The Beckers Group, a partner of The Natural Step since 2008, has recently released its first global sustainability report. We are pleased to share the report here and to provide comment on how the process leading to this report has used two different sustainability methods - the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines - to help the company define, measure and report progress.

 

Please join us online Wednesday July 3, 2013 from 11:30am-13:30EST to share your views and expertise to help shape a benchmark for truly sustainable business performance.

This webinar is part of Towards a Gold Standard for Sustainable Business project, a collaborative initiative which aims to help consumers, businesses, investors, and employers support truly sustainable business practices through the decisions they make.

It features Bob Willard, Speaker and Author, The NEW Sustainability Advantage and Chad Park, Executive Director for The Natural Step Canada who co-wrote the recent GreenBiz article titled “A gold standard for a truly sustainable enterprises.”  Hear the latest thoughts and updates from the numerous consultations that have been conducted in this project and of course, contribute your ideas to where this project is headed.

Portions of this post are reprinted from presskontakt.se and from the Swedish Sustainable Economy Foundation’s blog.

Shutterstock photo of Gotland, Sweden

Last month, the Swedish Sustainable Economy Foundation and a consortium of scientists and sustainability practitioners, including The Natural Step and Natural Step partners in Finland, submitted a project proposal to study the island of Gotland as a Sweden in miniature, using it as a test case to create a circular, emission-free economy.

The proposal is designed to address the dual concerns of rising unemployment and pollution of the Baltic, resulting from the leakage of money and jobs from the import of fertilizers and the leakage of nutrients from the soil into the sea. Gotland is the largest island in the Baltic.

The Foundation is concerned that the ecology of the Baltic will collapse if phosphorous emissions are not brought under control. At the same time they feel that it is high time to address the risks associated with the potential depletion of phosphorus supplies that may give us as little as 30 years to change practices to recycling rather than mining as our main source of fertilizers.

We already have all the knowledge we need to answer this question, and efforts are under way to do just that. Have a look at this clever response to Joel Makower's GreenBiz article "What Is Sustainability Anyway?", co-authored by The Natural Step Canada board member Bob Willard (the well-known author and sustainable business guru) and The Natural Step Canada executive director Chad Park. 

At The Natural Step International, we are working hard to craft TNS 2.0 with an inspiring business and organizational strategic direction. We’re very excited as we look forward!  At the same time, we celebrate the excellent work TNS offices, associates and partners are already doing around the world. This issue of Stepping Stones is dedicated to all the practitioners doing good work—within TNS and in the broader FSSD community. As we look towards the future, it is good to know we are resting on such a solid and valuable foundation.

Beyond Sustainability

Soon we will announce a subtle but powerful change to the way we talk about our mission. We want to make it clear that “sustainability” in itself is not the endgame. Rather, we think of sustainability as simply forming a set of baseline design constraints that we can all use to create exciting, positive futures together. Getting the design constraints right is of course critical, and this is where the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD, a.k.a. The Natural Step Framework) can help. But the goal is a great world, not a merely sustainable one—that’s something people can get excited about. And when we say it’s something we do together, that’s because we know that in complex systems the kind of shifts we hope to see can only happen through collaboration.

Compiled by Scott Perret and Kelly Baxter

In this issue of Stepping Stones, we celebrate our Natural Step family by presenting a snapshot review of our latest projects.

With a network of offices, associates and strategic partners that spans the globe (13 countries and counting), sometimes it's hard to keep track of the full scope and rich detail of all the great work everyone in our TNS network is doing. From tackling sustainable beef to defining a gold standard for sustainable business, to translating strategic sustainable development for the indigenous Māori context, the breadth and depth of collaborative engagement our people have with all sectors of society is breathtaking.

We hope you'll enjoy this sampling from the field as much as we enjoyed assembling it for you!

Photo by Simon Egger, courtesy of Verein Symbiose

Around the world, practitioners of the Framework For Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD, a.k.a. The Natural Step Framework) --originally developed by The Natural Step—work freely with it for the greater good of the planet and human society, independently of any formal affiliation with our organization. This was made possible by our founder’s early refusal to patent the Framework as intellectual property, and his insistence that it remain in the public domain for the greater good.

These practitioners have traditionally lacked a cohesive community where they can connect, innovate, share knowledge, tools and materials, and develop projects together.  In February of this year, The Natural Step kicked off an initiative to help foster the co-creation of just such a community (more information, including a video update).

We have barely begun to meet the members of this global, dynamic group of change makers, but already we find ourselves humbled and inspired by the range and caliber of the work they do, using the FSSD in ways that help society apply sustainability principles as design constraints to innovate toward a better world for all. We’ve also learned they are forming pockets of community wherever they go.

Here is a snapshot update of some of the work that's been going on in The Natural Step Sweden office lately. It was originally posted as part of the Spring 2013 Stepping Stones Newsletter.

Our Swedish office gets a sharp, new leader while hosting ongoing collaborations for sustainability across a variety of sectors in Sweden and Europe. On high street, a fashion brand has a look at its product life cycles while the leather industry zeroes in on its processing chemicals. Out on the ranch, the Swedish beef industry rounds up the challenges of sustainable meat production. On the factory floor, the PVC industry continues to work toward its vision of PVC in a sustainable society, with support and coaching from The Natural Step. And after a long day of running around to all these places, our advisors sneak into a few choice hotels to see how sustainably they can be pampered.

Here is a snapshot update of some of the work that's been going on in The Natural Step Canada office lately. It was originally posted as part of the Spring 2013 Stepping Stones Newsletter.

“How can we accelerate the shift towards sustainability and beyond, with much greater impact?” This is the question The Natural Step Canada has been asking itself for the past year. Its exciting answer is a blend of old and new strategies. While continuing to offer deeply impactful and highly customized advisory services for individual organizations (like the development of “sustainability filters” to help teams at an engineering firm apply a sustainability lens to their design work), The Natural Step Canada is also stepping firmly into the arena of change making at higher and higher levels of the social, business and economic systems in which we all operate. Today, they are doing this by working with others to define what sustainable business would look like, impacting young leaders, and hosting conversations and capacity-building for collaboration—the primary skill required for influencing complex systems.

Here is a snapshot update of some of the work that's been going on in The Natural Step Netherlands office lately. It was originally posted as part of the Spring 2013 Stepping Stones Newsletter.

The Natural Step Netherlands is cultivating deep roots in its local, regional and national communities by working with government and business on weaving sustainability into the heart of a number of initiatives, from sustainability awards for local businesses to community planning, youth engagement and housing. Ongoing work with the multi-national Philips Corporation on using sustainability as a design constraint for its innovation program has also kept our Dutch advisors busy.