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Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:32:27 -0400


The Natural Step Canada is a dynamic non-profit organization with over a decade of experience helping organizations and individuals understand and make meaningful progress toward sustainability. (Learn more…)	Through award-winning learning programs and our unique suite of advisory, coaching, training, and process facilitation services, we translate the fundamentals of sustainability into practical steps businesses and communities can take to achieve lasting change. (Learn more…)	The foundation for many innovative sustainability programs around the world is anchored in The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. Our science-based process has been tested and proven effective by hundreds of forward-thinking organizations over the past two decades. (Learn more…)

LATEST NEWS AND BLOGS

The District of North Vancouver’s Sustainability Journey
The Opportunity

By the early 2000s, the District of North Vancouver had initiated a number of projects in response to residents’ concerns about sustainability. However, with the creation of a bold vision in 2005 ‘to be among the most sustainable communities in the world by 2020’, the District began to realize that it needed to approach sustainability in a more holistic, systematic and robust way in its own operations.
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Help us make the next ten years a huge step towards Canadian sustainability!

In the past decade, The Natural Step Canada has helped tens of thousands of people across Canada to understand the relevance of sustainability in their lives and take action to “accelerate the transformation toward a sustainable world.” This has largely been possible because of the passion, energy and commitment of our supporters - to whom we’d like to extend a heartfelt thank you.
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A Landmark Moment: Affecting the Larger System
You’ve heard us talk about The Landmark Group of Builders before. A long-term partner of The Natural Step, Landmark has been exploring and implementing sustainability solutions for years. Dedicated to becoming a major North American housing solutions provider recognized for sustainability and for leading a revolution in the industrialization of housing construction, Landmark has made progress in areas as diverse as governance, operations and of course, production and construction.

Earlier this month, Landmark was awarded the Canadian Solar Industry Association (CanSIA) Game Changer Award in the Solar Adopter category. This award recognizes a corporation from outside the solar supply chain whose commitment to solar energy is fostering sustainable awareness practices for itself, its suppliers and its customers. In other words, it honours a company that affects change in the larger system of the built environment.
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Sustainability & Entrepreneurship: Youth leaders turn ideas into projects
Written by: Celeste Côté, Volunteer Youth Storyteller

When I first got the e-mail from a colleague about the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Ottawa, I was admittedly skeptical. Was this going to be another one of those trite ‘youth leadership’ things? Would we throw around the word “sustainability” a lot without really defining it (beyond that ubiquitous Brundtland commission definition), and come away with a warm fuzzy feeling without having accomplished much? Because I’ve been to my fair share of those already.
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Two great reports on sustainability, buildings, and how we interact with them
There are two recent developments that may be appealing for those who are interested in buildings, sustainability and how we interact with them.

B.C. Housing is British Columbia’s largest developer and a provincial crown agency that develops, manages, and administers a wide range of subsidized housing options. A few years ago, they developed the livegreen Sustainability Plan guided by the four socio-ecological principles of the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development. Some achievements to date include:
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Does Canada Need a Sustainability Literacy Month or a Decade? A Look Back at 2012 and ahead at 2013
Did you know that November is financial literacy month? My trusted friend Wikipedia tells me that financial literacy is “the ability to understand finance.” More specifically, it refers to the set of skills and knowledge that allows an individual to make informed and effective decisions through their understanding of finances. Clearly, this is an important capacity to cultivate.

I think we need a sustainability literacy month – or perhaps more realistically a sustainability literacy decade. As hard as it is for those of us who work in this field to believe, many more people need to realize the seriousness of the sustainability crisis we face, the integrated nature of our social, environmental and economic challenges, and the fundamentals of sustainability science. Sustainability professionals still operate in a relatively small bubble of like-minded individuals and/or face major challenges in engaging their colleagues, customers, employees, investors and others who are often not as sustainability literate.
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