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.