Blog Archive

Here is a snapshot update of some of the work that's been going on in the global FSSD community lately. It was originally posted as part of the Spring 2013 Stepping Stones Newsletter.

Some of The Natural Step’s associates in France have banded together with other FSSD practitioners to begin the project of fostering a stronger French-speaking community for transformational change toward sustainability based on the FSSD and other social change processes like The Art of Hosting.

This group of pro-active individuals has organized a number of webinars and online conversations with the intent to share knowledge and host conversations about creating a francophone community of practice.

They are now hosting a one-day conference in Paris on April 23 to empower, connect and build the capacity of French speakers everywhere who work to shift organizations toward sustainability. Transformation Toward Sustainability Using Collective Intelligence will gather FSSD, Art of Hosting and transformational change practitioners as well as businesses and anybody interested in sustainability.

Secure your spot today!

The Natural Step Canada is convening this conference because we keep hearing increasing calls for greater collaboration to solve complex sustainability challenges. But collaboration is not easy. Many of us are used to addressing problems and issues at an organizational scale and do not have experience engaging diverse groups and being effective contributors to multi-stakeholder change processes.

We are not the only group who recognizes this challenge. Most of the organizations we work with mention that they can only go so far on their sustainability journeys before they run up against barriers – policy, market, financial, and so on – that require them to work with organizations they are not used to working with.

The ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability conference is designed so that participants will have the chance to learn about collaboration from experts and practitioners but also, importantly, to experience collaboration

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.

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.

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.

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:

These are truly exciting times. After more than 20 years of developing the TNS Framework as a uniquely rigorous and unifying approach to sustainable development, our growing community is embarking on a new, thoughtful and well-planned expedition. I believe the time is right for this journey. TNS has established an impeccable reputation for “sticking to our story,” and the increasing import of our work (shown in case studies, role models, international prizes, educational and research programs and other achievements) now lends us the daring to open the Framework up, to be a bit out of control.

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.

Over the past few years The Natural Step International (TNSI) has been undergoing an extensive organizational transition, in order to trade in its license model for a more open and inclusive membership structure, and to reinvent itself and its role in the world for greater impact.

That transition period is now complete and The Natural Step International has relaunched as a new international secretariat, based in London England, with a bold new strategic plan with a new purpose and core strategies, and a new secretariat team. At the centre of all our efforts is a mission to accelerate collective impact for change towards a thriving, vibrant society that operates within nature’s limits.