How public policy can situate future-fit hydrocarbon industries in Alberta as a source of future growth, job creation and community resilience.

As international efforts to reduce emissions and adapt to climate impacts grow in ambition, the energy dialogue is now focused on actions to match the scale of the challenge. This includes the development of quantifiable criteria, tools, and frameworks to guide decision-making for climate-smart investment. This report makes the case for future-fit hydrocarbons as a critical economic path forward for Canada that responds to such pressures now shaping energy investment, with the province of Alberta at the epicenter of this opportunity.

Smart Prosperity Institute is seeking proposals for the redesign and migration of its current websites.

Smart Prosperity Institute (SPI) is seeking proposals for the redesign and migration of its current websites. There is the potential for continued work with the selected vendor, for ongoing support of the websites in question, as well as for upcoming website projects that we are planning for across a partnership of organizations with The Natural Step Canada (TNS).

A World Circular Economy Forum side event

The Council of Canadian Academies (CCA) will soon release its latest report, Turning Point, informed by the Expert Panel on the Circular Economy in Canada, a multidisciplinary group of 16 experts from across Canada and abroad. The report identifies the opportunities and challenges for a circular economy in Canada, including the potential economic, environmental, and social impacts of a circular transition. Members of the Expert Panel will share the study’s high-level findings and discuss key issues related to the transition to a circular economy in Canada.

You are invited to attend a public briefing and discussion on the Turning Point report, to learn more about the key actions needed to create the conditions for long-term success on the path towards a thriving circular economy. This event will be hosted by Environment and Climate Change Canada, in partnership with the CCA, as a World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) side event.

New Dashboard for responsible investing launched to help funds raise climate and diversity ambitions

OTTAWA, Nov. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a fast-changing world where global investors are embarking on the largest reallocation of capital in history, pursuing sustainability and inclusivity offers social, environmental, and investment benefits. To seize this unprecedented opportunity, and maintain their tradition of excellence, Canadian pension funds must play a vital role in realizing a sustainable, inclusive future, says a landmark new release. This report emerges from a partnership between The Natural Step Canada, Smart Prosperity Institute, and Corporate Knights, and extensive collaboration with an independent advisory committee of Canada’s pension fund experts.

Leading businesses, NGOs, and government unite behind 2025 targets to make packaging waste a thing of the past

"All around the world and here in Canada leading organizations are making great strides to reduce plastic waste at all stages of their operations. Unfortunately the actions of any one organization alone won’t be enough to meet the expectations and requirements of a society and a planet that demands bolder and faster action. The Natural Step Canada is therefore proud to be joining forces with a diverse group of leaders from business, government and civil society to launch the Canada Plastics Pact. Together we will innovate and implement scalable end-to-end solutions that will keep plastics in the economy but out of the environment.

- David Hughes, President and CEO, The Natural Step Canada

New coalition launches as plastics waste earns global concern and G7 attention

HALIFAX, September 20, 2018 – A national not for profit coalition including corporate and NGO leaders, think tanks, and sustainability experts has announced its goal to eliminate waste and accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions from the Canadian economy.

at Globe Forum 2018 and beyond

By Jessica Pelchat

We’ve heard it all before. Business needs to get on-board with sustainability.

A study published in 2017 on Changing Consumer Behaviour shows that ”Consumers are no longer interested in the dichotomy between the environment and the economy,” they don’t feel they should have to choose.

Rather, they should be able to have both. Many businesses have begun to make changes; however, these need to stem from a true science-based understanding of sustainability to drive real transformation and disrupt the “business-as-usual” mentality.

TNS Canada is today announcing the culmination of its Natural Capital Lab (NCL) - a project launched in 2015 to catalyze and galvanize work on issues related to natural capital.

Since its inception TNS Canada has used the synergistic power of the science of sustainability, systems thinking, and collaboration to help others accelerate the transition to a truly sustainable society. We were very excited, therefore, when we were approached by the Ivey Foundation and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada to mobilize, coordinate and shine a light on the important, but largely fragmented work of those trying to incorporate the measurement and management of natural capital into the decision making of public and private sector organizations.

Did you know that more than 50,000 oil and gas workers are struggling to find employment in Alberta? To Lliam, these workers are the key to enabling a growing and more diverse renewable energy economy.

Over a dozen EFL fellows took to the stage and shared their vision to repurpose Alberta’s existing assets and retain its reputation as a global energy leader. From our numerous retired well sites, to our unemployed workforce, our diverse communities, even our carbon waste; the possibilities to reclaim, retrain, reunite, and reengineer left the audience undeniably energized and eager to engage.

By Elizabeth, Mike, David, and Brent

It’s been a busy six months for The Low Carbon Partnership, and we wanted to update you on our progress.

As you may recall, we came together last spring to help Canadian businesses drive clean growth, reduce carbon emissions, and foster a prosperous, green, and healthy future.

We knew that companies and communities across the country need help cutting emissions, and we wanted to equip them with resources, expertise, and tools to innovate and compete.

Introducing the IMPACT! Alumni named to the 30 Under 30 in Sustainability list

From aspiring astronauts to entrepreneurs, young leaders across Canada are making an impact in their communities. The most prodigious of these leaders have been selected by Corporate Knights magazine as the top 30 Under 30 in Sustainability. Astoundingly, eight of these individuals are alumni of the IMPACT! Youth Sustainability Leadership Program.

By Brent Gilmour, David Hughes, Mike Morrice, Elizabeth Sheehan

It won’t exactly be a sleepy summer for many of Canada’s bureaucrats and policy makers, as federal and provincial officials roll up their sleeves to hammer out the nation’s first national climate change strategy.

Working groups are cranking away on conference calls, parliamentarians are hosting town hall meetings, and Environment and Climate Change minister Catherine McKenna has invited citizens to pitch ideas via her team’s Let’s Talk Climate Action web portal—and thousands have already done so.

It’s been a busy few months since we last updated you on the Natural Capital Lab. Over the past three months, we’ve ramped up our stakeholder outreach and confirmed the NCL Leadership Team. Throughout this process, we’ve had the pleasure of speaking with many interested parties, with one group after the other emphasizing their unequivocal support for a collaborative approach towards making Canada’s natural assets visible in our economic system.

