Sustainable futures/DTLF/Learning

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MICRO COURSE : Designing the transition to a living future

Art in nature

Good strategy uses the tension created between two points - a current state and a desired future - to discover and agree creative ways of moving from one to the other. In this micro course you’ll learn some powerful tools to assess and benchmark a baseline position of current performance. The focus is on finding ways to engage others in the process that will also raise their understanding of the issues, and enable them to begin seeing opportunities of sustainable practices.

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Sessions

  1. Understanding the challenge
  2. Identifying trends and drivers of change
  3. Assets inventory - setting a baseline
  4. Identifying sustainability impacts - positive and negative
  5. Evaluating key relationships

Session 1: Understanding the challenge

Objectives

  • Learn about the Funnel model to understand and conceptualise the shift from unsustainability to sustainability and a restorative future.
  • Understand that we have planetary boundaries.
  • Our Ecological footprint as a measure of impact
  • Our Handprint as a measure of restorative value

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Centre For Sustainable Practice.


Introduction

Ultimately, we need to design a future for our society that is aligned with the principles for life. By understanding the current unsustainable paradigm and the design flaws that perpetuate it, we can begin to envision a future that is designed for life to flourish and focus our attention on allowing that future to emerge. This section will help you understand the current paradigm, the impacts that are arising, and how to identify them so that we can understand the ‘gap’ between the current situation (baseline) and the desired future. This gap reveals a creative tension that can be used to identify and prioritise solutions to reach the desired vision of the future.

Referring the Natural Step’s ABCD model, this Micro Course is focused on Step B; whereas the The inspiring challenge of sustainable development Micro Course concentrated on the Awareness part of Step A. The Strategic Planning for Success Micro Course will look at the Vision part of Step A, and Micro Course 4 will look Steps C and D.

ABCD method

The Funnel Model

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Activity

Watch this video (02.57) - The Great Squeeze - Surviving the human project and then consider the question below. Note down your reflections.

Can natural systems continue to cope with an industrialised human impact? Write a reflection on what you believe and why in your learning journal



The Funnel

Metaphore of the Funnel.JPG

The Funnel is a simple metaphor that represents the transition from a society that is unsustainable to one that is sustainable and, ultimately, restorative. The walls of the Funnel are currently closing because of the way we’re living. The model reflects that there is less and less of the things we need to ensure well-being and prosperity for people over the long-term. Yet, there is continually increasing demand for those things through population growth and agendas pursuing traditional economic development. From an ecological and economic perspective, the Funnel represents issues like the declining amounts of natural materials, minerals, scarce metals and healthy ecosystems available to meet our needs. Globally, the health of soils, seas, rivers, lakes, forests and air is in decline because of pollution, over-exploitation and over-use. And with population numbers growing, the stress placed on these systems is increasing. From a social perspective, the Funnel represents issues like declining levels of trust, influence, equality, diversity and meaning. The walls of the Funnel reflect the many trends of unsustainable systems that are visible all over the world. For example, increasing prices for materials, energy, land and water; declining water quality and availability; and declining environmental quality. Declining levels of trust that people have in business and government. At the same time, there are more and more people on the planet seeking first world living standards. The pressure for economic growth is relentless, and as long as that growth uses the same approach, the walls of the Funnel continue to close. How do these issues they affect our society, and the economy? What risks does this funnel-like dynamic create? And, what opportunities does it create for those communities and organisations that understand it? What must change to achieve a viable future? The key point of the Funnel is that until we redesign the way society is governed at a global level (primarily the economic governance model), the walls of the funnel will continue to get closer together with inevitable risks for businesses and people.

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Assessment

Consider the simplified version of the funnel below. Use this model to identify obvious opportunities and risks for your business / organisation / community recognising current sustainability challenges. For each issue, consider how things were in the past, what things are like now, and what might be possible for the future. Consider aspects relating to both the natural environment and people.

Funnel.JPG

Complete the three activities below and then consolidate them into a single page image of a funnel.. Post your responses on your blog. (This is an activity for formal assessment).

Activity #1

Thinking about a full range of relevant financial, social, environmental, cultural and political issues; note down your thoughts about past, present and / or foreseeable trends relevant to your area of interest or business/organisation relating to:

  • The supply of essential resources that your business / community depends upon:
  • Environmental impacts and the health of ecosystems:
  • Social needs, including health and safety of people and communities:

These may be drawn using the funnel model, with the size of the writing representing the influence of the trend

Activity #2

Think about a full range of possible scenarios for your business / community if:

  • Prices for particular resources rise sharply:
  • Peoples’ concerns about environmental issues relevant to your industry reach a critical point without warning:
  • Peoples’ demand changes quickly in favour of products and services that can be delivered sustainably:

Activity #3

Copy this table and populate it with what you consider are the three most important trends you have identified from the above questions.

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Sustainable versus restorative paradigm

Turtles

The funnel metaphor shows the transition to a paradigm where the walls of the funnel run parallel to each other and then begin to diverge. This represents the transition towards a sustainable and ultimately a restorative (or regenerative) future.

