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.

We began by stating what motivated us to work for sustainability. Parents wanted to leave a better world to their children and their children. Engineers hated waste. Others think that it is important. My favourite reason came from Catherine Sloat of Sheridan College: “Humans should not be outsmarted by cockroaches.” She put her finger on a key issue. Sustainability is not about saving the Earth. The Earth will keep on spinning around the Sun for millions of years whatever we do. Sustainability is about saving us - specifically our way of life, that we enjoy and that so many people in less fortunate regions of the world want to be able to enjoy. If we fail to figure out how to live it sustainably, there will be fewer people – and more roaches.

We began with a quick review of the key parts of the The Natural Step approach, how our current behaviours are placing increasingly unsustainable pressures on the environment in which we, our society, and our economy, all exist. We looked at how organizations -companies and municipalities - have all found taking a sustainable, strategic approach has enabled more value for their customers, stakeholders, and bottom line. We delved into The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD), starting by reviewing the four system conditions of sustainability that are the scientifically-based beacon of planning for sustainability. Note that the principles guide decision-making, but do not govern. The Natural Step does not prescribe what to do. Rather they teach how to develop the strategy that best fits your organization and then do it, based on the FSSD. They showed us how to conduct a baseline assessment, develop a vision and then figure out the best way of getting there from here.

Following the initial presentations by Karen and Brendan, the real learning began as they provided a case study to work through. Breaking into small groups, huddled around flipcharts, we set to work putting the FSSD into action.

Throughout the day I had the chance to talk to a number of other attendees. Their organizations ranged in size from one person to a Fortune 500 corporation. For example, Marilou Brouillet joined us from Gatineau, Quebec, where she has recently joined SNC Lavalin’s Operations & Management unit after graduating from university. The Gatineau office manages many federal government facilities. They invested in sending her to Toronto for the course so they can learn how to apply the The Natural Step method to help SNC Lavalin respond to the rising sustainability expectations of clients and their tenants. She will share her learning with the Sustainability Committee which she has joined.

Marilou was working in a group with Harold Schroeder FCMC, PMP, CHRP, President of Schroeder & Schroeder Inc. They specialize in Project and Program Management, Management Consulting and Corporate Management, combining both “art and science” in helping organizations achieve their strategic and operational performance targets. In working with customers to help them to transform their business, Harold is finding that more and more organizations are looking at their business and operational strategies through the lens of sustainability. Doing more with less just makes good business sense to them.

Martin Halliwell P.Eng, is the owner and president of HC Matcom which specializes in engineering “tricky foundations” as a full service excavation, shoring, and foundation specialty contractor. He sees an opportunity to reducing waste and costs by taking a sustainable approach. Martin brought with him to the course his sales manager and a young engineer who is finishing his post-graduate studies at McMaster University. They are working on developing a Sustainable Engineering Design Audit that will encourage more efficient designs and save money. They intend to deliver it via a non-profit.

Another attendee was Christian Demers, GM of Zipcar Toronto. He had an interesting point of view. “We offer a sustainable service but do we operate as one?” He was using the course to step back from the day-to-day details and reflect on the business. A side benefit was to learn how sustainability managers think and whether Zipcar could help them meet their goals. For example, some cities use Zipcar to supplement parts of their own fleet of cars rather than have much of their fleet stand idle throughout the day.

I saved the biggest company to last.  Catherine McVitty is a consultant for Unilever, ranked 136 in the world’s largest companies. (They say that every day 2 billion people use one of their products.)  Unilever have a Sustainable Living Plan driven by the global CEO, Paul Polman. Catherine’s challenge is to make it work here in Canada. Top down direction is not enough. Attending the course has inspired her to start designing and putting in place a process to make the plan work on the ground.

Clearly the course generated deep thought in many of the participants. 

As for Catherine Sloat: what does she think about cockroaches now? With a background in ecotourism, she found the course a good refresher. More importantly she has been wrestling with developing a communications strategy that will work in an academic environment addressing both staff and students. She knows that the “shock and awe” approach such as Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth does not work, but found the part of the workshop that addressed the relationship between people and the biosphere very helpful. Perhaps knowing that the only things that go in or out of our planet are meteorites and rockets, and accepting that we will have to make do with what we have on Earth here and now, will help us to outsmart those insects.

Written by Neil Fairhead, MA, C.Eng, CMC

For more information on the sustainability courses and learning opportunities The Natural Step offers visit our Sustainability Learning Programs.