As we gear up to launch the second phase of this exciting initiative, we are pleased to announce two new additions to the Natural Capital Lab Leadership Team. The Team will be leading the Lab into Phase Two as we engage with, and invite experts working on natural capital to join two workstreams targeting the private sector, municipalities and provincial/federal governments.

I am writing you today along with Board Chair Peter Ladner to announce a new important milestone for The Natural Step Canada. And we wanted to let you know first.

For the past fourteen years I have committed to developing The Natural Step programs across Canada - the last five years in the role of Executive Director. We’ve come along way from a small group of volunteers with a commitment to accelerate the transition to a sustainable society to an organization that has developed a host of programs and partnerships working on some of the most important issues facing our country.

Sustainability expert, Pong Leung introduces backcasting, a key tool for the Energy Futures Lab

We are all familiar with the idea of starting with the end in mind. In fact, it is likely that you have seen the benefits of applying it individually or with your family, for example when exploring your career path or planning a family vacation. You likely started thinking about what a successful career or vacation would mean and then used that as a guide to make decisions in the near-term to help you get there.

I never thought of business as an avenue for advancing sustainability, but participating in IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training last year showed me what a powerful means this is to transforming our world. Since my participation in the program, I’ve seen my peers start green companies and raise awareness about environmentally friendly practices through sustainable products. (Shout out to the awesome Balance Project and Britannia Backyard Edibles--two amazing projects that found their roots in my Ottawa IMPACT! cohort.)

This was all inspiring to me, but it also left me wondering, “what can I contribute?”

The following blog post was written by Kimiko Foster, an IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training alumni.

Two years ago, I started a business called Seeds of Change Workshops, which was an idea I developed at IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training. I’m an entrepreneur and an educator on toxic and non-toxic ingredients. Earlier this month I launched my second business, Miiko Skin Co., a natural skincare product line based on my knowledge of safe ingredients and principles of sustainability I learned from IMPACT!

The Natural Step Canada and The Co-operators are proud to announce that the IMPACT!  Sustainability Champions Training Program was a successful recipient of an Ontario Trillium Foundation Province-Wide Community Grant, a generous award of $361,000 for 2015-2017. This award was granted on the heels of an agreement to jointly deliver this program for at least four more years.

This blog post was written by Andrew Hicks, IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training participant and founder of Lakewood Designs.

A couple years ago, I had the amazing opportunity to participate in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training in Ottawa. I have a passion for social change and environmental sustainability, so the IMPACT! training was a great place to bounce ideas off like-minded people and learn more about what it means to be sustainable. Going into the program, I was full of ideas, but I didn’t know how to take those ideas to the next level and create a plan to achieve my goals. The IMPACT! training really helped solve this challenge. I have used a lot of my learnings from the 3-day workshop to create my wood working design startup, Lakewood Designs.

Disastrous drought and wildfires devastated Western Canada over the summer while sweltering heat waves cooked Southern Ontario. Over the winter, the Maritimes set records for the least snowfall up to the first of January, and for the most ever after that date. The price of oil has bottomed out, laying bare the risks of an economy dependent on the price of a global commodity over which we have little to no control.

After a year like this, and with an exceptionally long campaign period, it could be expected that climate change and the parties’ environmental agendas would occupy the spotlight at some point in the election race. One might imagine that the leaders would be called upon to provide detailed, robust strategies for addressing increasingly urgent sustainability challenges.

You may have read from the recent message from the Executive Director that The Natural Step Canada’s Associates network was to be expanded in 2015, and we are thrilled to announce that we have added four fresh-faced Associates to the team.

This expansion of the Associates group will increase capacity to support the Sustainability Transition Labs, to continue to offer our well-known Advisory Services to municipalities, businesses, universities, etc., and to deliver other programming such as our public courses and the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Trainings. 

The Natural Step Canada has long been a respected provider of sustainability training.  We have built and maintained a reputation for doing something different, impactful, and perhaps surprisingly… fun! I hear that every time I’m at a training.

Why do participants feel our approach is so innovative and engaging?

The article En Route to Paris: Shifting Sands in Alberta – the Energy Futures Lab, written by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, was originally published on The JW McConnell Foundation blog.

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Six months ago I returned with my wife and our young family to Edmonton after almost 20 years away from Alberta. The motivation behind my homecoming? A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to lead the Energy Futures Lab, an initiative so timely and relevant that there was no escaping its call.

The article 4 Improvements in Future-Fit Business Benchmark: Public Draft 2 written by Bob Willard, a long serving board member of The Natural Step Canada, was originally published on sustainabilityadvantage.com. The Future-Fit Business Benchmark is a project that is co-led by The Natural Step Canada and 3D Investment Foundation.

When you begin to take notice of just how much unused green space there is in a city, the possibilities for growing local food become endless. Madeleine Maltby has secured five residential plots in Ottawa’s west end for growing organic vegetables in for her pilot season of urban farming. 

Growing food is Madeleine’s passion. After working on a variety of organic farms she decided to bring the farm into the urban landscape of her hometown. Last November Madeleine Maltby took part in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program to inspire and help create her urban farming project, Britannia Backyard Edibles.

IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training, Guelph, ON, March 2015

If you have ever watched the Monty Python Argument sketch, you may think back on all of the people who appeared to thrive on opposition and arguing for arguments sake. While simply being contrarian can be maddening for most, so can the other extreme where discussions are dominated by overwhelming agreement, or “groupthink”. The most recent IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training, a collaborative project of The Natural Step Canada and The Co-operators, brought together over 45 individuals to explore opportunities in sustainability and social entrepreneurship. While IMPACT! created some very positive experiences for the attendees, did it balance this positive group dynamic with critical and constructive feedback?

Part 1: How we Measure Business Sustainability

“Wind the clock forward and imagine that we are now in a sustainable economy. What would we be able to say about all companies in that economy? What would be true of the performance of these companies in order for that economy to go on forever?”

“We can all become activists in the way we eat.”

This is the message that Danielle Prapavessis and Mischa Hamara, founders of Seed by Seed and two-time participants in The Natural Step's IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program, brought to 31 schools and community groups last summer as they cycled across Canada, from Victoria to St. John’s on their first speaking tour.

Danielle and Mischa’s passion led them to create a non-profit organization and educational partner that would deliver speeches and workshops to young people and teach them about sustainability, our food system, and food security. They have come a long way since they brought the outline of their plan to their first IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training session in Ottawa in 2013.

