funded through admissions, donations, and memberships. While OMSI sustained a brief period of financial difficulty resulting from flood damage in 1996, today it draws support from a membership of 25,000 households in the Portland area.

This 60-year reciprocal relationship between OMSI and the public is what underlies OMSI’s sustainability mission. While OMSI is not a for-profit business, Senior Business Analyst Damien Francaviglia likens the museum’s educational services to a company’s product. In this respect, OMSI is in an unusual position to be able to contribute towards The Natural Step’s fourth system condition of social sustainability: not only can OMSI become a more sustainable operation, but it
can connect sustainability to science and technology through its exhibits.

Even prior to the introduction of The Natural Step, OMSI had enacted concrete measures to lessen their environmental impact. In the 1990s, OMSI started a recycling program and created bioswales around their parking lot to collect and filter stormwater runoff. As is the case in many organizations, however, these projects were not part of a larger umbrella program with long-term goals. Still, these independent efforts formed a current of awareness amongst employees, which facilitated a shift towards sustainability.

Introduction of The Natural Step
Nancy Steuber, who had been the head of the exhibits department since 1988, became the president of OMSI in 2000. In 2001, Steuber, a trained environmental scientist who was familiar with The Natural Step Network, invited Darcy Hitchcock of AXIS Performance Advisors to help organize a sustainability program at OMSI. AXIS draws upon The Natural Step framework, as well as the Triple Bottom Line, to consult with organizations who wish to integrate sustainability principles into their business models. Nancy Steuber appreciated the scientific nature of The Framework and felt that it would translate well to a science museum. One of Steuber’s top concerns was that this be done with a grassroots approach that encouraged employee initiatives and feedback. While the effectiveness of an employee-driven approach may vary depending on the context, other Natural Step case studies have shown positive results: when employees are given ample opportunities to participate, not only do they bring their own specific expertise to share, they are more likely to buy in to the changes since they are involved.

While some organizations adopt The Natural Step Framework directly, others partner it with complementary approaches that fit their organizational needs. Although not all OMSI employees received a formalized TNS training, Hitchcock helped OMSI integrate TNS system conditions into its sustainability plan. Over the course of a few years, Darcy Hitchcock helped OMSI form its first Sustainability Steering Committee and develop its sustainability plan. However, because of a lack of time and funding, the Committee has endured periods of dormancy. Sustainability planning has yet to be integrated into all employees’ job descriptions and OMSI has never had a Sustainability Coordinator position—a role commonly appointed in larger organization to coordinate different departmental efforts. Recently, Damien Francaviglia has coordinated the Sustainability Steering Committee in addition to his other responsibilities, resulting in more regular meetings and an updated sustainability plan.

Integrating The Natural Step Framework

The Sustainability Steering Committee, or “Walk the Walk” team that formed in 2001, had voluntary membership from employees representing every department. During the first year, Hitchcock facilitated monthly meetings where OMSI assessed its processes and material flows against TNS system conditions. The Committee initially focused on energy use at the facility, transportation-related carbon emissions, and solid waste. Today, the Sustainability Steering Committee advises senior management and is the locus for documenting and communicating sustainability efforts throughout the organization. In an example of backcasting, the Sustainability Steering Committee identifies projects that helps move OMSI towards its larger sustainability goals. OMSI uses the following parameters to guide the Steering Committee’s mission:
Tools levelUsing performance measurements to evaluate actionsBeing flexible and adaptive to new informationAction levelImplementing actions (D) outlined from the backcastingStrategies levelUsing the Backcasting tool to create a plan for actionAssessing tradeoffs between different materials and processesSuccess LevelBaseline Assessment (B)Creating a Vision (C) based on system principlesSystems LevelAwareness (A) of the interactions between the biosphere and human society Funnel metaphor

Sustainability Steering Committee Parameters for Success
1. Use science-based principles, adapted from TNS framework.
2. Sustainability initiative increase publicity and reputation as organization with triple bottom line credentials.
3. Decision guidelines and business analysis tools with triple bottom line framework are used routinely throughout the organization.
4. Organizational performance targets are clearly defined and adopted; progress is monitored with Key Indicator metrics.
5. Staff and volunteers express conceptual understanding and behaviors that demonstrate sustainability is an essential value of the organization.
6. OMSI’s experience is shared with others and used to disseminate information about sustainable practices.
7. Committee structure and function will be reviewed annually, with documentation of best practices and lessons learned, that can be applied to the formation of other cross-functional teams.

(A) Creating Awareness
Although The Natural Step offers training sessions designed both for staff and managers, OMSI used an informal approach to raise awareness among their employees. Francaviglia describes the process as “organic”, where several initiatives come from within departments. OMSI has engaged its employees through monthly staff meetings, employee newsletters, and informal discussions within departments. One group of OMSI staff has formed a global climate change education committee to educate other staff through newsletter articles, emails, and guest speakers. Museum members are kept abreast of sustainability efforts through a members’ newsletter. According to Francaviglia, generating support from employees has not been difficult:

“Sustainability is a natural fit for OMSI. Not only because we’re in Portland but because we are focused on science and technology and industry, all of which are key to developing enduring sustainable solutions. The link for us is technology and the public and how that gets communicated.”

–Damien Francaviglia.

If OMSI has not formalized a sustainability training program for its staff, it has focused on educating the public on sustainability. Exhibit organizers take a systems approach to presenting sustainability as it connects to the theme of the exhibit. OMSI has gone so far as to develop a rubric that classifies exhibits based on the strength of their sustainability component. An explanation of the rubric can be found in the “Down to Action” section.

(B) Baseline Analysis
During the first few years of the Sustainability Steering Committee, three task forces were formed to analyze energy use, CO2 emissions from transportation and solid waste output. The Oregon Energy Trust provided a free energy audit while the CO2 Footprint Team assessed the carbon impact of business vehicles, employee commuting and other energy usages. The Zero Waste Team analyzed the waste stream by sorting and weighing trash in the dumpsters to determine what could be eliminated. In 2005, these focus areas were consolidated into CO2 Emission Reduction and Solid Waste Reduction, while Sustainability Content Delivery and Sustainable Exhibit Production were added as focus areas.
In January of 2005, a metrics committee was formed to measure the baseline from which to assess progress. The CO2 team decided at this point to focus on facility energy use and emissions from OMSI vehicles, but not to include employee commuting, which it found too difficult to measure. These emissions were measured in 2005 to be a monthly average of 400 metric tons.

The Solid Waste team measured the amount of trash sent to solid waste, as well as the amount diverted through recycling and composting. The analysis found that OMSI produces 140 metric tons of solid waste annually, derived mostly from the restrooms and cafeteria. Much of the waste is either recyclable or compostable.

The Sustainability Content Delivery team created a ranking system to measure the quantity and quality of sustainability content in programs, events, and exhibits. While the goal is not to make sustainability the central theme in every exhibit, OMSI recognizes that it can educate the public by showing how themes and topics from exhibits connect to global well-being.

The rubric that ranks the exhibits is shown below:
Score Definitions
N/A
Program or Exhibit is not related at all to sustainability, and has no mention of issues surrounding environmental or social responsibility.
Bronze - Program or Exhibit mentions ideas and issues relating to sustainability (economic, environmental or social issues), but it is not woven into the overlying theme of the program or exhibit.
Gold - Program or Exhibit deals specifically with sustainability in a systemic way. While this does not mean all content centers solely on sustainability, the topic should deal with the interconnection between economic, social, and environmental health, and should present visitors with options for improvement or progressing forward.
Platinum - Program or Exhibit deals entirely with issues related to sustainability.

The Sustainable Exhibit Production team developed a LEED-inspired point system that allows them to compare the sustainability of different exhibit materials. The criteria are based around reused material, toxicity, distance of source, process or production, and recyclability of the final product.
Sustainable Exhibit Production Criteria
1. Rapidly Renewable Materials--Substitute finite material use with rapidly renewing resources.
2. Resource Reuse--Reduce waste and demand for virgin materials while reducing impacts of extraction and processing.
3. Recycled Content—Reduce extraction and processing by increasing use of recycled materials.
4. End Life Assessment—Reduce waste quantity that ends up in a landfill.
5. Low-Emitting Materials—Reduce the use of materials that emit Volative Organic Compounds (VOC) that pose environmental and health threats. Avoid use of PVC, styrene, and sintra.
6. Sustainably-Certified Wood—Encourage environmentally-responsible forest management.
7. Conservation—Design exhibits that conserve energy and water.
8. Regional Materials—Increase the use of materials that were produced within 500 miles to support regional economy and reduce transportation emissions.

