Here is a snapshot update of some of the work that's been going on in The Natural Step New Zealand office lately. It was originally posted as part of the Spring 2013 Stepping Stones Newsletter.

With its diverse network of Natural Step associates, TNS New Zealand engages in a rich array of initiatives that span Kiwi society. Whether it’s examining how a western-born framework for strategic sustainable development translates to an indigenous Māori context, offering sustainability training to businesses, community development, translating the living building challenge to local conditions, or delving into what sustainable health sector policies would look like, our New Zealand associates are working to bring a systems perspective and strategic sustainability to every arena in their beautiful country.

Imagine projecting the mega trends of un-sustainability onto a building project. We would see all the symptoms of unsustainability; climate change impacts, ecological degradation; escalating energy, water and travel costs; inefficient HVAC (air) creating uncomfortable houses and offices that make you ill; risk aversion at every stage, creating silo solutions and a race to the bottom of the cost & quality barrel. 

What would a building look like that addressed all these issues and responded strategically to these constraints? Imagine that it went even further and used bio-mimicry design to generate solutions that positively  improve our society, environment and economy?  Well these buildings exist already. They are called Living Buildings. 

Training programme - 30th and 31st May 2012

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If you’re one of those people who sees sustainability as a huge opportunity to drive innovation and find better ways of doing things, then this is for you.  If you’re looking for some sound principles that can underpin your efforts to reduce environmental impacts, whilst also improving the way you meet your customers’ needs; this course will provide the answers you’ve been looking for.

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One size does not fit all when it comes to business improvement and sustainability strategy.  We believe that businesses can achieve better sustainability performance improvements when they really understand the full range of issues involved, and have a simple, smart framework that develops a tailored response to their particular business situation.  When people are competent to take action, change happens and it sticks.  So we go beyond a focus on waste and energy to help businesses examine and understand all the opportunities.

Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, Founder of The Natural Step, joined a group of the world’s leading scientists and experts in sustainable development today in calling for urgent changes to policies and institutions to enable humanity to tackle environmental crises and improve human wellbeing.

The group – all past winners of the Blue Planet Prize – have gathered in London to finalise a paper that will be launched at the UN Environment Programme’s Governing Council meeting in Nairobi on 20-22 February.

The paper will emphasise transformational solutions to key environment and development challenges. It highlights the policies, technologies and behaviour changes required to protect the local, regional and global environment, stimulate the economy and enhance the livelihoods of the poor.

The paper, Environmental and Development Challenges: The imperative to act comes ahead of the Rio+20 conference in Brazil in June, which marks the 20th anniversary of the historic UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit).

To view the draft paper, please visit Blue Planet Laureates: Environmental and Development Challenges – The Imperative to Act