The article Seize the inter-generational moment, Mr. Prentice, written by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, was originally published in the Edmonton Journal.

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Sir Winston Churchill once famously said that we should never let a good crisis go to waste. Never was this truer for Alberta than today.

As the reality of sliding oil prices settled in last year, Premier Jim Prentice described the province’s fiscal situation as “the most challenging financial and economic circumstances we’ve seen in our province in a generation.” The Economist magazine recently used a similar turn of phrase when it called on governments around the world to take “the once-in-a-generation opportunity” to implement smarter energy policies, including putting a price on carbon emissions.

“The easiest thing is to react. The second easiest thing is to respond. But the hardest thing is to initiate.”
– Seth Godin

Stuart at play, IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training, Ottawa 2014

They were already fired up last November - Madeline, Stuart, Katie, and Andrea showed up knowing there was something they wanted to change in their community. For three days of IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training in Ottawa, together with 40 of their peers, they considered how to respond and who could help them. Now they are working on digging deep into the greatest challenge of all: getting something started.

The article Sustainability – Announcing the Future-Fit Business Benchmark written by Bob Willard, a long serving board member of The Natural Step Canada, was originally published on sustainabilityadvantage.com. The Future-Fit Business Benchmark is a project that is co-led by The Natural Step Canada and 3D Investment Foundation.

Danielle Prapavessis and Mischa Hamara took place in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Ottawa in 2013 and are the creators of Seed by Seed.

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Seed by Seed started as an idea and turned into a reality thanks to many hours, mentorship, funding and guidance from the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program. Passionate about food, social justice, the environment, and adventure, my partner Mischa Hamara and I co-founded Seed by Seed, a non-profit organization and educational partner that aims to reconnect communities with their food.

The press release "The Co-operators youth sustainability program named 2015 Clean50 Top Project of the Year" was originally posted on The Co-operators website. The Natural Step Canada is proud to be an IMPACT! partner.

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IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Program for Sustainability Leadership has been named the 2015 Clean50 Top Project of the Year for sustainable development and clean capitalism by Delta Management Group. 

NOW! Theatre is pleased to present the world premiere of Patch, written and directed by Alyssa Kostello, an alumni of the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training Program (a collaborative project of The Natural Step Canada and The Co-operators), and recipient of 2 grants from The Co-operators IMPACT! Fund.

Inspired by the real life Great Pacific Garbage Patch and the effects it’s having on the albatross, Patch is a physical fantasy play that explores themes of isolation and waste. It runs in Vancouver on August 15-17 and in Victoria on August 22-31 (details below).

The article Learning the Art of Inspiration written by Kathryn Cooper, President & Chief Learning Officer of the Sustainability Learning Centre, was originally published in the Sustainability Learning Centre newsletter.

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"The power of aspiration is much greater than the power of desperation"

Peter Senge shared this insight with the participants of The Natural Step Accelerate Conference earlier this month in Toronto. He was examining a paradox - the scale of change toward a sustainable human presence on the planet is urgent, massive and time bound - but the last thing the world needs is our panic. "Things are way too late and far too desperate for pessimism," he said.

Did you know that anyone who has attended an IMPACT! event is eligible to apply for funding from The Co-operators Foundation IMPACT! Fund?

The Co-operators Foundation IMPACT! Fund is a resource available to students who have attended one of the IMPACT! conferences or one of the regional IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training sessions to support youth sustainability projects in local communities across Canada. To date, the Fund has disbursed over $323,860 to 56 unique projects.

Scientists found bees from six of the 12 neonicotinoid-treated colonies had left their hives and died. Photograph: Rex Features

The article Driving massive change through creative collaboration – is there still time for the bees? Written by Kathryn Cooper, President & Chief Learning Officer of the Sustainability Learning Centre, was originally published on the Sustainability Learning Centre blog.

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“Honeybees abandoning hives and dying due to insecticide use, research finds.” This is the headline in the Guardian, May 9^th, 2014. The most recent study by Dr. Chensheng Lu, an expert on environmental exposure biology at Harvard School of Public Health, points to neonicotionoids as a trigger to colony collapse disorder.

The theme of The Natural Step’s upcoming Accelerate conference is “Collaborating for Sustainability.” Over the past two years, we at The Natural Step have dedicated ourselves to better understanding what it takes to collaborate more effectively across organizations to bring about the kind of breakthrough results that can shift systems toward sustainability. Accelerate will be another chance to learn together on this topic.

One thing we’ve learned is that systems change is unlikely to happen if we only collaborate with our natural allies. Instead, transformative change really does require understanding and working with those whose interests and perspectives are different than our own.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the hyper-polarized debates about Canada’s energy system and response to climate change, arguably our most important sustainability challenge. My observation has been that while many people tend to lament the polarization, we also tend to go back to mostly working in the realms in which we are most comfortable, mostly engaging with people who share our views. What do we miss when we follow these patterns?

The article Can Alberta lead on lowering emissions? Written by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, was originally published in the Edmonton Journal.

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This week, international and provincial leaders from science, policy, clean technology, industry and government will gather in Edmonton for Zero 2014, a conference focused on driving the transition to a low-carbon future.

Observers might be forgiven for doing a double take upon reviewing the program. This event is happening in Alberta?

For many outside the province, the notion of Alberta talking about a low-carbon future is highly counterintuitive.

In addition to my work as an associate with The Natural Step, a few months ago I started a YouTube channel called Sustainability Illustrated. The purpose of the channel is to change the world one video at a time by giving people free access to the best sustainability knowledge and processes available.

The article Sustainability-driven Collaboration, Part III: Simplicity without reduction, authentic leadership, and process design written by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, is the third blog as part of a series that was originally published on the Social Innovation Generation website.

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In the previous entry in this three-part series on Sustainability-driven Collaboration, I discussed value creation and vision as key drivers of collaboration: how shared and individual value keep collaborators at the table working towards collective goals and how an ambitious, principle-based vision of success (sustainability) can provide creative tension and serve as a powerful driving force for such  multi-stakeholder initiatives.

The article Sustainability-driven Collaboration, Part II: Value Creation and Vision as a Driving Force written by Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, is the second blog as part of a series that was originally published on the Social Innovation Generation website.