(C) Creating a Vision

Prior to the work of the metrics team in 2005, OMSI’s did not have clear benchmarks to measure progress. Since then however, OMSI’s has developed measurable targets in five year intervals. OMSI’s sustainability goals in each of the four areas identified in the baseline analysis are set for 2017, or ten years since the plan was last updated.

Eliminating carbon emissions and solid waste by 2017 are both bold goals, particularly for their short timeframe. These goals help meet multiple Natural Step system conditions since the systemic effects of waste and carbon emissions affect human societies, physical processes, and ecosystem health and security. Goals three and four, however, are specific to OMSI and could have direct and indirect positive impacts. While OMSI has yet to perform an inventory of toxic, persistent chemicals in its operations, the sustainable exhibit production includes this criterion as part of its point system. OMSI’s third goal of increasing the presence of sustainability education could have lasting impacts on its visitors, although this is difficult to assess.

(D) Down to Action

Since being inspired by The Natural Step framework, OMSI has taken several actions that show a gathering momentum in its commitment to sustainability. Listed below are some of the most significant steps:

CO2 emissions reduction
• Variable Speed fans (2004)—Partnered with Energy Trust of Oregon, OMSI installed eight variable speed fans that reduce electricity demand by 240,000 kWh per year and eliminate 150 metric tons of carbon emissions.
• Lighting system efficiency (ongoing)—OMSI is constantly seeking efficiency improvements in their lighting system by using fluorescents, automatic dimming controls, and motion sensors. However, OMSI has not been able to replace the theatrical exhibit lighting with fluorescents.
• HVAC upgrade (2004)—An upgrade in the HVAC automation system to a Niagara software platform allows facilities to monitor and respond to inefficiencies.
• Wind power (2008)—OMSI now receives 20% of its electricity from wind power provided by PGE.

Solid waste elimination
• Composting worm bin (2005)—A composting worm bin with a 3,000 lb capacity diverts food waste from the solid waste stream.
• Bioswales (Ongoing)—OMSI planted bioswales in 1992 and again in 2007 to collect and filter stormwater runoff that would otherwise flush contaminants into the Willamette River. In part for this work, OMSI has received a Salmon-Safe certification.
• Recycling (Ongoing)—OMSI recycles plastics, metal, and paper; however they have not tracked the ratio of waste diverted from landfills, preferring instead to concentrate on the total waste stream.
• Styrofoam collection (Ongoing)—OMSI hosts and publicizes annual “Styrofoam round-up” events, where the public can bring Styrofoam to be recycled. Approximately 1,000 lbs are recycled each year.
• Reused shipping materials (Ongoing)—The Science store uses 100% reused packaging materials to ship internet and phone orders.
• Composting in the cafeteria (ongoing)—Biodegradable plates, beverage, and silverware are provided to customers in the OMSI café. All the materials can be composted, but OMSI has found that despite signage, many customers continue to mix up the containers.
• Vinyl Reuse (Ongoing)—OMSI donates its vinyl promotional banners to “Queen Bee Creations”, where they are made into purses and messenger bags. 465 ft. of vinyl and styrene have been reused this way.

Sustainable Content Delivery
• Annual Living Green Expo (ongoing)—This two-day event provides resources, information, products, and motivation to live more sustainably. Participants include businesses, NGOs, and government agencies that are merging environmental practices into their products and operations. In 2007, over 2,500 visitors and 30 companies participated.
• Sustainable products in the Science Store (ongoing)—The Science Store makes a concerted effort to sell products with a sustainability theme. These include books, toys, and renewable energy kits.
• Science Pub (ongoing)—A free, informal lecture series offered to the public covers scientific topics of public interest, such as nutrition, health, climate change, and natural sciences.
• OMSI Science Camps and summer classes (ongoing)—Summer Camp participants are educated in waste reduction by composting and smaller serving sizes. Children in summer classes are provided with reusable lunch box utensils to exemplify how waste can be reduced.
• Bon Appetit and the OMSI café (ongoing)—Bon Appetit, the company who manages the OMSI café, sources locally-grown, organic products, and transfers this information along to customers to raise awareness. In 2008, the company began promoting a low carbon diet, to illustrate how food purchasing decisions can impact climate change.
• Moneyville exhibit (2002)—This traveling exhibit focuses on the connections of global economics and encourages visitors to investigate where the materials in their consumer goods are sourced.

Sustainable Exhibit Production
• Innovation Station (2004)—OMSI created this technology exhibit from sustainably-supplied materials that were either reused or recycled. The Exhibit Production team has developed methods that reduced the use of toxic adhesives so that
exhibits could be more sustainably disassembled and reused.
• Green Exhibits Checklist (ongoing)—A LEED-inspired points system adapted by OMSI employees is being used to evaluate the sustainability of exhibits. A review of 10 exhibits over the past three years suggests that there is room for improvement: exhibits averaged 5.5 out of 32 possible points.

Figure 1: The Innovation Station was designed with non-toxic, sustainably-produced materials

Measuring the Results
The importance of matching metrics to sustainability goals is illustrated by OMSI’s metrics committee. In 2005, the metrics committee identified four areas to measure as indicators for sustainability, which were eventually adopted as the four main sustainability goals at OMSI. A reliable system of metrics enables an organization to evaluate progress, identify problems, and make programmatic adjustments. In short, metrics are essential for an organization to be flexible to new technologies, information, and market conditions.

The metrics committee at OMSI has succeeded in measuring the solid waste stream, energy usage, and CO2 emissions. It was also responsible for developing the scorecard to grade the sustainability of OMSI exhibits. Some outputs are harder to quantify, however. Francaviglia explains that OMSI is constantly trying to improve their ability to measure their educational impact on the community. Fortunately, while qualitative information like this can be difficult to measure, many of the important environmental metrics are quantitative. Carbon footprinting metrics are constantly improving and as organizations make the decision integrate sustainability, this is pressuring suppliers to be more transparent in their materials and design processes.

OMSI’s solid waste program provides a telling example of the need to measure the effectiveness of a program. While some organizations create programs to lessen their environmental impact, if their flows of waste continue to increase, then the impact is marginal. Despite numerous efforts to cut down on the 140 metric tons of annual waste, the average monthly waste output has continued to increase at OMSI. Francaviglia attributes this to increased attendance, visitor behavior, and the learning curve in implementing new programs. Even when the results aren’t meeting expectations, this doesn’t mean that the program necessarily should be abandoned. In this case, having this measurement indicated that there were factors limiting the effectiveness of the recycling and composting programs—most notably in generating understanding and cooperation among museum visitors.

“If you don’t know where you stand, you’ll never know how far you can get”

- Former Metrics Committee member Hester Yorgey

Challenges
As OMSI continues to refine its sustainability program, it will be crucial to learn from past challenges and be adaptable to new ones. The Natural Step case studies illuminate the frequency that certain challenges occur amongst different organizations. While there are important distinctions between non-profits, government agencies, and businesses, certain aspects of organizational development can be similar across sectors. For this reason, The Natural Step presents these challenges so that solutions to these obstacles can be discussed between members. OMSI’s challenges have included:

Maintaining continuity and building momentum: OMSI has yet to create a sustainability coordinator position, in part due to lack of resources. While this position may not be necessary for success, it can certainly aid in the early implementation of new sustainability programs. Staff turnover and the lack of a formalized training program may also hinder program development.
Making sustainability part of the job description: Implementing new programs which call for structural and behavioral change takes time and energy from employees who have other responsibilities. Some Natural Step members have found that adding to employees’ workloads without extra compensation can lead to resentment or resistance. To avoid this, several organizations have integrated this work into employees’ job descriptions. OMSI representatives say that this step is one that may need to happen soon in order to create stronger, lasting support from within.
Developing metrics and programs around alternative transportation: While OMSI does provide secure bike racks and has showers on site for employee who cycle to work, so far they have been unsuccessful in producing a reliable estimate of carbon emissions from employee commuting. A lack of resources has prevented OMSI from subsidizing TRI-MET passes for employees.
Developing awareness and compliance strategy for visitors: OMSI has experienced some early struggles in the four months of collecting compostable materials in the cafeteria. Although OMSI now provides clearly marked recycling and composting receptacles in the cafeteria, some customers either remain unaware or unconvinced when dumping the contents of their lunch trays. While the Office of Sustainable Development has commended OMSI’s low rate of compost contaminated with garbage, OMSI employees continue to find compostables within the trash. These issues are to be expected in the beginning phases of a new program. Acknowledging that while it would be difficult to make a trash director/sorter position enticing, Francaviglia notes that other organizations have succumbed to the stubborn consumer demand for convenience.

