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.

Luckily, there are many inspiring examples of role model organizations that are leading the way toward sustainability. Take for example, two of our partners who have recently been recognized with prestigious awards. The Landmark Group of Builders recently won an Emerald Award for one of their sustainability-inspired innovations that reduces greenhouse gas emissions by a 6.21 tonnes per home and produces 58% less waste in the production process. And The Co-operators recently achieved the distinction of being ranked #3 in the Top 50 Best Corporate Citizens in Canada by Corporate Knights Magazine.

It is clear, though, that working one organization at a time won’t change things at the speed—or on the scale—we need. To address the complex challenge of living sustainably, we need to tackle the systemic and interconnected causes of the great challenges of our time. This requires an approach that looks at whole systems, collaborates across boundaries, and fosters innovation and creativity.

It is within this context that we are developing an innovative new program, the Sustainability Transition Lab. Building on what The Natural Step has learned through 20 years of experience facilitating transformational change at the organizational level, we are blending our approach with the best of what others have learned about how change happens in multi-stakeholder collaborations. This process will build the capacity of groups of stakeholders to tackle their most pressing challenges through collaboration.

To understand why we see this as being so important for the future of the sustainability movement, please watch this 2-minute video on Systems Innovation by our partners at Forum for the Future in the UK.

One of the prototype projects that we’ve been working on in this area is a Dialogue for a Sustainable and Prosperous Edmonton, which has brought together dozens of stakeholders in Edmonton to explore collaborative opportunities to align sustainability and economic development strategies in the city. We are building other partnerships in the same spirit, including a collaboration with the Evergreen Foundation to support their City Lab work on transportation in Toronto, and a collaboration with Green Living Enterprises and the Centre for Impact Investing at the MaRS Discovery District to develop a project to amplify the growing B Corp movement in Canada.

We are very keen to connect with interested partners on these and other possible collective impact projects, as the future of the sustainability movement and of The Natural Step surely lies in collaboration and partnership.

While we work with the leaders of today, we are also helping to build a whole generation of emerging young leaders for tomorrow. Building on the incredible success of our pilot MBA Sustainability Leadership Bootcamp in Calgary, we are offering another session in Toronto in August (applications are now open), with several more planned for 2013.

We have also launched the IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training program with our partners at The Co-operators. This innovative new program is helping Canadian students aged 19-25 gain the training, skills, network, mentorship, access to funding, and—perhaps most importantly—the confidence needed to spearhead a wellspring of successful local sustainability projects in communities across the country. After an amazing pilot in Toronto this spring, we are scaling up and currently accepting applications for upcoming sessions in Ottawa, Vancouver, Guelph, and Montreal, which will take place in the months ahead.

We’ve had an exciting start to 2012 and look forward to the rest of the year. We hope you will continue to join us on this journey and would love to hear from you.

Chad Park
Executive Director, The Natural Step Canada