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In the first post of this three-part series, Sustainability-driven Collaboration, I discussed the imperative for profound systems change to address sustainability challenges, which provoked the question: how we can provide a platform for sustainability-driven collaboration in which participants are able to embrace complexity and reframe ‘wicked problems’ as ‘wicked opportunities’?

A powerful group of sustainability thought leaders and collaborators are mobilizing to meet in Toronto at the 2nd annual Accelerate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference on June 5-6. Make sure to register now to secure your participation in this distinct gathering.

We're thrilled to announce Dr. Peter Senge as a keynote speaker, and invite you to explore our recently-posted agenda to learn about many other exciting topics and esteemed presenters. Planned highlights include:

• The Revolution is Still Necessary! - A keynote presentation by Dr. Peter Senge, moderated by Bob Willard.

We knew we had become part of a “social innovation lab wave” when the response to our Call for Expressions of Interest in the Sustainability Transition Lab last June attracted almost two dozen ideas from across Canada for projects and partnerships.

Talking to so many groups over the summer as we worked with our Advisory Council to identify the best possible candidates for our first project, we were humbled and inspired. Ultimately, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Evergreen CityWorks to develop a Sustainability Transition Lab project focused on the wicked problem of affordable and sustainable housing in the Greater Toronto Area.

“How do we collectively have all our needs met within ecological limits” was one of the quotes overheard at a recent MBA Sustainability Leadership Bootcamp, hosted by The Natural Step Canada that took place November 8th – 11th in Calgary. This question was one of the many that framed discussions, case studies and reflections that took place during this intensive workshop mixing business students, engineers, and sustainability professionals from diverse backgrounds.

Christian Brum took part in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Guelph in 2012. After participating in the IMPACT! program, Christian went on to create the University of Waterloo Green Guide. Congratulations Christian!

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Last September, I met a representative from the Co-operators who introduced me to the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program. I had been looking for an opportunity to make my campus more sustainable at the University of Waterloo, but wasn’t exactly sure how to go about an idea I had. She told me about this program for students such as myself looking to make positive environmental and social change at the local level. She said that applications were being accepted for a two-day training session in Guelph where I’d meet other passionate students from the region who were eager to take action and develop their own project ideas.

The following dialogue between Bill Baue and Bob Willard on the Towards a Gold-standard Benchmark for Sustainable Business project was originally published on sustainablebrands.com.

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At the third annual Sustainable Brands #NewMetrics Conference at the University of Pennsylvania in September, the need for next-generation sustainability goals — which measure progress toward real-world goal-lines such as carbon budgets, water tables, and living wages — emerged as a key theme. To dig deeper, #NewMetrics channel co-curator Bill Baue discussed this question of “endzone” goals with prominent voices in the field, including Allen White, of the Global Initiative for Sustainability Ratings; Andrew Winston, author of the forthcoming book, The Big Pivot; SustainAbility CEO Mark Lee, and others.

Here, we launch the #SustyGoals series with Bob Willard, author of The New Sustainability Advantage, who is spearheading the effort to articulate the Gold-standard Benchmark for sustainable business, in conjunction with The Natural Step Canada.

The 2014 Clean50 award winners were honoured on September 26th in Toronto for their outstanding contributions to sustainable development and clean capitalism within Canada. Each year, 50 leaders (either individuals or small teams) are recognized across 16 categories (e.g., Education, Clean Technology, Research & Development) to showcase their work and inspire others to make a difference in our communities.

Put the issue in the centre.

A year and a half ago, former Habitat for Humanity and Pathways to Education CEO David Hughes addressed The Natural Step Canada’s board and staff. Amidst all the wise counsel he shared about scaling up the impact of “for-impact” organizations like ours, that simple message - put the issue in the middle - was the one that resonated most strongly.

It’s no secret in the sustainability/social innovation/environmental/social justice communities that the problems posed by global sustainability challenges are too great and too complex to be addressed by any individual organization.

In 2012, Terry Sidhu participated in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training in Vancouver and has since received a grant from The Co-operators IMPACT! Fund to support his newly launched project around sustainable transportation. Congratulations Terry!

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Through my networks I found out about the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions program and felt that this would be a great opportunity for me to connect with other young people who had similar ideas about sustainability.

We’re all about making a difference for the better. Environmentally, socially, personally. Whatever you want to do, your impact will be greater if you’re informed, strategic and sustainable in the way you do it!

On July 1-3, I attended a meeting on Wasan Island (Muskoka Lake, ON) hosted by the Breuninger Foundation, Musagetes, and the J. W. McConnell Family Foundation (see graphic recording posted on July 9th). As a follow to this meeting, a paper was written on the contribution of art and culture to urban resilience and livability: The Art of Resilience, The Resilience of Art.

Adam Kahane and Charmian Love joined Dr. Bryan Smith at the Accelereate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference to share their wisdom around the question 'How do systems actually change?' Some of what was shared included that mapping out systems and organizations is extremely useful for understanding the leverage points and linking pins, so you can get good people into key positions

Summer is here and I am grateful for the time to swim in the lakes, hike through the trees and have picnics in the parks. It provides me with inspiration and a connection to the earth through mud pies and sand castles.

It is also a time to reflect and celebrate. Of course, my reflection turns to the Accelerate conference – the first conference that The Natural Step Canada has ever hosted. It is hard to imagine that a month has passed since many of us met in Guelph. The team here are both humbled and energized by the buzz that emerged and continues to emerge through our conversations and work with many of you. It has given us a lot of energy to continue accelerating our own work – and we hear from you that it is doing the same for your efforts.

I was very fortunate to spend 3 days last week with a group of about 20 amazing people discussing how art could/should contribute to create resilient (sustainable) cities for people. A group of artists had met the previous three days to discuss the same topic and we took it from where they stopped.

This past week, we closed the first Call for Expressions of Interest for the newly formed Sustainability Transition Lab program at The Natural Step Canada. It has been an amazing learning opportunity.

We are receiving feedback that our approach to the Expression of Interest process itself is creative and is unlike other RFP or proposal submissions. Since releasing our Call for Expressions of Interest, we have been speaking with candidates, hosting their questions, and immersing ourselves in the depths of their ideas. We’ve attempted to understand the change agents behind the ideas, their cultures, their passions, and why they are willing to put such skin in the game here.

