Building Your Sustainability Strategy

An organization's sustainability strategy can have a significant impact upon its reputation with customers, employees and within the supply chain.

False starts and poorly integrated efforts are costly, hurt the creditability of the initiative, the implementation team and the company.

This workshop will provide you with experienced advice, proven frameworks, best practices and tools to simplify the sustainability process. You will also have the opportunity to work on your own sustainability planning process and receive coaching during the workshop. Our sustainability workshops are also a great place to build sustainability networks and communities of practice.

Learning Objectives & Modules

Using examples, case studies, best practices, hands-on activities and participation through the on-line Community of Practice and "Peer to Peer" dialogue, you will:

• List the steps in developing a sustainability strategy and begin to customize them for your organization.
• Develop a business case for sustainability including drivers, opportunities, risks, issues and challenges.
• Develop a process for a definition, vision and goals for sustainability for your organization.
• Create a plan to assess the impact of sustainability on our organization's economic, environmental and social performance.
• Identify methods for determining sustainability metrics.
• Discuss methods for prioritizing and implementation of sustainability initiatives.
• Understand best practices for integrating sustainability into corporate governance, operations and the culture of the organization.
• Establish a draft plan for tracking progress toward targets; and reporting achievements and progress towards sustainability goals.

Modules

Module 1 (October 4, 2011): Understanding Sustainability

Guest Speaker:  Kelly Hawke Baxter, Executive Director, The Natural Step (to be confirmed)

In this module participants will –

• Understand current definitions of sustainability, corporate social responsibility and related concepts and choose a definition for their company.

• Compare and contrast different frameworks for sustainability such as The Natural Step, Triple Bottom Line, ISO 26000 & Corporate Social Responsibility and general practices and protocols such as ISO 14001, Global Reporting Initiative. Choose a framework for their company.

• Examine the importance of current worldviews, and the essential nature of systems, futures and critical thinking in sustainability program design and implementation.

• Discuss the 10 steps and organizational structure for sustainability plan development and implementation.

Module 2 (October 11, 2011): Making the Business Case & Creating a Shared Vision

Guest Speaker: Dave Turnbull, Director, Sustainability & Project Development, Landmark Builders

In this module participants will –

• Examine the drivers for sustainability.

• Outline and share the business case for their company.

• Compare different methods for gaining consensus on a shared vision for sustainability.

• Develop and share their plan for gaining consensus on a shared vision.

Module 3 (October 18, 2011): Conducting the Gap Assessment & Establishing Sustainability Metrics

Guest Speaker:  Kevin Brady, Founder and Senior Associate, Five Winds Strategic Consulting

In this module participants will –

• Examine methods for assessing their company's current sustainability position (such as assessment checklists, force field analysis, 5 forces, weighted matrix, process mapping etc).

• Understand techniques for developing strategic directions and priorities for sustainability initiatives.

• Learn methods for creating metrics for sustainability measures, setting targets and reporting sustainability.

Module 4 (October 25, 2011): Planning Sustainability Strategy Implementation

Guest Speaker: Nadine Gudz, Director Sustainability, Interface Flor

In this module participants will –

• Learn tips for choosing the timing and priorities for successful strategy implementation

• Compare and contrast different methods for rolling out the strategy.

• Examine and modify templates for expressing the plan.

• Generate a customized template for plan roll out with essential best practice elements.

Workshop Facilitators & Subject Matter Experts

Kathryn A. Cooper, B.Sc., MBA, M.Ed. (Sustainability & Environment) - President, Sustainability Learning Centre

Kathryn Cooper is a committed sustainability practitioner and educator moving companies toward "green" profitability and sustainable competitive advantage by unlocking human creativity and technical innovation. Over the last two years she has had the privilege to work with companies like Dupont, Zerofootprint, WWF Canada, and Partners in Project Green on sustainability issues, best practices and renewable energy.

Kathryn is a graduate of York University with a Master of Education specializing on Sustainability and the Environment. She holds an MBA from Wilfrid Laurier University, and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Guelph.

In her spare time Kathryn is a member of the Environmental Advisory Committee for the Town of Erin, the Climate Change Action Group of Erin and an elected School Board Trustee at the Upper Grand District School Board.

Nadine Gudz, Director, Sustainability, Interface Flor

Dave Turnbull, Product Development Manager, Landmark Group of Builders

Kevin Brady, Founder & Senior Associate, Five Winds Strategic Consulting

Kelly Hawke Baxter, Executive Director, The Natural Step

• Sustainability Coordinators
• Sustainability Team Leaders and Members
• Sustainability Coaches and Champions
• Anyone planning to lead the development of a sustainability strategy within business, government or the not-for-profit sector.