Our Approach to Strategic Sustainability

Our approach to Strategic Sustainability is collectively called The Natural Step Framework – it is a comprehensive model for planning in complex systems. It is openly published and free for all to use. The Natural Step Framework has helped hundreds of different organizations around the world integrate sustainable development into their strategic planning and create long lasting transformative change. It is constantly being used, tested, refined and developed.

An Overview of Strategic Sustainability: critical for success

The Natural Step (TNS) Framework is based on systems thinking; recognizing that what happens in one part of a system affects every other part. Think of a soccer team. We can’t understand why the team lost the game until we look at how each player – the goal keeper, defenders and forwards - all worked together on the field. We won’t learn much if we just study one member of the team. The TNS Framework gives an organization the tools to look at the whole team, understand the rules of the game, define success, and move towards it together.

A successful team must have a common language and vision to facilitate cooperation. The TNS Framework provides this shared mental model of sustainability by helping people across organizations, disciplines and cultures to communicate effectively, build consensus and ultimately move toward their vision. We use an upstream approach that anticipates and avoids problems before they occur, rather than reacting to their downstream effects.