The blog Canadian Conference Explores Transformational Collaboration for Systems Change was originally posted by Robyn Hall of Justmeans.

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The Natural Step Canada will be gathering sustainability leaders next week to learn about and experience the collaboration needed for transformational change. Over two hundred participants are expected in Guelph, Ontario from June 10 to 11 for the Accelerate: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference

Thank you to Adrienne McCurdy, our storyteller, for capturing this story and photos during the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Vancouver.

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"Capital isn't so important in business. Experience isn't so important. You can get both these things. What is important is ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn't any limit to what you can do with your business and your life."
— Harvey Firestone

The article A Gold-standard for truly sustainable enterprises, written by Chad Park and Bob Willard, was originally published on GreenBiz.com.

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A question has been simmering on our back burners over the last 15 years: How would we recognize a truly sustainable enterprise if we saw one? Joel Makower’s “What is sustainability, anyway?” post asked that question and added a second one: How do we get business people, like sales reps, excited about sustainability?

A l'occasion de la journée de la terre, lundi 22 avril 2013, la Ville de Rivière-du-Loup a officiellement lancé son plan intégré pour la durabilité "S'engager pour un futur stimulant" basé sur la démarche The Natural Step. Ce plan est le résultat de plus de 60 rencontres de travail et de consultations citoyennes échelonnées sur deux ans et visant à engager la population dans la définition d'une vision à long terme pour la collectivité qui lui permettra de se diriger vers la durabilité. Le plan vise à guider les décisions à court, moyen et long terme et engage les dirigeants et les organisations de la collectivité à prendre ensemble des mesures concrètes dans sa transition vers une ville durable.

Une brochure a également été distribuée dans tous les foyers afin d'informer la population du travail réalisé et des premières réussites. Vous pouvez la feuilleter en ligne en cliquant ici.

The Natural Step Canada would like to congratulate our close partner and client, The Co-operators Group Ltd., on being named the most sustainable co-op in the world by Corporate Knights Magazine. This is a well-earned and well-deserved accolade. The Natural Step Canada has provided our Sustainable Business services to The Co-operators since 2006, we co-produced a national Sustainability at Home Toolkit, and we are partners in delivering the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program for young leaders across Canada. Learn more about our work with The Co-operators and their sustainability journey here.

Thanks to Alyssa Kostello, Capilano University student and President of NOW! Theatre in Vancouver, for this video and blog about her experience participating in the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program. Thanks, as well, to Phil Baudin, Executive Director of Modo The Car Co-op, for his support as a mentor to Alyssa.

Congratulations to the Landmark Group of Builders for winning the Award for Corporate Environmental Excellence at the 11th annual GLOBE-Net Awards for Environmental Excellence! To read more about how The Natural Step Canada has helped Landmark embed sustainability into every aspect of the company please visit Landmark Group of Builders: Greening the Home Building Sector.

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, our 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.

The Natural Step Canada would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest board members: Toby Heaps (left), Director, Co-founder and President of Corporate Knights Inc.; David Hughes (middle), Director, President and CEO of Pathways to Education Canada; and Bart Robinson (right), Communications Director for the Alberta Ecotrust Foundation. We are delighted to have these experienced individuals on our team as we move into what will certainly be an exciting year ahead.

Many of the questions we are asked about sustainability strategy focus on implementation: “Yes, we have goals now, but what do we actually DO? How do we change the way people think and help people who are not Green Team members to apply a sustainability lens??”

This is the challenge of moving from the strategic to the operational and building tactical support for everyday work. So how does that happen?

One of the ways we’ve seen this work is through the development of tools that help people to apply a sustainability lens to their work. Here’s how it works:

Thank you to Katja Macura, our volunteer storyteller, for capturing this story and photos during the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program in Vancouver.

“…young people aren’t just the leaders of tomorrow, they’re the leaders of today. Their voices matter…the things they do now can have a tremendous impact to change the world, right now.” (Justin Trudeau, Globe and Mail, September 26, 2012)

We create and re-create our neighbourhoods constantly. What do we need from our neighbourhoods? What do our neighbourhoods need from us? What do YOU declare possible?

Our cities are made by us. Most parts of cities are left to us by earlier generations, but they are still made by us. We believe that working at the neighbourhood scale is where we can make cities what we need them to be. It is at this scale where we experience the city and all it has to offer.

It’s time to name the impossible awesome dream. It’s time to experiment and find our way there. It’s time to name what the dream is for our city and our neighbourhoods.

It’s time to make the impossible possible. 

Join us for an experiment…

This week, two of our partners won awards honouring their contribution to the sustainability movement. Reza Nasseri of The Landmark Group of Builders and Barbara Turley-McIntyre of The Co-operators were both recipients of this year’s Clean50 Awards.

What makes a transformational or sustainable company?  Versions of this question seem to be on a lot of people’s minds – from a recent call for feedback on this topic by Canadian Business for Social Responsibility to an article asking similar questions in last week’s CSRwire.

Here is a situation you may find yourself in: you have created a sustainability plan but feel isolated in the implementation of the plan and are finding it an uphill battle to make real change happen in your organization.  This is a common challenge we’ve observed with our clients and if you are in this situation then we suggest that you consider three key questions to change it:

1)  How does sustainability enable our organization’s strategic business narrative?

When organizations such as ISL Engineering and Land Services and The Co-operators have a solid sustainability strategy in place, it’s time to tackle this question.  Last year, we helped the Cooperators develop a product assessment tool to clearly show how their products link to their sustainability strategy – helping to benchmark where they stand from a sustainability perspective and to track improvement over time.  This year, we’re helping ISL Engineering and Land Services to assess various design options from a sustainability perspective as they build out their engineering projects. 

The following interview with Chad Park, Executive Director of The Natural Step Canada, appeared in the Mediaplanet Special Report on Green Innovations in the National Post on June 27, 2012.

What is the future of green innovation in Canada?

With increasing demand on natural systems and resources, combined with an eroding capacity of natural systems to provide these resources, the opportunities for green innovation can only increase.  The challenge for Canadian society will be how to create the conditions for more organizations to realize and grasp the opportunities. This will require creative approaches to collaboration; organizations that don’t typically work together to do so need to find new ways to overcome barriers or identify opportunity. 