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Activity

Read this article by Sally Uren of Forum for the Future: Net Positive - the next step for sustainability pioneers. Consider what the difference is between the terms “sustainable” and “restorative”. What do you consider to be the most important differences? Do you agree that businesses and communities should not just have a ‘zero’ impact, but add net benefit? Note down the reasons for your thoughts in your learning journal.



Living Buildings and Interface - examples of the commitment to a restorative future

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Activity
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Read the philosophy underlying the Living Building Challenge and this case study of leading sustainable business Interface. What do you think is required for more decision-makers in government and business to adopt the idea of a ‘net-positive’ or ‘restorative’ future more generally. Note down your thoughts in your learning journal.



Reference

Session 2: Identifying trends and drivers of change

Objectives

Wiggly road
  • Identify what’s behind the trends affecting your business/organisation/community
  • Analyse the likely outcomes from these trends

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Introduction

All trends have drivers of change behind them. Identifying these can provide insight into how to best position to maximise the opportunity to align to a better future.

Planetary Boundaries

Planetary Boundaries 2015

The walls of the funnel reflect social and ecological boundaries. Some work by the Stockholm Resilience Centre has identified nine important boundaries that reflect the impacts from the current unsustainable paradigm.


Ecological Footprint and Handprint

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Emerging measurements of human impacts on the planet are gaining mainstream credibility. The Ecological Footprint has been developed by an international coalition called the Global Footprint Network as a measure of our use of the planet’s biocapacity. The Ecological Handprint measure seeks to build upon the Footprint measure and reframe the concept of sustainability by looking not just at ecological impacts but also ensuring sustenance for those in need.

Ecological Footprint

The ‘ecological footprint’ of humanity is gaining attention as way of measuring the amount of resources we consume and the waste we produce against the planet’s ability to produce those resources and ‘digest’ our waste. Currently, every year we are exceeding the planet’s ‘biocapacity’ to perform these functions by about 50%. The ecological footprint calls this an ‘overshoot’. In 2014, overshoot day - that is the day we used up 100% of the planet’s biocapacity - fell on August 19th.

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Activity

Have a look at the Global Footprint Network’s overview webpage to understand more about how the Ecological Footprint is defined and more about Earth Overshoot Day.



Ecological Handprint

Handprint

Ecological Handprints bring a social dimension to the issue of measuring our Footprint and recognise the need for people’s needs to be met as part of the sustainability agenda. This concept suggests that we can achieve a high level of human development without compromising the ecological systems upon which all life depends.

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Activity

Watch this video by Rocky Rohwedder on Lifting Humanity and Lowering our Footprint. Reflect on what you think your major footprint and handprint are whether you achieve a high level of social, financial success with little ecological harm or not. Use the ABCD model on yourself. Write your reflections in your learning journal and post thoughts in a blog.



References


Additional resources Journal article in Ecology and Society -Robèrt, K.-H., G. I. Broman, and G. Basile. 2013. Analyzing the concept of planetary boundaries from a strategic sustainability perspective: how does humanity avoid tipping the planet? Ecology and Society 18(2): 5.: Retrieved on 28th January 2015 from http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss2/art5/

Session 3: Baseline: Assets and platforms

Objectives

  • Identify existing assets and platforms that can support new initiatives
  • Understand common organisational management systems that provide structure and accountability

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Setting a baseline - current sustainability assets

Nectarines

Many people in business are surprised by how many good things they are already doing: energy efficiency initiatives, recycling, waste diversion, community contributions and many more. And it’s the same with communities and councils. The truth is, over the last years much has been achieved to reduce the impact of our activities through well-designed initiatives.

For any organisation, there is great value in understanding the full range of initiatives in place and why they have been successful. What have teams learnt about what works, and what doesn’t work to engage people and change behaviours? What possibilities do the successful initiatives already in place create for further progress?

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Activity

Focussing on your organisation / community, or an organisation or community that you’re familiar with, write a list of all the positive and successful initiatives and projects that have successfully addressed sustainability issues in the past. Against each one, write a short reflection in your learning journal about what the initiative has achieved, why it was successful and what opportunities it presents for future progress.



Setting a baseline - organisational environmental management systems

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Business is no stranger to formal management systems that establish processes and systems to ensure compliance with regulations and industry expectations. In the sustainability area, the ISO 14001 family of standards is the most common and recognised standard that provides management systems for environmental performance. The ISO 26000 standard provides guidance on how businesses and organisations can operate in a socially responsible way.

Environmental management systems like these are common and certainly contribute to an organisation’s improved performance. To gain a little more overview understanding, have a look at the Wikipedia page on environmental management systems.

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Activity

Consider the 5 Level Framework covered in Session 2 of Micro Course 1 and note down your answers to the following questions:

  • At which of the five levels do you think environmental management systems fit?
  • What are the likely effects for a business / organisation of implementing an environmental management system on:
    • resource and waste efficiencies
    • people’s behaviours
    • the business / organisation’s long term strategy



Sustainable product certification and standards

Around the world there are literally hundreds of different sustainable product certification and standards. Some apply at a national level - like New Zealand’s Qualmark certification for the tourism and visitor industry; others apply at a regional level - like the Nordic Swan Ecolabel in Scandinavian countries; whilst others are recognised internationally like the Fair Trade certification and FSC certification (Forest Stewardship Council).

