Summer is here and I am grateful for the time to swim in the lakes, hike through the trees and have picnics in the parks. It provides me with inspiration and a connection to the earth through mud pies and sand castles.

It is also a time to reflect and celebrate. Of course, my reflection turns to the Accelerate conference – the first conference that The Natural Step Canada has ever hosted. It is hard to imagine that a month has passed since many of us met in Guelph. The team here are both humbled and energized by the buzz that emerged and continues to emerge through our conversations and work with many of you. It has given us a lot of energy to continue accelerating our own work – and we hear from you that it is doing the same for your efforts.

Those of you who were able to join us are telling us that your experience was a positive one. The speakers affected people’s perspectives on change, informed people about the possibility of collaboration, and dug into failures and learnings that helped others feel comfortable in their own practice. The team here at The Natural Step Canada is proud as we reflect on the ‘container’ we built to bring close to 200 people together, but more importantly, we reflect on what people have said.

We have constructed a conference summary page as a useful place to for you to review and re-live some of the events that took place. We’re thankful to all of the people who continue to blog about a-ha moments, memories made, people met, and most importantly how to take all this forward. And as we reflect, we are thankful to all of you who came to the conference with your heart, will, and minds wide open to embrace the energy of change through the tough work of working together. 

The team here is also reflecting on the many conversations that remind us that working together is difficult and messy, it is filled with “failures” and complexity that takes time, patience, trust, and care. We know that the complex sustainability challenges we face are too big and too complex to be addressed in any meaningful way by any single organization. Thankfully, there are many of us venturing into this space. Many are stepping in, failing forward, and sharing openly and honestly about the challenges and the opportunities. Thank you for this.

With all the momentum created at Accelerate, we find ourselves also reflecting on our own strategy for enabling collaboration. Our Director of Collaboration Programs has been strategizing about how to use our energy and resources to enable systems-changing collaboration. At the end of June we closed our first Call for Expressions of Interest for our Sustainability Transition Lab program. There is tremendous learning around this process and this program. One fact is non-negotiable: the responses from the Call for Expressions of Interest are filled with innovative approaches, tackling challenges across the country to change the unsustainability of the status quo. All of the applications have the potential to be game-changers.

As we play and experiment in enabling collaboration, we continue our efforts to foster sustainability leadership in professionals, students, and youth across the country. We hosted our Level 2 Sustainability Course in Toronto last week at Evergreen Brick Works, enabling these practitioners to further catalyze change in their respective organizations. We are looking forward to community groups offering and attending several Level 1 Sustainability Courses this fall across the country including Ottawa, Edmonton and Vancouver. At the end of the summer, we focus on MBA students and graduates in Toronto  through our MBA Sustainability Leadership Bootcamp on August 26-29. The IMPACT! Sustainability Champions Training Program will return to Ottawa in September then Guelph in November, empowering a new generation of youth leaders.

And so, as I reflect on the great work being done across Canada, I try to focus on the gorgeous lakes and trees and earth around me. In doing so, I cannot help but think about all of our friends, supporters, and partners in Calgary and Toronto who experienced drastic flooding recently. We wish you all the best in the recovery and in getting back to your good work.

I tip my glass of lemonade to all for your efforts in accelerating the transition to a sustainable society. I hope you too take the time to reflect on the game-changing work you are enabling – as well as take a dip in the lake and a walk through the trees.

Happy summer, everyone!
Chad