A full house greeted Karen Miller and Brendan Seale, Sustainability Advisors with The Natural Step Canada, on Tuesday 12th June. They were leading The Natural Step Level 1 Sustainability Course: Foundations in Strategy at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto.  Attending were 35 students and one storyteller. They ranged in age from newly graduated Millenials to a retired perennial (me). There were ring-bearing engineers and NGO representatives, management consultants and motivational speakers, all wanting to know more about The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, and how to apply it.

Over the past 10 plus years, we have been fortunate to be able to get to know a number of businesses and business leaders who are taking a leadership role in sustainability. They do this not only due to their commitment to a better future, but—perhaps more importantly—they feel that sustainability is a real driver of long-term profitability and resiliency. This requires an honest organizational dialogue about its key sustainability challenges and a vision that goes right at the heart of what sustainability means for its core business strategy.

For example, take the Landmark Group of Builders, a medium-sized home builder located in Edmonton, Alberta. One of the key early initiatives that has really driven their sustainability journey was an honest look at how their core business processes were contributing to the degradation of social and ecological systems, including affecting big issues such as climate change, toxicity, and urban sprawl. Although not an easy conversation, this led to adopting a bold vision for the business that charts a course for long-term success for the business and sustainability for the planet.

30 MBA Students from across Canada convene for 5-day experiential learning

On the fourth day of a five-day Sustainability Leadership bootcamp hosted by The Natural Step Canada, some of the 30 MBA students attending were asking for more homework and longer days.

According to The Natural Step principal adviser Pong Leung, this is one example of how the organization that helps companies embed sustainability into their operations was able to achieve its goal of engaging a critical stakeholder group — future leaders of tomorrow.

“The passion and the energy of the students I think were really amazing,” says Pong, adding it was one of the reasons The Natural Step wanted to engage business students who are already interested in sustainability practices.

Held in Calgary, the first-ever Sustainability Leadership Bootcamp took place Feb. 22-26 and saw business students from across the country convene to learn from The Natural Step about how to become sustainability champions in their future workplaces.

It’s been quite a couple of weeks for the sustainability movement in Canada, since Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver’s comments about “environmental and other radical groups” and their opposition to the Northern Gateway pipeline project.

Reflecting on 2011, we at The Natural Step Canada are struck by the year's events that illustrate the global sustainability challenge and the growing sentiment that systemic change is required. To name but a few…

The Arab Spring saw revolution and widespread protest across the Middle East in an effort to combat dictatorship, concentration of wealth and power in few hands, corruption, human rights violations, economic decline, unemployment, and rising food prices.

The United States experienced a record of more than $12 billion of weather disaster-related damage, showing the real and immediate costs of extreme weather related to our changing global climate.

The earthquake, tsunami, and resulting nuclear meltdown in Japan prompted worldwide debate about whether nuclear power should be part of our energy mix in a sustainable future.

There has been a lot of conversation over the past couple of years around bringing sustainability and accountability into business schools. The MBA Oath for responsible value creation is a good attempt at this – the movement was started by Harvard students in 2009 and has since been adopted by over 250 schools internationally and had been broadly lauded. The oath itself underlines the responsibility of business leaders to act in an ethically responsible fashion that goes beyond compliance and speaks to future generations and building trust within their own organizations and throughout society. I would prefer more specifics on some of the definitions (specifically around sustainability and healthy planet), but I would otherwise happily jump on the bandwagon.

One of Alberta’s largest builders and its quest for a greener world

In early 2009, Bijan Mannani was talking about work with his son, a Grade 3 student with a keen awareness of the physical environment around him. Bijan was working in Alberta’s oil and gas sector at the time and the controversial energy found in the northern oils sands was topical news.

His son posed the question around the dinner table: “Don’t you know that you are damaging the environment with the work that you are doing?” Bijan recalls.

At that moment, Bijan understood a change in his life was necessary and today he’s talking environmental sustainability as the chief operating officer of one of Alberta’s largest builders.

Embedding Sustainability into the Culture of Municipal Government

London, Ottawa, and Vancouver, November 15, 2011—A growing number of municipal governments across the country are aiming to become beacons of sustainability in their communities, but many are struggling to lead by example. A free new report released today, Embedding Sustainability into the Culture of Municipal Government, promises to help municipal change agents advance sustainability in their organizations and become role models for others in the community.

Developed as a collaboration between the Network for Business Sustainability (NBS), The Natural Step Canada, and Dr. Stephanie Bertels from the Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University, the report is the result of a comprehensive review of municipal sustainability practices from across Canada. Based on leading research, the guide provides practical guidance for municipal practitioners and organizations to support a culture of sustainability in municipal governments.

Available for download and distribution for free, municipal change agents are encouraged to study this new resource, share it widely with their colleagues, and incorporate it into their municipal sustainability planning. Embedding Sustainability into the Culture of Municipal Government is available here.

The Co-operators has launched a toolkit offering guidance for leading more environmentally sustainable lives.

Sustainability at Home: Decision making help for your everyday choices was released in partnership with The Natural Step Canada.

The toolkit presents Canadians with practical tips and ideas on how to "green" their homes on a room-by-room basis. It is designed as a guide for all sizes of home, and includes sustainability advice on everything from grocery shopping to landscaping to disposing of medication.

As we prepare for an important leadership change at the end of the year, this is the last letter I will be writing as Executive Director. For me, it’s a great time to pause and reflect on the accomplishments made and opportunities ahead.

I am extremely proud of the work we’ve done over the past decade at The Natural Step Canada. It has been encouraging to witness progress being made and the huge increase in awareness of the need for more sustainable ways of living and working. And it has been equally encouraging to be part of the birth and development of a dynamic new non-profit organization in Canada.

An article was recently featured in Thompson's Daily Insurance News Service highlighting the recent launch of a new free sustainability toolkit, Sustainability at Home: Decision making help for your everyday choices developed by The Co-operators and The Natural Step Canada.

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The Co-operators, in partnership with The Natural Step Canada, is offering guidance to Canadians on how to lead more sustainable lifestyles.

Large windows allowing for a flooding of natural light is what graced guests arriving at the Sustainabili-TEA on October 16th at Ottawa City Hall. The venue was an excellent way to bring the outdoors inside and to reflect on what sustainability means in our lives and in our city. The Natural Step successfully united likeminded and forward thinking Ottawa citizens and brought them a few steps closer towards sustainability.