Benefits and Lessons Learned

The metrics committee has succeeded in making the metrics meaningful by linking them with the sustainability goals to be sure that the results are indeed useful.
The Sustainability Steering Committee has promoted cross-departmental collaboration, where employees’ share expertise and participate together for a common purpose. Francaviglia says that this has been a challenge at times, but that ultimately it has empowered employees and improved working relationships.
OMSI appreciates The Natural Step Framework because of its scientific appeal and ability to provide a common language for an organization. Hester Yorgey, who worked on the metrics committee, says that The Natural Step served as a catalyst for OMSI to unify departmental projects under one program.
Although they have yet to study the impact that their sustainability has on customer opinion of OMSI, OMSI managers feel strongly that sustainability is part of the overall OMSI mission and will create more interest for potential members.

Written by Jesse Worker for The Natural Step Network.

Organically Grown Company, Eugene, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:34:15 -0400

Planning for the future harvest: Sustainability in the food industry
A Natural Step Network Case Study

Summary

The Organically Grown Company was formed in 1982 as an organic farmers’ cooperative out of Eugene, Oregon. The cooperative expanded and eventually became a company so that employees could be included as shareholders. Today, it is the largest wholesaler of organic produce in the northwestern United States. From the outset, Organically Grown Company has promoted sustainability by selling organically-grown food to local communities. However, sustainability had not been integrated throughout all operations of the business. Organically Grown Company adopted The Natural Step Framework to guide this transition to a sustainable business model. It has since trained all employees in The Framework, created four long-term goals, developed annual action plans and routinely evaluated its progress. The long-term goals include the elimination of carbon emissions, material and toxic waste, and promoting social development with their employees and farmers. Organically Grown Company now draws 100% of its electricity from wind power, has reduced emissions in its fleet, and contributes to socio-economic development for banana-farming communities in Mexico. It has done all of this while ensuring that its business is profitable. Recently, Organically Grown Company was recognized with a “Fleet of the Year” award by the Clean Cities Coalition and the “Mayor’s Bold Steps Towards Sustainability” by the Mayor of Eugene.

Organically Grown Company
• Organic Produce Wholesaler
• In business since 1982
• 160 employees

Core values
1. Health of workplace, community, food supply, soil, and planet
2. Integrity in providing products and services and in community engagements
3. Partnerships that build trust with organizations in food production and consumption
4. Sustainable business model of distributing food that is “good, clean, and fair”

Background
In the late 1970s, several small farmers in the Eugene, Oregon area were competing to sell locally grown produce to the natural foods market. After working independently to grow, package, and distribute their produce, competition gave way to collaboration. The farmers pooled their resources and in 1982, Organically Grown was formed as a farmer-owned cooperative. Later, Organically Grown became a company so that employees could be included as shareholders.

OGC was founded with the mission of providing healthy, organic food to communities in the Pacific Northwest. This mission has always been closely linked to environmental and social sustainability. By supporting organic agriculture, Organically Grown is committed to food that is grown without the use of synthetic chemicals, or petroleum-based fertilizers. The environmental benefits of eliminating chemical inputs are long-term soil quality and the protection of local watersheds. While this promotes both local and global ecological security,

Organically Grown also includes the health and prosperity of their workforce and the communities they serve as part of their core values. The company is in the process of adopting an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). This strong commitment to social equity has been rewarded with a very low turnover rate and a high level of employee job satisfaction. Organically Grown’s vision of providing sustainably-produced food, building trust and partnerships, and setting high standards for employee benefits, is in line with The Natural Step Framework.

Despite these notable accomplishments, OGC recognized that sustainability had not been integrated into its entire business model. While organic produce was being delivered to customers, it was still being carried by a fleet of gas-chugging, carbon-emitting trucks and trailers. Heating and powering their three facilities in Eugene, Portland, and Kent, Washington were having the same effect. Sustainability was also not being addressed in the energy used in harvesting, the material waste in packaging, and the labor conditions of the workers who harvested the produce at home and abroad. While there had been employee initiatives to reduce office paper consumption and introduce a more efficient cooler, these were individual efforts, not part of a larger, company-wide strategy. All that changed in 2005 when Organically Grown’s ownership—composed of farmers, former farmers, and employees—and Board decided that sustainability would become part of the company’s mission and be embedded in all facets of its operations. A sustainable business model that will distribute food that is “good, clean, and fair” became the 4th part of their mission. Once this was settled, the Board focused on finding a framework on which to build their sustainable business model.

Introduction of The Natural Step
The Natural Step (TNS) Network provides organizations with a scientifically-based framework to strategically integrate sustainability objectives. The framework is developed within an organization through a series of trainings, some which include the entire workforce and others that are developed for managers and directors. At Organically Grown, former interim CEO and current Chairman of the Board Rick Baker had been a colleague of TNS trainer Duke Castle at Hewlett Packard. Baker recommended The Natural Step Framework because of its ability to translate sustainability into a business-friendly language while forming a clear action plan by connecting discrete initiatives. Sustainability Coordinator Natalie Reitman-White noted the appeal of the science-based approach to agriculturalists, the backcasting process to planners, and the funnel metaphor for business strategists. While both Reitman-White and Baker agree that The Framework in and of itself is not a toolkit, they liken it to a compass that helped Organically Grown Company orient its long-term goals.

“A lot of companies get started with a lot of little projects in different departments—cutting out waste, doing something about energy—and the problem is that companies tend to stall. They don’t have this glue, this language, this overarching framework, which brings all these projects together.”

-- Rick Baker, describing The Natural Step Framework

In 2006, under the leadership of new CEO Josh Hinerfeld, Organically Grown set out to educate its workforce in The Natural Step framework. One of Hinerfeld’s first moves as CEO was to hire Natalie Reitman-White to be the Sustainability Coordinator. Reitman-White was given the responsibility of leading a management team in organizing, implementing, measuring, and evaluating the organization’s sustainability efforts. Rick Baker describes this as a turning point for OGC’s sustainability efforts:

“A huge step for any organization is to hire someone who is truly devoted and dedicated to carrying out a company’s sustainability mission.”

--Rick Baker referring to Organically Grown’s hiring of Natalie Reitman-White as Sustainability Coordinator

In 2006, OGC invited Duke Castle to give a series of training sessions covering The Natural Step Framework. In January and February, Castle gave an executive briefing to senior management, followed by a training workshop to management and Board members. At the general training for all 109 employees in the summer of 2006, CEO Josh Hinerfeld gave a speech demonstrating the Company’s commitment, Castle led a half-day workshop on TNS Framework, and Natalie Reitman-White explained how employees could get involved. The training sessions addressed a multitude of issues, such as: creating a vision for sustainability, delivering triple bottom line results, changing employee culture, applying the framework, measuring results, and creating a timeline. The different training sessions enabled them to be adapted to their audiences. While the general training sessions provided a common language and understanding of The Framework, sessions held with management and the Board focused on bringing multiple initiatives together and assessing tradeoffs.

Integrating The Natural Step Framework.
Immediately following The Natural Step training, Sustainability Coordinator Natalie Reitman-White formed Organically Grown’s first Sustainability Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is composed of 12-16 members from different departments representing the three Organically Grown locations. The Steering Committee was given a three-part mandate:

1. Identify gaps in an internal sustainability audit
2. Articulate a vision of a sustainable future
3. Backcast to determine actions to be taken to reach this vision

The Committee convenes annually to educate new employees, evaluate progress, and plan for next year. Each year, the Committee provides an in-house training for all employees in The Natural Step Framework as well as the vision and strategies that have developed around the Framework. In addition to employee-training, the Committee meets to hash out its annual plan. The planning cycle reviews past projects, sets new goals, and integrates the new goals into the operating and budgeting plan. Reitman-White estimates that the Committee decides upon 10 new projects per year. These projects are developed using The Natural Step backcasting method. The Committee also develops partnerships outside the company, which will be discussed in more detail later. After the planning cycle, the Committee dissolves and work begins.

