Congratulations Sustainable Twin Ports and all 13 early adopter organizations with your community showcase on October 8th, 2009. You are definitely an inspiration and proof of possibility for communities around the world! 

Sustainable Twin Ports  is a grass roots organization dedicated to furthering economic, environmental & social sustainability in the region through education, networking and action. The community showcase is a testament to their hard work, dedication and passion for sustainability.  

Thirteen Early Adopter organizations representing local businesses, community organizations and institutions from the Duluth, Minnesota and Superior, Wisconsin region have been working together to incorporate sustainability into their respective organizations and at the community level. Today they celebrate and show case their fantastic accomplishments to make their organizations more sustainable. 

I had the good fortune of teaming up with Lisa MacKinnon (a Natural Step associate from Madison, Wisconsin) to provide training and coaching for the 55 participants (3 – 5 individuals from each of the 13 organizations) on the Natural Step Framework and with integrating sustainability thinking into the strategic planning and day to day operations of their organizations, and I must say that I have been truly blown away by the outcomes and ongoing momentum that continues to build in the Twin Ports.  

Check out their website and hear about the outcomes through the excellent YouTube documentaries that Chani Becker (a Sustainable Twin Ports board member) prepared on each of the Early Adopter organizations.

Also on October 28th The Natural Step US will be hosting a webinar that will showcase the Sustainable Twin Ports story along with the challenges, successes, lessons learned and next steps for this hopeful endeavor.  

Written by Mike Purcell, Senior Sustainability Advisor