Ottawa, ON, November 1, 2011—The Board of Directors of The Natural Step Canada is pleased and proud to announce that after a nation-wide search, it has selected Chad Park as its next Executive Director. He will assume the role presently held by Kelly Hawke Baxter on January 1, 2012.

Chad is a founding member of The Natural Step Canada team and is an experienced sustainability advisor, having worked with many of The Natural Step’s partners since 2002. As Director of Programs and Strategy, Chad currently oversees strategy and delivery of the organization’s programs. His competencies and experience position him well to lead The Natural Step Canada through a new phase in its evolution.

Bob Willard, a leading expert on quantifying and selling the business case for sustainability, and recent inductee into the International Society of Sustainability Professionals Sustainability Hall of Fame™, will conduct a four-week Webinar workshop that will teach how to lead an organizational change to a sustainable enterprise.

In an interactive, on-line workshop to be presented each Monday in November, by the International Society of Sustainability Professionals, Bob Willard will show participants how to connect the dots between timeless leadership practices and how to transform an organization to a sustainability culture.

The Co-operators and partners envision the future with future leaders

The Co-operators is fuelling the push to a more sustainable future by engaging the passion of a collective group of Canadian youth through its program, IMPACT! The Co-operators Youth Program for Sustainability Leadership.

In partnership with the Natural Step Canada, the David Suzuki Foundation, and several other organizations and Canadian universities and colleges, The Co-operators hosted its second gathering of the some of the country’s brightest young minds Sept. 15-18 in Guelph.

In the 1980s, the Brundtland Commission sent the idea of sustainable development ricocheting through the annals of history and organizations around the world. Since then, there has been an astonishing amount of work completed by organizations in the public and private sector alike, each endeavouring in different ways to work such that they do not “…compromise the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 

What do two green building experts, a carpet manufacturer, and The Natural Step have in common? This was a question that a recent panel addressed at this year’s US Green Building Council’s GreenBbuild International Conference and Expo.

Are there any sustainable materials? Exploring the role of materials stewardship in sustainable built environments was a lively panel discussion featuring Lindsay James of InterfaceFLOR, Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems, Jennifer Atlee of BuildingGreen,  and myself—Sarah Brooks of The Natural Step Canada. Together, we led a dialogue that aimed to break down traditional boundaries, challenge each others’ assumptions, and— in doing so—surface new solutions and new questions to evolve the conversation.

Corporate Knights Magazine unveiled the third-annual Corporate Knights Most Sustainable Cities in Canada list today. The comprehensive ranking identifies Canadian cities whose practices leave the smallest environmental footprint possible and contribute to healthy, thriving populations. Corporate Knights examined 17 cities, including Canada’s top ten cities by population and the largest city in each province and territory*.

In order to strengthen its ranking system, Corporate Knights invited The Natural Step Canada (TNS) to be lead advisor on its national advisory board, which also included Greening Greater Toronto (GGT) and Smart Growth BC (SGBC). The advisory board helped Corporate Knights to identify areas where it could make its methodology more robust by suggesting new and improved metrics that better encompass a city’s strengths and weaknesses.

As an Intern at The Natural Step Canada, I was thrilled to get the learning opportunity to attend the Bullfrog Power sustainability training. I really appreciate the dedication we have to learning and mentorship at The Natural Step. On the train ride to Toronoto, I read  “The 5th Discipline” by Peter Senge and he says a commitment to learning is a leverage point for organizational success. So it all makes sense!

For the past 10 years, The Natural Step Canada has built the capacity of dozens of municipalities and businesses to lead change toward sustainability in their sectors and regions, leading to thousands of changes in policies, decision-making, and concrete actions that are contributing to a more sustainable planet. We have created leaders, role models, and best practice examples for a better world.

To do this, we have largely worked one organization at a time, one community at a time, and one individual at a time. We are proud of our accomplishments and the achievements of those we have worked with. Yet despite tremendous progress, it is clear that working one organization at a time won’t change things at the speed or on the scale we need.

In the small town of Karlskrona, Sweden, young leaders from around the world gather every September to begin a Masters program in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability (MSLS) at the Blekinge Institute of Technology. The course is based around The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, and it turns passionate students into empowered change agents for a better world.

The following poem appeared in the Rocky Mountain Outlook of November 27, 2008. This composition is by Bert Dyck, the former Town of Canmore CAO, and addresses a recent community controversy about clotheslines being prohibited in certain Canmore developments

The Answers are Blowing in the Wind

Bert Dyck

I went to Canmore for a walk
On rivers, trails or creeks
Or climb Ha Ling, that rugged Rock
Or other worthy peaks

When what should cross my line of sight
And bugger up my view?
A clothesline on a yard stretched tight
Replete with laundry, too

The lot on which the line I found
Was large and well located
With clothesline on that piece of ground
Its value I deflated

I would have given it a price
Quite high, or even higher
Secure in mind that owners here
Could well afford a dryer

In the build up to the EcoCity World Summit in Montreal (August 22-26) Laura MacPherson, Charlottetown’s Sustainability Coordinator, will speak in a panel session tomorrow (Aug 23.) MacPherson will be discussing the steps the City has taken in recent months to foster and cultivate a culture of sustainability in City operations.

An insightful article written by Jim Hartzfeld on sustainability reporting was recently published in the Environmental Leader. He emphasizes the importance of honing in on the few issues that really matter and counting what counts.

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Re-imagining our Neighbourhoods is an initiative of The Natural Step Canada and the Alberta Real Estate Foundation (AREF) as a contribution to the AREF’s 20th Anniversary Thought Leadership series.

The purpose of this initiative is to engage Albertans in a dialogue about what it means to be sustainable at a neighbourhood scale.

This is an online forum to discuss what’s important to you in your neighbourhood and what you’d like to see in the future in order to foster livable, vibrant, sustainable neighbourhoods in Alberta. 

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

As one of my colleagues so eloquently said last week, we are all wearing our heart at half mast as we collectively mourn the loss of one of sustainability’s greatest leaders and heroes. I have not met anyone who didn’t think Ray Anderson was an inspiring, visionary, courageous, passionate, and humble leader for the sustainability movement. He touched us all, and inspired us all to raise the bar higher, to create bold visions and sustainability goals and to move toward them with relentless commitment and courage. And with Interface’s tremendous accomplishments he gave us all hope and the proof of possibility that climbing to the top of Mount Sustainability was indeed possible. The world needs more Ray Andersons.