Figure 1: Annual Sustainability Planning and Implementation at OGC. Source: Organically Grown 2007 Sustainability Report

(A) Creating Awareness
Since The Natural Step training in 2006, Organically Grown has required annual sustainability orientations for all new employees. The purpose of these trainings, says Reitman-White, “is to develop a common framework, language, and basis of understanding throughout the organization”. To date, 134 Organically Grown employees have participated in this training. The trainings focus mostly on staff, but also include Board members and growers, to a lesser extent. The trainings are designed to address the following questions:

What is OGC's mission and why do we want to be a leading sustainable organization?
How do our sustainability initiatives enable us to pursue our mission and company “Aspirations”?
As an employee of OGC, what's in it for me? How can I participate in this process?
What does the Natural Step framework mean and how will it help drive our triple bottom line?
What's the blue-print and time-line for implementing the framework?
How will we measure the results of our sustainability efforts?¹

Besides these annual trainings, Organically Grown has developed several other initiatives:

The Sustainability Steering Committee is composed of non-managers, giving employees an opportunity to become actively involved with project
The annual employee survey includes questions to evaluate employee reaction and buy-in to the sustainability program. Ninety-five percent of Organically Grown employees “strongly agreed” with the sustainability mission on the most recent survey.
Sustainability goals are integrated into the job description so that employees are not expected to perform them voluntarily but rather as part of their daily work.

Figure 2: Radishes and scallions are part of the nearly 100% organic produce at Organically Grown

Figure 3: The Kenworth T300 hybrid-electric biodiesel truck³

(B) Baseline Analysis
For the first baseline analysis in 2006, Organically Grown relied on a few different tools. A sustainability audit performed by Resource Innovations in 2004 identified unsustainable materials or processes within business operations. This was supplemented with an internal staff survey on how a sustainable future would be envisioned and a SCORE²(Sustainability Competency & Opportunity Rating and Evaluation) audit that measured management capacity for sustainability. While baseline analyses are generally considered a one-time event that occurs at the beginning, Organically Grown has added new baseline indicators since 2006. In 2007, for example, OGC began measuring the carbon footprint from employee commuting. Some of the results from this analysis are below:

Organic Produce: 98.8 percent of produce produced was certified organic by Oregon Tilth and other USDA accredited third-party certifiers..
Transportation: OGC assessed miles-driven, fuel consumption and biodiesel usage for its fleet of 21 trucks and 13 trailers in 2006 and 2007.
Energy: Total energy use has been calculated at all three facilities since 2006.

Table 1: Fuel Consumption in Transportation

Greenhouse Gas emissions: OGC tracks greenhouse gas emissions resulting from electricity, diesel, biodiesel, and natural gas. In 2006, this produced 1,560 metric tons of CO2.
Return on Resources Consumed: Organically Grown has developed a metric for measuring the total energy consumed for each case of produce delivered from Organically Grown’s shipping dock to the retail store or restaurant.

Figure 4: Return on Resources Consumed: Energy consumed per case shipped (in BTUs)

Waste: Waste reduction is one of the major ways in which Organically Grown felt sustainability could be incorporated into their business model. In 2006, OGC sent 1,882 cubic yards of trash to the landfill, 3,222 cubic yards to recycling, and 107 tons of food waste to composting services.
Packaging: Organically Grown formed an alternative packaging project team to investigate substitutions for corrugated cardboard boxes. In a Michigan State University Lifecycle Study of Reusable Plastic Containers and found that they generated 95% less solid waste, 29% less greenhouse gas emissions and consumed 29% less total energy.

(C) Creating a Vision
When OGC decided to take The Natural Step to fully integrate sustainability into its business model, it was not a decision to change a core philosophy, but rather a challenge to embody the values and ethics that organic agriculture supports within its business practices. After the Sustainability Steering Committee performed the baseline analysis, it outlined four goals that would act as a compass for the future action plans.

These overarching goals are the basis for the annual projects that the Sustainability Steering Committee initiates. Organically Grown used The Natural Step backcasting method and funnel metaphor to develop these projects.

Table 2: Action Plan

(D) Down to Action
Organically Grown’s action plan includes steps that are no-brainers—those that cut waste and costs—as well as those that must get budgetary approval because they are somewhat costly. According to Reitman-White, using a biodiesel blend currently costs the company more, but she was able to win approval because of a willingness on the part of management and the Board to “pay for their values”. Reitman-White recognizes that these cost structures are also directly linked to factors outside of OGC’s control, such as federal and state policies, transportation infrastructure, and renewable energy technologies. Even in this regard, however, Organically Grown has been pushing for change. OGC has helped pioneer a cluster development group called the “Food Trade Sustainability Leadership Association” to join with other businesses within the food industry to lobby for the rapid development of sustainable technologies. The cluster development group also provides the opportunity to network across the sector and share resources. Additionally, OGC is part of a hybrid truck users’ forum that organizes around improving hybrid truck technology. This networking approach builds upon shared knowledge, lays the foundation for future partnerships, and generates a powerful voice for businesses that are serious about sustainability.

Organically Grown has also developed partnerships to improve socio-economic conditions for farming communities in the U.S. and abroad. The critical social element to sustainability is the ability for people to meet cultural, economic, and political needs, represented by the fourth Natural Step system condition. Natalie Reitman-White points out that while toxic chemicals are absent, organic certifications do not ensure that labor conditions are beneficial to the workers. To confront this issue, Organically Grown partnered with Organics Unlimited as part of their “Giving Resources and Opportunities to Workers (GROW)” program. OGC now purchases bananas exclusively from the GROW program for an extra 60 cents per box, the sales of which in 2007 sent $83,571 to fund educational and health programs in southern Mexico.

Table 3: 2007 Action Plan Results Key: vvv- Achieved vv- Making Progress ? Did not achieve

Other accomplishments:

Transportation: Biodiesel is purchased from Sequential Biofuels, which sources 95 percent of its biodiesel from used cooking oil feedstock. In 2007, all trucks used a B20 (20% biodiesel), while a pilot project was launched using B99 in four trucks. Organically Grown also purchased its first hybrid-electric biodiesel truck (pictured at right). The truck saves 10%-30% on fuel and has a gross vehicle weight capacity of 33,000 lbs.
Energy: In 2006, warehouse capacity expanded, increasing energy use, but by 2007, all facilities were operating on 100 percent green power.
Greenhouse Gas emissions: In 2007, GHG emissions fell to 1,347 metric tons due to greater biodiesel usage and increased green power purchases.

Measuring the Results
While sometimes overlooked because of lack of experience or resources, good metrics are critical to assessing progress. With the increasing availability and accuracy of metrics such as life cycle analyses and carbon footprinting, it is becoming easier for companies to find and implement these tools. Organically Grown has developed a metric for almost every major category of its sustainability program. Financial, environmental, and social data are collected and measured each period and used to determine how projects may be improved. In the early stages, Organically Grown borrowed the measuring methods from the sustainability reports of other companies within the food industry, as well as the Global Reporting Initiative. When a metric was not available, Reitman‐White has been able to backtrack the goal to the material or flow that needs to be measured. One more advanced metric that Organically Grown has developed is the “Return on Resources Consumed”‐‐where the total energy (in BTUs) is measured for each case of produce shipped. In each annual planning session, the Sustainability Steering Committee analyzes the metrics by assessing goal progress vs. financial cost, and uses the information to discuss goal feasibility.

Figure 5: Greenhouse gas emissions at OGC for 2006 and 2007 (in Carbon Dioxide metric tons)

Challenges
Since the decision to adopt The Natural Step framework and form a Sustainability Steering Committee in 2006, Organically Grown has developed a sustainability vision along with short and long-term goals, measurable results, and clear progress indicators. These are laudable accomplishments, especially considering that several goals have been met in the first few years. Of course, all innovative and progressive organizations face challenges when they choose to be an early adopter of new information or technology. One of the benefits of membership in The Natural Step Network is that members can be alerted to these challenges and lessons by the past experiences of fellow members. In essence, The Network provides a roadmap to a sustainable business model for early adopters, where the landmarks are the lessons learned by other members. Listed below are highlights of some of the early challenges that Organically Grown has faced.

It is crucial to allow employees sufficient time to implement new practices. If employees are delegated new responsibilities, but expected to complete them voluntarily, or in addition to their normal workload, the project is likely to fail. New initiatives need time to take effect and if this isn’t provided, employees may not view the work as integral to their job, or they may be resentful of the increased workload.
While some projects will reduce financial costs—reducing waste is an example—others will cost more. Organically Grown made the decision to use 20% biodiesel even though the price tag was higher because the Board decided that a strong commitment to their values was worth the added cost. Organically Grown has succeeded in balancing higher-cost programs with those that save money.
The current state of technology and infrastructure may inhibit a company from choosing more sustainable solutions. Organically Grown, for example, has not found transportation for large loads of produce that does not rely on fossil fuels.
• Decisions that include social and environmental criteria will require more time to properly assess. Managers should expect decision-making processes to become more-involved and allocate time appropriately.

Benefits and Lessons Learned

The Natural Step training series offered by Duke Castle was very helpful in providing a framework for action. The framework has provided employees with a common language and understanding of sustainability.
The Network has given Organically Grown the opportunity to learn from other companies and share valuable experiences. This has been especially useful when the company faced challenges.
Management and leadership need to be engaged and supportive of programs for them to have a lasting effect. Employees should see their work in these programs reflected in their job descriptions.
The decision to adopt a sustainable business model has fed into customer loyalty and solidified relationships with customers.
The A-B-C-D process has been instrumental. Natalie Reitman-White recommends having a long-term vision, a baseline, measured results, and taking the time to share the results with management and employees.

¹ Source: Organically Grown 2007 Sustainability Report
development. The members can come from any department and all three facility locations.

² Developed by Axis Performance Advisors Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard along with Zero Waste Alliance

³ All photos courtesy of Organically Grown Company

Written by Jesse Worker for The Natural Step Network.

Otago Polytechnic’s Simple Pledge - ‘Do the right thing’

Anouk Bertner — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 17:02:30 -0400

As a technical institute and a tertiary education provider, the Polytechnic has become a sustainability leader within New Zealand. Otago Polytechnic has initiated their journey with an audacious vision - that every graduate may think and act as a “sustainable practitioner.” Articulated as a pledge to simply ‘do the right thing,’ Otago Polytechnic has identified three key areas of strategy and action: (1) educating sustainable practitioners, (2) development of a sustainable campus, and (3) creation of the Centre for Sustainable Practice. >More

The pledge can be downloaded here.

“Sustainability is a journey rather than a destination,” said Sam Mann, leader of Otago Polytechnic’s Education for Sustainability Programme. “We will probably never get there – there will always be something we can do better. The real measure of our success will be when graduates are empowered to do the right thing in the workplace.”

Otago Polytechnic has held a symbiotic relationship with The Natural Step Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand since early 2006. The Natural Step Framework is a foundational element of this new statement of Otago’s long-term vision, intermediate goals, and ongoing student and community engagement. Dr Morgan Williams, Chair of The Natural Step Foundation Aotearoa New Zealand has been pleased with the progress of the school. “Otago Polytechnic is truly a 21st century tertiary education leader, embracing sustainability teaching and learning like no other New Zealand institution.” For more information about our work in New Zealand, visit our website www.thenaturalstep.org/new-zealand.

New Zealand

Our Strategic Sustainability Approach to Climate Change

Geoff Stack — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:51:38 -0400

Climate change is real, and it’s a threat to our worldwide society. Based on widespread scientific consensus there is no doubt that:

The Earth’s temperature is warming due to human industrial activity.
Our culture and species are in grave danger.

We must take action.

And yet there is no doubt that climate change is only ONE symptom of the larger disease of un-sustainability that we suffer from as a society. While we address climate change, scientific consensus also tells us that to build a sustainable society, we must also simultaneously:

Increase quality of life by creating service-based economies and maintain a global society where people are able to meet their own basic needs and are not subject to political or economic abuses.
Manage the flows of natural and man-made materials in a way that eliminates gradual increases of their waste-residues in natural systems.
Eliminate our overharvesting and gradual physical destruction of natural systems.

We have a much better chance to make it through the climate crisis if we simultaneously work on the interconnected problems of un-sustainability in a strategic and step-by-step way.

At first, this approach may sound too complex, and therefore counter-intuitive. But in our work in helping all kinds of organisations move strategically towards sustainability, we have found over and over again that this whole-systems approach helps us deal with this complexity in a more manageable way.

Beginning our planning efforts with the whole system in mind provides us with the best chance we have of moving towards meaningful and lasting success because this approach helps us avoid “solving one problem” in a way that might cause another. When we work with all parts of the system at once, we can deal with many issues simultaneously and not just react to the current crisis.

Because of the interdependence between species in ecosystems, and between society and the ecosystems, and between people and institutions in society, we must deal with the whole of the problem in a comprehensive and not a piecemeal fashion. If we focus solely on the single issue of reducing the release of greenhouse gasses, we run the risk of missing not only other challenges, but also opportunities for improving the quality of life for those within our communities - the ultimate goal of our work. If we only focus on transportation and industrial efficiency and energy generation, we may lose out on the benefits of taking a larger whole-systems approach. For example, by simultaneously:

Increasing the integrity and productivity of forests and farmlands, we can promote the absorbance of atmospheric carbon and also increase bio-diversity and food production.
Improving the quality and magnitude of material flows, we are able to provide more human utility per resource throughput, avoid the release of powerful greenhouse gasses and also create healthier working conditions.
By recapturing, recycling and reusing the existing metals and mined materials that we already have available to us, we can reduce the need to burn carbon to dig up new resources at the same time as we can save financial resources.
Focusing on how to help people more fully meet their human needs, we can reduce the amount of stuff we consume, the carbon footprint of that stuff and also help individuals lead more fulfilling lives - sustainably.
Focusing on the services to people in the context of their needs, in a global context, rather than on the commodities as we see them today we can promote innovation and improve the quality of life around the globe.

The point is that we will not simply reap the rewards of these added potentials if we do not start by addressing the interconnections of the system.

Those who are working to address climate change cannot stop their efforts – the tcktcktck campaign is a brilliant example of mass mobilisation towards the climate talks in Copenhagen - which we desperately need. And yet we urge businesses, communities, NGOs and all others working in various fields to take the time to place their work within the context of a whole-systems approach and work to discover those connections to other people and issues that might help to advance their work. Above all we need these efforts to grasp the positive side of sustainable development. It’s not just about avoiding catastrophes and solving problems – it’s about building a better, fairer world.

Taking a strategic sustainability approach to any issue will reveal new resources, partnerships, and insights that were not previously available and help us address the challenges that we are all facing together.

Partnership between Global Footprint Network and The Natural Step Builds on Shared Strengths

Geoff Stack — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:26:41 -0400

The Natural Step has recently partnered with the Global Footprint Network (GFN). The two organisations have worked informally together for years, share many common goals and agree on at least three very basic assumptions around sustainability: (1) We’re in trouble; (2) Solving our ecological crisis requires macro-level systems-thinking; and (3) We can succeed only by working together.

Global Footprint Network is an international think tank working to advance sustainability through the use of the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures how much nature we have, how much we use and who uses what. With its growing Partner Network, Global Footprint Network coordinates research, improves its methodological standards and provides decision-makers with robust resource accounts to strengthen corporate strategy, support government innovation, advance human development, and move the sustainability agenda forward in a time of increased ecological limits.

We’re in trouble
The Ecological Footprint metric calculates our impact in terms of planets. It tells us that if everyone in the world lived as Europeans do, it would require three planets to support their lifestyle. Canadians would need 3.5 planets, and Americans? Five. The Global Footprint Network calls this situation “planetary overshoot” and the underlying message is: - we only have one planet, so we must find ways to live within Earth’s limits - now.

TNS uses a funnel metaphor to describe the same concept of planetary limits - our human population is increasing at the same time as the natural resources available to us are declining. Our space for manoeuvring within that funnel is decreasing with time. Whether human sustainability is described in terms of a metaphor or expressed as a ‘number of planets’ we use, the message is the same - we are in a precarious situation.

“We are moving into a ‘peak everything’ situation: The issue is water AND food AND climate AND fisheries AND biodiversity AND oil AND so on,” noted Mathis Wackernagel, founder and CEO of The Global Footprint Network. “Sustainability is not that complicated. We need to maintain clarity and consistency, because it is so much easier to produce confusion and unnecessary complexity. Confusion is often used as an excuse for inaction.”

Studying the whole system - and its limits
The Natural Step and the Global Footprint Network begin to address sustainability at the same scale – the Earth, and our society on it, as a whole. This wide perspective provides us with the big picture of the limits that we face, and therefore, the “rules of the game” become much clearer.

The Global Footprint calculator has proven to be a great way to take a snapshot of our current challenges in order to inspire change. “We deal with one key aspect - providing specific consistency for measuring biocapacity,” noted Wackernagel. In this way, the Footprint provides an answer to why we need to change. Combining that message and its supporting detail with The Natural Step Framework can be of great help. By utilising the technique of back-casting from Sustainability Principles, all kinds of organisations can take steps that help them decrease their contributions the global “overshoot” problem.

This is one of the aspects that allows the partnership between GFN and TNS to work so well. The Ecological Footprint provides a consistent tool for measuring our planetary limits and The Natural Step Framework can be used to work within those limits to change our business, community and global practices. Together we have the same aim - to create a society that can flourish on the one planet that we’ve got.

Partnering is the best way to work together
The Natural Step and the Global Footprint Network share a long history.

Academically, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, founder of The Natural Step, and Mathis Wackernagel of Global Footprint Network have been teaming up to publish papers in academic journals since 1999. Karl-Henrik is a member of Global Footprint Network’s Science and Policy Advisory Council, and as Mathis recently noted, “the TNS and Footprint Network ‘families’ have been friends for many years.”

For TNS, beginning the journey of scaling up has logical next steps -– joining forces with our friends at the Global Footprint Network to help society move strategically towards sustainability. For more on our partnership, contact Eric Ezechieli.

Sustainability as a catalyst for innovation

David Cook — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:50:43 -0500

I recently had the opportunity to present to the European Parliament in Brussels. Organized by our Core Funding Partners Rohm & Haas, the theme was "Sustainability as a catalyst for innovation". I spoke about the link between economic and financial crises, and sustainability.

Thinking about the way we live without regard to limits - living beyond our means – with an emphasis on how sustainability has to be the context for innovation.

With 20 years experience of promoting sustainable development our conclusion is that, real progress requires three key elements, education, leadership and innovation. Each has to be pursued with sustainable development as the overriding context.

The need for that context to be highlighted now should be evident to all in the current turbulent times. Credit crunch, economic crunch and climate crunch are all part of the same problem – we are living beyond our means – the exact opposite of sustainable development. Innovation must now be accelerated with a much more responsible view of the world. Whatever Mr. Madoff has allegedly been doing with the funds of his investors, is precisely what we have all been doing with the resources of our planet.

We must surely now all recognize that there are limits to growth. We need innovation in technologies and services that can help us to live fulfilling lives within those limits. That may be the great challenge, the major adventure of our age.

And we must take a positive attitude. World leaders are talking about a Green New Deal. They see massive new investment in sustainable technologies and “green” jobs as being a key route to economic salvation. They can now see the signs that have been clear to many of us for a long time. Resistance to change, obdurate opposition to the inevitability of peak oil, years of denial about climate change, can no longer be allowed to stand in the way of smarter and sustainable progress. Our experience at TNS, including intensive strategy work with big corporations like Rohm & Haas, shows very clearly that sustainable development gives people a much more hopeful outlook once they get down to applying it. It is a great motivator and team builder – much needed characteristics in today’s gloomy scene.

We need innovation that responds to this challenge. We do not need a million more gadgets, fuelling consumption based on fictional credit. And the idea that sustainable products are intrinsically more expensive also needs to be ditched as the last line of defense for the denial lobby. Does anyone really believe that prices of unsustainable food, fuels, energy, and transport are real? When we start to add-in costs of climate recovery, pollution clean-up, and waste disposal, regulation and subsidy, we quickly realize that true costs have been hidden from the consumer for years. Now that bill has to be paid. Now cleaner, renewable ,sustainable goods start to look like the economic winners they have always promised to be.

To really spur innovation that is equal to the challenge of sustainable development needs a major new approach. It cannot be left to researchers, academics or technologists alone. It will need a much bigger cooperative effort including politicians, funders, market makers, corporate executives, public procurement specialists and many others. And it needs to be conducted across sectoral and geographic boundaries. There is perhaps as much challenge in innovating new ways of working together as there is in the technologies themselves. We need new cross-cultural dialogue. We need a new mind-set.

There should no longer be any question but that innovation must have sustainability as its guiding context, not just its catalytic convertor. All of us – politicians, bankers, investors, academics and researchers, need to wake-up and realize that a single Euro or Dollar spent on innovation that does not address sustainability, is a total waste of money. It would also be a tragic dereliction of our duty to the public, to consumers and to the future. There can be no such thing as a sub-prime planet, nature is far too diligent for that!

Sustainability for Leaders

Regina Hauser — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:23:15 -0500

NEW COURSE!

SUSTAINABILITY FOR LEADERS:
A transformative approach to sustainability thinking, strategy and execution

It’s time to accelerate the approach to sustainability within your organization.
It’s time for you to take a leadership role.
Learn to assess opportunities and communicate the business case for sustainability. See how companies and communities integrate sustainability for strategic advantage. Enhance your effectiveness with The Natural Step Framework.

This is the first of three certificate courses in the Sustainability Leadership Series.

March 30th - April 1st 2009

Download brochure and fees

Jean Vollum Natural Capital Center
721 NW Ninth Avenue
Portland, Oregon

This course is presented live. Space is limited. Please register before March 23.

Prerequisite: You will be provided with a pass to our 1-hour eLearning course when your registration is received.

Sustainability for Leaders - A Transformative Approach to Sustainability Thinking, Strategy and Results, USA

Regina Hauser — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 15:45:09 -0500

Start: Mar 30 2009 - 8:30am

End: Apr 1 2009 - 5:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT

3-day Certificate Course

March 30 - April 1, 2009

This course draws upon 20 years of experience to coach sustainability champions into leadership roles within their organizations.

See course description

Download course brochure

Sustainability for Leaders - Level 1 Course in Vilnius, Lithuania

Anouk Bertner — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:49:39 -0500

Start: Nov 25 2009 - 10:30am

End: Nov 26 2009 - 6:00pm

Timezone: Etc/GMT+2

Sustainability for Leaders - Level 1 Course in Vilnius, Lithuania

Start: Nov 25 2009 - 10:30 am
End: Nov 26 2009 – 18:00 pm

Sustainability for Leaders - Level 1 Course is The Natural Step course organised in cooperation with Ekokonsultacijos, Lithuanian environmental Research and Consultancy Company, for sustainability champions and leaders. Participants will gain the knowledge and skills to understand, apply and communicate a compelling science based systems approach to sustainability, based on The Natural Step Framework. This course will focus in particular on the ability to present the core concepts of The Natural Step Framework with confidence.

The workshop is open to anyone who wants to be a leader in the change toward a sustainable society. Participants include experts, consultants and auditors, entrepreneurs, representatives from NGO’s, professors and researchers, companies’ representatives.
We encourage participation from a wide range of sectors and perspectives, leading to a richer dialogue and peer learning, simulating the cross-sectoral approach needed to take a systems approach to sustainability.
As specific outcomes of this comprehensive two-day course, you will:

Gain a clear understanding of sustainability based on sound science and systems thinking
Achieve a solid foundation in The Natural Step Framework and underlying scientific principles
Understand how to apply systems thinking as a strategic approach to sustainability
Gain confidence in communicating the business case for sustainability
Learn how companies and communities have been integrating sustainability for strategic advantage
Learn to plan for success in complex systems
Be connected with a network of peers – Natural Step advisors and fellow sustainability practitioners

For more information or to register, visit: http://www.ekokonsultacijos.lt/lt/seminaraimokymai/.html or send email to registracija@ekokosultacijos.lt

For more detailed info on course, please contact Lina Budriene by lina@ekokonsultacijos.lt.

Sustainability Using The Natural Step Framework - Portland, OR USA

Chas Martin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:54:40 -0400

Start: Dec 3 2009 - 8:30am

End: Dec 3 2009 - 5:00pm

Timezone: US/Pacific

Doubletree Hotel Portland
1000 NE Multnomah St
Portland, OR 97232

This is a foundation workshop, designed to introduce businesses and other organizations to sustainability and The Natural Step framework. In the morning, we will focus on defining sustainability and presenting the basic principles of The Natural Step (TNS) framework, including the science behind the framework and case study examples. Attendees will participate in small group exercises around the four principles and learn how to apply the framework in the creation of a business product.

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The Collins Companies, Portland, Oregon, USA

Chas Martin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 20:00:01 -0400

A Natural Step Network Case Study

Overview
The Collins Companies is a wood products company founded in 1855 and headquartered in Portland, Oregon. As a privately-held company with almost 900 employees and revenue in excess of $200 million, Collins has developed a reputation for sustainable forestry practices that sets it apart from many of its competitors. Beginning in 1997, Collins actively embraced The Natural Step as one tool for guiding its sustainability efforts.

Background
In 1855, Truman D. Collins began the first Collins forest products operation at a site in northwestern Pennsylvania. Operations expanded westward in 1887 with the purchase of timberland in Washington and Oregon. In 1918 the headquarters was moved to Portland, Oregon.

The company currently has forest and/or timber operations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, California, and Oregon with its largest manufacturing facility located in Klamath Falls, Oregon– a facility that was acquired from Weyerhaeuser in 1996. Collins remains a privately held company with all of its stock controlled by the Collins family and its descendants.

From its inception, the company has had an ethic of natural resource stewardship that grew out of the religious values of the founding Collins family. This ethic led to the creation of a set of sustainable forestry practices that has allowed the company to continue lumber production for over 150 years with the same set of privately owned forests. While other forest product companies have focused on maximizing the return from each acre of timber in a single rotation, Collins lets the forest grow at its natural rate, without the aid of fertilizers, and harvests trees selectively. It was the first forest-products company in the U.S. to become certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization that establishes standards for good forest management.

Introduction to The Natural Step
In March 1996, Collins was one of only five U.S. companies (and the only forest products company) to receive the Sustainable Development Award from the President’s Council on Sustainability. Through the process of receiving this award, Jim Quinn, president and CEO of Collins, became acquainted with Molly Harriss Olson and Paul Hawken, founders of The Natural Step U.S. Shortly afterwards, Quinn was invited to attend a conference on The Natural Step in Sweden. Hosted by the King of Sweden, the conference gave Quinn the opportunity to meet Karl-Henrik Robèrt, founder of The Natural Step, and fellow countryman, Ray Anderson, president of Interface, a Georgia-based commercial carpet tile company. At that time Interface had become the first company in the United States to formally adopt The Natural Step. All of this made a positive impression on Quinn and motivated him upon his return to set up a presentation on The Natural Step in early 1997 by Natural Step U.S. Executive Director Molly Harriss Olson for both his senior staff and board of directors.

Besides being fully compatible with the company’s stewardship ethic, Jim Quinn felt that The Natural Step could provide an important differentiation between Collins and its key competitors. Up until that time, most of Collins’ sustainability efforts had been focused on stewardship of its forests. With the acquisition of the Klamath Falls facility from Weyerhaeuser, Collins had increased its manufacturing capability while still maintaining the same level of privately-held timberland. It was important to Collins to increase both the value and yield of the work done there. The Natural Step was seen as a process that would work well in a manufacturing setting and could help it meet these business and marketing objectives.

Introduction of The Natural Step within the Company
After the Molly Harriss Olson visit, the Collins board of directors and senior management team formally embraced The Natural Step (TNS) as a guide to its long-term sustainability efforts. As part of this commitment the group stated that the long-term goal of Collins would be for all business and operational decisions to be measured against the four TNS system conditions. To initiate the introduction of TNS, the Collins management chose its Klamath Falls facility. Klamath Falls is Collins’ largest facility with over 300 employees. Morale had deteriorated prior to Collins acquisition from Weyerhaeuser, and Collins was particularly interested in changing that by imparting the Collins values and sustainability practices to that operation.

In the spring of 1997 Russ Barton, a consultant with TNS training, conducted a one-day training program on The Natural Step for half of the supervisors at Klamath Falls. Afterwards, Travis Wilson, a particleboard fiber buyer at Klamath Falls, was appointed Natural Step facilitator for that facility and was given the mandate to carry out the directive of Jim Quinn and senior management to implement the TNS principles. A TNS implementation plan was developed by Wilson (see the attached Exhibit 1: “Integration of Business Strategy and Sustainability for Collins Products”) that called for educating all Klamath Falls plant employees within three months.

Wilson attended a week-long, national TNS train-the-trainer workshop in Santa Fe, New Mexico during May 1997. Upon returning, he formed a core team with four other employees who were highly respected at the Klamath Falls facility and brought credibility to the Natural Step effort.

As a part of their team-building process, Wilson and the other members of the Klamath Falls TNS core team attended EcoTech III, a sustainability conference held in Monterey, California in September 1997. The team’s goal was to expand its knowledge about sustainability beyond what it had heard with TNS. Additionally it visited the 96,000-acre Collins Almanor forest in northern California to learn first hand about Collins sustainable forestry practices.

The team sees its mission as being responsible for implementing sustainable practices for as long as the members work at The Collins Companies. Its first task was to train the remaining Klamath Falls employees and solicit employee suggestions for environmental improvements. At first, team members met twice monthly to keep things moving; now they meet as needed.

Training of Employees
After its own training, the team of five used the national TNS training material as a foundation for developing a two-to-three-hour presentation for employees.

The training team calls its process "Journey to Sustainability" instead of The Natural Step. This is partly because it has modified some of the TNS material but also because the team wants to sell sustainability, not TNS per se. What it has retained is the scientific basis for TNS along with the four system conditions. It has added material about Collins' forestry practices and history of forest stewardship, and it has modified the training materials to fit its audience, which includes some employees who have not completed high school. The team completed the training of employees in October and November 1997. Each trainer/coordinator trained the employees in his/her department in groups of 25.

New hires receive a shortened version of the initial training, and each year Collins sends two employees (companywide) to the basic training workshop offered by the Network.

Application of TNS Principles
Because of the long-term impact of installing new capital equipment, one of the first decisions Collins made was to evaluate any changes or additions to its manufacturing systems and associated capital expenditures against TNS principles. A TNS evaluation document was created and is currently used whenever capital projects are considered.

The second area of interest was in product development, and one of the first TNS applications was in the development of particleboard. Particleboard must meet certain U.S. standards regarding the off-gassing of formaldehyde. After the TNS training, one of Collins' sales personnel lobbied for the company to raise its sights by meeting the European standard, which is three times more stringent than the U.S. standard. The company agreed to do so and feels that this not only gives it a competitive edge in the U.S. but also opens up new markets overseas.

After employees were trained, a system was established to take advantage of their ideas and enthusiasm. Employees could speak directly to a JTS Team member or put a note in a suggestion box at one of the JTS information centers. As interest coalesced around specific projects, teams formed to refine the ideas.

Results
By February 1999, employees had formed into teams, including energy, water, air, recycling, and product development and come up with innovative ways to turn waste into resources. Over 100 projects were suggested the first year.

Energy. Collins' first two capital projects reduced power use substantially. The heat from ovens that cure hardboard coating is now reclaimed, run through a heat exchanger and sent back to heat the building. At the particleboard plant a new 300-horsepower motor now does the work previously done by six, saving $118,000 per year in electricity costs. These projects had a financial payback of four and two years respectively. Two other first-year projects are below:
• By taking condensate from the veneer dryer and turning it into flash steam to heat water, plywood workers on the energy team saved the company $152,000 per year.
• Making steam traps more efficient is saving $25,000 per year. Finding one-third of the traps in disrepair, workers took them apart, cleaned, and rebuilt them and established a new preventive maintenance system. Now, much less natural gas and electricity are needed to pump water through the traps.

The energy team has continued to be active, and further projects, such as capturing waste heat, replacing equipment with more efficient models, and installing lighting controls have resulted in continued savings.

Waste. New equipment was installed that allows sander dust to be incorporated into particleboard. This dust, which was previously burned in a boiler, actually improves the appearance of the board in addition to saving $563,000 per year and reducing air emissions.
A decision was made to stop using the on-site landfill. Piles of old chips, which used to be landfilled, were sold to an energy recovery facility, a cleanup that generated $18,000 in revenue. Waste products, such as wood and packaging, are reused, recycled, or burned for fuel. Cardboard is baled and resold. The hardboard plant returns pallets and other packaging to vendors for reuse and sent a letter asking vendors to use biodegradable packing material.

The particle board plant began purchasing glue in bulk rather than in 350-gallon totes. A bulk tank was installed, and tanker trucks now deliver 4,250 gallons at a time. Not only did this save in transportation fuel, but it also reduced the glue residue that was left in the totes, and the difficulty of cleaning it out so the totes could be reused. Cost savings amount to almost $26,000 per year.

Water. A new main condensate line was installed that saves $35,000 annually and 22,000 gallons of water per day. This is equivalent to the amount of water you would save if you did not take showers for three years. As a result of a contest for water conservation measures, a leak was found in the sort yard. Fixing it saved 525,000 gallons per year. As a test, one of 50 watercooled air conditioners, was replaced with an air-to-air type. Now, all of the water-cooled air conditioners are being replaced.

The water team in 1998 set itself a goal of eliminating the discharge of warm wastewater into the Klamath River within five years, and this has been achieved. A system of wetlands to accept all industrial waste water was designed by an expert internationally recognized in the field of constructed wetlands. The nutrients are taken up by plants, and the water soaks into the ground or evaporates. The previous flow of 800,000 gallons per day of waste water has been reduced to 450,000 gallons in order to meet the capacity of the wetlands.

As JTS matures, it is treated less as a separate program and is more integrated into all aspects of the business. Some teams are no longer active on an ongoing basis, but JTS project teams are organized as needed. Recent projects have incorporated aspects from more than one area, such as air and energy.

Eco-indicators. The original core team generated 80 eco-indicators to measure progress in saving resources, but after two years reduced these to eight. Three were for water—industrial waste water, potable water, and sanitary water—two for waste being landfilled, and three for energy—carbon dioxide emissions, steam/unit of production, and electricity/unit of production. Besides the zero discharge of waste water, three other goals were set: zero particle board and hardboard waste to the landfill, ten percent reduction in electricity/unit of product by 2010, and 15 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions by 2009. By 2004, CO2 emissions had already been reduced by 12 percent. Water use, waste water (as noted above), and hazardous waste have all decreased significantly.

Results in other locations. After the successes in the Klamath Falls plants, JTS was started at the other locations. At the sawmill in Chester, California, forester Terry Collins traid both salaried employees and then hourly employees in TNS. Sensing that diesel use was the most significant issue, the Chester facility began tracking both diesel and electricity use by department by month and put these number up at the team meetings. Electricity use decreased by 33 percent per unit of production between 2002 and 2005 (part of this due to a new mill), and diesel use, by 32 percent between 2004 and 2005. At the Kane Hardwood mill in Pennsylvania, efforts have focused on new equipment that saves energy and gets more wood out of each log.

The corporate office in Portland made many small changes, such as eliminating disposable cups, composting lunch-room food waste, setting network printer to print double sided, and using Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper for brochures. When it remodeled its spaces, it was able incorporate green design and materials:
* To maximize daylight and reduce artificial lighting, it designed in sky lights and glass
partitions between office cubicles. Operable windows reduce demand for air conditioning.
* FSC certified CollinsWood was used for flooring, doors, wall panels, cabinets, and desks.
* Interface carpet squares were applied with no VOC adhesives; worn areas can be replaced and recycled instead of removing the whole carpet. Marmoleum, made of wood flour, linseed oil, and resin, was used in the kitchen floor instead of vinyl.
* Armstrong ceiling tiles contain 79 percent recycled fiber and are recyclable.
* A recycling center has containers for the traditional materials plus batteries, printer cartridges, and overhead transparencies.
* Showers and lockers were designed in to encourage bicycle commuting. Other benefits. Employees appreciate Collins' commitment to the environment. A positive corporate image raises employee morale and increases the company's ability to attract and keep high caliber people.

Environmentally concerned customers are also attracted to the Collins’ philosophy and see TNS as a concrete example of that philosophy at work. Notably, Nike used Collins FSC certified products in the construction of its European headquarters. The Joinery, a fine-furniture manufacturer in Portland, Oregon, extensively uses CollinsWood in its furniture. Collins’ reputation has also made it easier for the company to form strategic alliances and develop innovative programs with other companies, government agencies, and non-profits.

Collins, The Joinery, and Neil Kelly Cabinets have done joint promotions at home and trade shows. World Wildlife’s Climate Savers program invited Collins to participate; and the company made a carbon reduction commitment under that program. The constructed wetlands project received matching funds from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

In the late 1990s, these policies attracted favorable attention from the media. Numerous articles were written about Collins in publications including the Washington Post, Christian Science Oregon Natural Step Network
Monitor, Oregon Business magazine, and the Business Journal. In 1996, CEO Jim Quinn accepted a Presidential Award for Sustainable Development from Al Gore at the White House. And in 1997 he received the Green Cross Millennium Award for Corporate Environmental Leadership from Mikhail Gorbachev in Beverly Hills, California. Showing that the environment is becoming an important consideration in the wood products industry, Quinn was chosen as Man of the Year by Timber Processing in 1998.

Collins makes its TNS interests known to vendors through written purchasing policies and ongoing dialogue. Where there is supplier interest, the company takes the time to explain more fully what Collins is doing. For example, both paint and resin vendors helped supply more concentrated products to the Klamath Falls operation, thus reducing the number of trucks needed for transportation.

Costs and Savings
The first year of JTS achieved monetary savings of approximately $1million. By 2003 the savings amounted to $1,373,818 per year or a cumulative figure of over $3 million. Costs for capital purchases, salary, seminars, and travel were estimated to be about $50,000 or about six percent of the benefits.

Lessons Learned
• Support at the top is critical. Collins would not be as committed or as active in adopting TNS without the commitment and dedication of the Collins family, former CEO Jim Quinn, current CEO Eric Schooler, and Senior Vice-President, Wade Mosby.
• Training all employees seems like the best way to go. There are so many decisions that are impacted by TNS that the only practical way it will be effectively utilized is by training every employee.
• Do not make the training voluntary. At Collins CEO Jim Quinn directed that all employees would attend.
• Find some way to begin applying the principles at the employee level. Collins uses crossfunctional work teams and has each team think about how it can incorporate TNS principles in its work.

Sources
• Interview with Wade Mosby, VP of Marketing, Collins Pine and Cameron Waner, Sales Coordinator, Collins Pine, August 13, 1997
• Interview with Travis Wilson, Natural Step facilitator, Collins Products, Klamath Falls, Oregon, August 27, 1997 and February 1999
• Update notes from Dale Slate, Klamath Falls Plant Manager, April 1998
• Update notes from Lee Jimerson, Manager Manufacturing Accounts, April 2006

Exhibit I
Integration of Business Strategy and Sustainability for Collins Products
The Plan:
1. Tailor The Natural Step training material to fit Collins Products
2. Educate all Collins Products employees on TNS principles within 3 months
• Management Group
• Trainers for Individual Plants
• Balance of Employees
1. Define the framework for a “sustainable Collins Products”
2. Study plants and processes to identify system condition violators
3. Establish “suggestion program”, (promote employee awareness and
involvement)
4. Establish “capital project” review system
5. Develop a “measurement system” to track progress
6. Manage Sustainability as a part of the business practice
TNS course outline:
• History of TNS
• History of Collins
• Scientific Principles
• Investing for the Future
• Case Studies
• Next Steps
• Feedback and Closing

This case study was prepared in 1997 by Duke Castle, The Castle Group, and updated in 2006 by Jeanne Roy, the Northwest Earth Institute, for the Oregon Natural Step
Network.

The Funnel

Anouk Bertner — Mon, 05 May 2008 07:08:45 -0400

We use the funnel as a metaphor to help visualise the economic, social and environmental pressures that are growing on society as natural resources and ecosystem services diminish and the population’s number and consumption grows.

Imagine looking at a giant funnel from the side. The upper wall is the availability of resources and the ability of the ecosystem to continue to provide them. The lower wall is our demand for these resources which we need to make clothes, shelter, food, transportation and other items and the ecosystems that create them.

The things we need to survive - food, clean air and water, productive topsoil and others - are in decline. So is nature’s ability to regenerate them.

But at the same time, our demand for these resources is growing. There are more than six billion people on the planet and the population is increasing. Our level of consumption is increasing.

As our demand increases and the capacity to meet this demand declines, society moves into a narrower portion of the funnel. As the funnel narrows there are fewer options and less room to manoeuvre. Organisations that continue business-as-usual; are likely to hit the walls of the funnel, and fail.

Opening the Walls of the Funnel

Every one of us lives and works in this funnel and every one of us has the opportunity to be more strategic about our choices and long-term plans. Through innovation, creativity and the unlimited potential for change, we can shift toward sustainability and begin to open up the walls of the funnel.

Forward looking organisations can position themselves to avoid the squeeze of the funnel and invest toward opening the walls and creating a truly sustainable and rewarding future.

The Natural Step Towards A Sustainable Urban Future (Sustainability and Resilience), Lisbon Portugal + Online

Anouk Bertner — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 11:39:39 -0500

Start: Feb 22 2010 - 6:00pm

End: Feb 22 2010 - 9:00pm

Timezone: Europe/Lisbon

It is a fantastic human experience to understand basic principles for worthy goals together, across disciplinary and professional and ideological boundaries, and realize that we need each other to reach the goal.

Against that background, it is breathtaking that so few of our leaders know how to put a robust definition of full sustainability on the table, and to shape their debates and action programs accordingly.

This is a knowledge that can be learned. Karl-Henrik Robèrt will go through a unifying framework for strategic sustainable development, provide real life examples of its use across the globe and outline how democratic processes can be shaped that take this knowledge seriously.

The HUMAN HABITAT 2010 Lectures will take place in the evening in various auditoria in Parque das Nações, Lisbon. Participation is free of charge and registration is compulsory (available seats will be allocated in accordance with the order of registration) - mail@humanhabitat.co.pt This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it - Tel: 00 351 219 616 646

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--Rick Baker referring to Organically Grown’s hiring of Natalie Reitman-White as Sustainability Coordinator

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3 All photos courtesy of Organically Grown Company

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¹ Source: Organically Grown 2007 Sustainability Report
development. The members can come from any department and all three facility locations.

² Developed by Axis Performance Advisors Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard along with Zero Waste Alliance

³ All photos courtesy of Organically Grown Company