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Sans langage commun, il est plus difficile pour les collectivités de planifier efficacement vers la durabilité

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on July 12, 2012 - 1:48pm

Le terme « développement durable » est beaucoup utilisé de nos jours. Mais quel est cet état de durabilité qu’un mode de développement durable permet d’atteindre? Comment reconnaitrions-nous une entreprise ou une collectivité durable si l’on en voyait une? Comment mettre en œuvre un mode de « développement durable » ensemble lorsque certains intervenants comprennent « environnement », d’autres « vert », d’autres « écologie », d’autres « social »? L’absence d’un langage commun peut poser un défi particulièrement difficile pour les collectivités qui doivent rassembler et faire travailler ensemble des acteurs multiples et variés.

National Post/Mediaplanet: Green Innovations, Making Canada a Green World Leader - Panel of Experts interview with Chad Park

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on June 28, 2012 - 9:52am

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. 

Justmeans: Thinking Strategically About Sustainability - The Natural Step Canada Offers Unique Course to Drive Corporate Change

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on June 28, 2012 - 9:31am

The following article appeared in Justmeans on June 27. Thanks to Justmeans staff blogger Meirav Even-Har who authored this great article.

There are an ever increasing number of sustainability courses offered in Canada and abroad. Always curious to learn more, I was especially intrigued by courses available through The Natural Step Canada - its Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development is used by hundreds of organizations around the world.

“Humans should not be outsmarted by cockroaches.” Reflections from The Natural Step’s Level 1 Sustainability Course

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on June 22, 2012 - 12:32pm

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.

Message from the Executive Director: Focusing and scaling up to achieve the impact we all desire

Submitted by Chad Park on June 21, 2012 - 11:36am

The first half of 2012 has been an exciting time at The Natural Step Canada. While those of you who follow us on social media know that we have been contributing our perspective to some of the public debate around issues linked to sustainable development, I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on what we have been focusing on and how we are scaling up our impact.

We continue to help a number of leading organizations with the development and execution of their sustainability strategies, including for our friends at the David Suzuki Foundation. Supporting the development of role model organizations for sustainable business and sustainable communities continues to be a primary way that we achieve our mission of accelerating the transition to a sustainable society.

We often work with medium-sized businesses in Canada who want to make a deep commitment to sustainability and drive long-term profitability, resiliency, and increased market share—but don’t know how. Has your company started along its sustainability journey and made some progress, but found you need help to make the transformational change you know is needed (and good for the company)? Know that you’re not alone. And, thankfully, this is where The Natural Step Canada excels.

Few businesses know what a bold sustainability strategy REALLY means: Long-term profitability and resiliency

Submitted by Pong Leung on June 19, 2012 - 5:59pm

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.

Good guys & bad guys: They're all part of the same unsustainable system

Submitted by Chad Park on June 4, 2012 - 7:00am

On June 4, environmental groups and other organizations are blacking out their web sites to protest Bill C-38. We won't be blacking our web site out, but we do have something to say.

At The Natural Step Canada, we are not experts in the policies being debated. Other groups have considerably more to say on the implications of the policies in question.

But what we can speak to—from a standpoint of considerable experience—is the unfortunate tone of this public debate and the government’s divisive approach that has led us to where we are.

Axiom News: Natural Step Bootcamp Trains MBA Students to be Sustainability Leaders

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on March 19, 2012 - 3:43pm

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

Students play Barnga, a simulation game that teaches communication by demonstrating how people interpret things differently.

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.

Four words to change the world: "I believe in you"

Submitted by The Natural Ste... on March 6, 2012 - 2:41pm

When I recall what prompted me to become a leader for sustainability, I know for sure, it was my mentor at my first job at Wingspan Design. Mike McGuire saw that I cared about people and the planet and he said to me: "You care about the environment, right? Why don’t you develop our environmental policy here?"

I hadn’t really thought about it that much before, but I thought, well yes, I care about the environment. He pointed me to a server file full of resources that he had collected over the years. As I read more into the topic I realized how huge and important sustainability is for me and for everyone. I decided that, yes, this is the cause worth giving my life to.

Mike saw something in me that I didn’t yet see clearly in myself. I knew I wanted to do something good, but he offered me a direction to focus, some resources, and most importantly, his belief in my ability and heart.

Let’s get really radical: Envisioning a sustainable energy future for Canada

Submitted by Chad Park on January 31, 2012 - 4:23pm

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.

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