On the morning of July 20, a few hours before the “The Way We Green” plan went before Edmonton City Council, I was pleased to join Edmonton’s sustainability leaders at The Natural Step Canada’s Sustainabili-TEA. The breakfast event generously sponsored by the City of Edmonton was held at the Royal Glenora Club in the beautiful Edmonton river valley—the perfect setting for a morning focused on sustainability.

The Centre for Sustainability and The Natural Step Canada launch new joint service offering

Ottawa, ON—Does your community have a common, long-term vision? Is it prepared for resilience and a changing economy? Thinking about a community sustainability plan, but don’t have the resources?

The Centre for Sustainability and The Natural Step Canada are excited to announce a new joint service offering to address these needs: the QuickStart ICSP (Integrated Community Sustainability Plan). If you’re a small- to medium-sized community, our QuickStart ICSP process is just the right thing for you!

The Natural Step Canada is thrilled to announce our 2nd annual flagship fundraising event in Ottawa, our nation’s capital. Building on the great success of last year’s Sustainabili-TEA, we will host community members, friends, and family at Ottawa City Hall to discuss how The Natural Step works to inspire, educate, and connect Canadian leaders to accelerate change toward a sustainable world.

Over the course of an hour on this fall afternoon, we will serve tea and scones, profile our programs and partners and discuss the challenges we face on the road toward achieving sustainability.

The planning process is underway and more information will be released as the fall approaches. In the meantime, please mark the date on your calendar.

An excellent blog from the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR) outlines where in CSR we're headed as well as the top 5 emerging trends in CSR. For more information about CBSR and how they're changing the way business does business visit the CBSR website.

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On behalf of the entire Natural Step community, it is my pleasure to congratulate Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt for being inducted into the International Society of Sustainability Professionals’ (ISSP) Sustainability Hall of Fame.  I am personally thrilled that the ISSP recognized Dr. Robèrt’s pioneering work in creating a Framework for Strategic Sustainble Development which has been used by hundreds of organizations internationally, has given rise to a multitude of research projects and continues to be one of the most rigorous, effective methodologies for implementing full sustainability.

Peter Price-Thomas, Interim CEO

The Globe and Mail recently featured the Founder of The Natural Step, Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, in a series of videos as part of their commentary on leading thinkers on corporate responsibility. Dr. Robèrt touches on key sustainability topics such as what individuals can do to embrace sustainability? And how can our economy become sustainable? Thanks to The Globe and Mail for producing the videos and you can visit their website for more commentary on Leading Thinkers on Corporate Sustainability.

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The consensus was clear: everyone participating in The Natural Step Canada's Sustainability for Leaders Course in Toronto wanted to be part of the solution and not the problem. Throughout the course, that unifying goal began to crystallize as our instructors guided us through the key concepts and practices of this grand notion called Sustainability.

On June 14th and 15th, The Natural Step Canada hosted Open House receptions at our new location in Ottawa. Members of the community, including students, corporate employees, retirees, individuals from government, and interested citizens, came out to hear how The Natural Step is helping businesses, communities and future leaders address the challenge of implementing sustainability.

Do you want to learn more about The Natural Step? Do you want to hear how The Natural Step Canada is achieving transformational change across Canada?

The Natural Step Canada is hosting a series of open houses at our new Ottawa office to illustrate how we are helping businesses, communities, and future leaders address the challenge of implementing sustainability. These events will also provide you with an opportunity to network with like-minded people and to hear from our hard-working, passionate team, who will share program stories and inspire you to get involved.

We encourage you to join us on one of these dates for refreshments and discussion, and bring out anyone you know who may be interested in learning more about sustainability and The Natural Step.

We've launched our 2011 Sustainability Learning course dates and locations nationwide. The popular courses are set to take place in Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Banff. 

Valued for their rich content, inspiring facilitators and interactive design, The Natural Step Canada's Sustainability Learning courses are a proven way for participants to dive into the core concepts of sustainability, hone their leadership skills and begin applying the knowledge to transform businesses, communities, and other organizations.

The Natural Step Canada is thrilled to unveil its NEW Sustainability for Leaders: Level 2 Practitioners course, appearing for the first time this summer in Banff, Alberta. Building off the success of its predecessor, the more advanced Sustainability for Leaders: Level 2 Practitioners course is geared toward experienced sustainability professionals, managers, analysts, executives, academics and consultants who want to deepen their learning, refine their application of strategic sustainable development and enhance their ability to integrate sustainability meaningfully into organizations. Early bird registrations are currently being accepted. Space is limited.

The Glasslands collection project is a new art initiative focused on communicating environmental issues and the cornerstones for sustainable living. The Natural Step Canada is thrilled to have partnered with renowned Canadian crystal artist, Mark Raynes Roberts on this unique initiative. By supporting the Glasslands collection with educational material, The Natural Step Canada helped the Glasslands project develop 10 sustainability themes, which are highlighted in the video: Interconnection, balance, limits, industry, fragility, urgency, transformation, innovation, cooperation, and harmony.

The Glasslands Collection project by Canadian artist Mark Raynes Roberts was recently covered in an article by Living Spaces. The Natural Step Canada is proud to parter with the renowned artist on the unique art initiatve uniting art with nature. A new video has also been released highlighting the 10 sustainability themes showcased in the Glasslands Collection project.

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Congratulations to The Natural Step partner Nike for being recognized as a sustainability leader! You can read our case study to learn more about Nike’s sustainability journey and how The Natural Step helped them apply the principles of sustainability to its business operations. Nike has also won an award for their Corporate Responsibility Report. Please read the following article highlighting Nike's sustainability achievements from the Environmental Leader.

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As you think about your career, there are many reasons why you shouldn’t be a sustainability leader. It’s hard, it involves extra work, and it goes against the grain of the cultural reality we are living in. So what’s the difference between strolling along with the crowd vs. being a sustainability champion poised and focused at the start line?

A champion has a fierce passion, a clear vision, and never considers failure. Have you ever let ‘failure thinking’ stop you from getting what you want? Most people have at some point. Here are some examples of rational reasons to not even try to move your company toward sustainability: