By all measures, 2010 was a busy year for The Natural Step Canada—one of significant change and development. We re-organized our work into five clear audience-focused program areas, hired seven new people, reached 10,000 people through outreach and education initiatives, and worked closely with over 1,000 students, leaders, and change agents in 25 businesses, municipalities, and institutions across Canada.

(Read about our exciting plans for 2011 in our January newsletter.)

Our Emerging Leaders Program was formally launched in 2010 with generous support from the Ontario Trillium Foundation, TD Friends of the Environment Foundation, and The Co-operators. We inspired students to become sustainability change agents by speaking at a number of conferences and events, we trained over 20 university co-op students to develop a sustainability plan and mentored them through co-op placements, and we provided hands-on sustainability training for three interns here at The Natural Step Canada. (Read about our Emerging Leaders Program plans for 2011 here.)

2010 was also a strong year for our growing Sustainable Business Program, with a strong emphasis on developing our service offerings for the early stages of a business’ sustainability journey. We worked with five businesses at various stages of their sustainability journeys to help them with sustainability value assessments, the development of their sustainability road maps, as well as advanced sustainability strategy development.

We are proud of the accomplishments of our corporate partners, Landmark Group of Builders, ISL Engineering and Land Services, and The Co-operators, who continue to show tremendous leadership in their strategic approach to long-term sustainability in their organizations. (Read about our Sustainable Business Program plans for 2011 here.)

In our Sustainable Communities Program, we worked with 12 communities and cities across Canada, helping them to develop integrated community sustainability plans, providing municipal staff with sustainability education and training, engaging stakeholders, and providing advice on sustainability strategies. We extend our sincere congratulations to Williams Lake for their award-winning sustainability plan.

We also wrapped up our 4-year project with the J.W. McConnell Family Foundation and delivered the final year of sustainability training for an Ontario Trillium Foundation project with Ottawa area NGOs. We are pleased to have expanded our work in Quebec this past year with generous support from Rio Tinto Alcan and partnerships with CQDD, Optim Ressources, and NATIONAL. We look forward to continuing to support sustainability efforts in the Saguenay and Lac-Saint-Jean region, Rivière-du-Loup, Bromont, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, and Gatineau. (Read about our Sustainable Communities Program plans for 2011 here.)

With generous support from The Co-operators, in 2010 The Natural Step Exchange established itself as a successful sustainability network, enabling members to learn from each other, share best practices, and create innovative sustainability solutions. Over 100 members from 42 organizations participated in sustainability dialogues and webinars throughout the year. As well, our 150 learning program graduates were invited to join The Exchange with a complementary 1-year introductory membership. (Read about our 2011 plans for The Natural Step Exchange here.)

This past year we also delivered 8 sessions of our Sustainability for Leaders Course – Level 1: Foundations in cities across Canada, from Halifax to Vancouver. These 2-day public sessions drew over 150 participants. Thanks to our workshop sponsors: Halifax Regional Municipality, The City of Edmonton, Landmark Group of Builders, and Pratt & Whitney Canada. As well, we provided on-line sustainability education to over 6,000 learners through delivery of our online eLearning course, which is available in 3-hour and 1-hour versions in English and French—Swedish, too! (Read about our Sustainability Learning Program plans for 2011 here.)

One of the key highlights of the year was welcoming our founder Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt who came over from Sweden to keynote at a number of business events, including the Canadian Business for Social Responsibility’s Annual Summit, Royal Bank of Canada’s breakfast series, a keynote at Sheridan College, and an engaging fireside chat at InterfaceFLOR’s Toronto showroom. Dr. Robèrt also headlined EcoCare, the only conference in Canada to address sustainability and health care. (Watch this short interview that Dr. Robèrt gave to 3BL Media’s Chris Jarvis while he was in Canada.)

In addition to Dr. Robèrt’s visit, we delivered over 10 speeches and presentations at conferences and sustainability events across Canada. We launched our social medial strategy and developed a strong following on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

And one of the pinnacle moments of the year was our first-ever fundraising event, Sustainabili-TEA: Helping leaders create a better tomorrow, today, which drew a crowd of 150 in Ottawa in November to support The Natural Step Canada’s important work.

We’re excited about our plans for 2011 which will see continued growth and development in each of our program areas. In particular, we’re excited about our new service offerings for our Sustainable Business and Sustainable Communities Programs, and the launch of our Emerging Leaders MBA boot camp. We look forward to working with partners new and old to help their organizations accelerate the change toward sustainability.

(For more about our plans in 2011, please read our January newsletter here.)