Sustainable product certifications and standards are increasingly used to demonstrate legitimacy and enhance the appeal of products to consumers seeking to buy ethically produced and more sustainable, responsible products. Of course, the strength of the product claim depends entirely on how robust the standard is, and how easy - or difficult - it is to achieve. More recently, businesses that want to seriously demonstrate the sustainability credentials of their product have used the EPD, or Environmental Product Declaration, process to provide full transparency about the product using a Life Cycle Assessment approach.

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Activity

Read this page on the website of Interface about what an Environmental Product Declaration is, and why this world renowned sustainability pioneering company uses EPDs for their products.



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E-Activity

Find the 5 Level framework exercise you did in the Inspiring Challenge of Sustainable Development Micro course, and now review the questions again with what you now know.

Which has changed the most your Awareness? your vision of what's possible? your understanding of sustainability? learning of the success stories?

Write a short blog post on how your thinking has changed.



References

Additional Resources

Session 4: Sustainability impacts assessment

Objectives

Biking in the pollution
  • Identify how an organisation, project or community is currently contributing to unsustainable impacts
  • Begin to articulate the challenges that need to be addressed in strategic planning to move towards sustainable practices

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Introduction

Disneyland

As we learnt in the The inspiring challenge of sustainable development micro course Session 3 From the Holocene to the Anthropocene the four system conditions, or sustainability principles, defined by the Natural Step in its Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development provide a robust definition of sustainability. These four principles can be used as a tool to audit a business, community or even a project to identify all the ways in which it currently contributes aspects of unsustainable practices.

This session will lead you through a process to carry out a sustainability impacts assessment using the four sustainability principles. The results of the assessment can then be used to create strategic goals to drive future decision-making.

Using the Natural Step’s four system conditions for a sustainability impact assessment

An important first step before carrying out a sustainability impacts assessment is to define the scope of what you are assessing. A useful way to do this is to draw a map of the system (be it an organisation, community, project or a whole value chain) that you are assessing. The map can show the flow of materials, energy, organisations, people and money involved.

The Natural Step 4 System Conditions

Using an organisation as an example, the process involves asking a series of questions:

  • In what ways is the organisation contributing to the systematic accumulation in nature and natural systems of materials that have been extracted from the earth’s crust?
  • In what ways is the organisation contributing to the systematic accumulation in nature and natural systems of synthetic and man-made materials produced by society?
  • In what ways is the organisation contributing to the systematic damage, degradation and destruction of natural systems by physical means?
  • In what ways is the organisation contributing to creating conditions that undermine people’s ability to meet their needs?
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Activity

A comprehensive guide for this process has been written by The Natural Step in Canada and adapted with New Zealand case studies - Planning for Sustainability - A Starter Guide. It sets out series of questions that helps ask the right sub-questions for each of the 4 principles. Read pages 11 onwards and appendices 5 and 6. This will be a useful reference for the E-Activity below.


Prioritising identified sustainability impacts

It’s useful and valuable to prioritise the impacts that you identify from the impacts assessment exercise. This will help identify which impacts are more significant and should be addressed as a priority. There is no science to determine what is more or less significant, and some useful guidance is provided on page 11 of the Planning for Sustainability guide mentioned above. The matrix tool below is also a useful way of evaluating the priority of different impacts.

Articulating a set of clear sustainability challenges

Morning halo

Using the information you will have generated from the impacts assessment and prioritisation exercises, you should be in a position to articulate a set of clear sustainability challenges. These challenges reflect the current situation. Often they can seem a bit overwhelming. You might think about it as taking a long look in the mirror and honestly laying out all the things that will need to change to achieve sustainability.

As an example of a set of challenges… here’s a list that a land development company produced after going through the process above.

  • Our business is highly dependent on the degradation of ecologically and agriculturally productive land for development
  • We are highly dependent on the dispersive use of hydrocarbons as a fuel and raw material
  • We are dependent on an economic and physical system that systematically converts virgin material into unusable waste in both the short and long term
  • We are dependent on using materials that have toxic effects in the ecosystem and on biological organisms
  • We support and are dependent on an unsustainable supply chain and business model

As we’ll see in Creating Sustainable Futures Strategic Planning for Success micro course, these challenges were effectively addressed by setting strategic goals that addressed each of the issues, and the company in question has become a pioneering, award-winning sustainable business leader.

You might think of this challenge setting process as being like an alcoholic or drug addict seeking help. Until they are prepared to admit their illness and face up to it, it is almost impossible to provide effective, long-lasting therapy and treatment to cure them.

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E-Activity

Complete the following tables for an organisation, community or project that you’re familiar with. The words in italics are examples only to get you started and help clarify what activities / impacts each of the four areas cover. Delete them as you insert your own information and think of aspects that the examples don’t cover that are relevant to your focus. The aim is to identify relevant issues that present risks and opportunities; record what progress is currently being made; what future progress might be made; what value working on the issue provides; and the priority of addressing the issue. Be as specific as you can to ensure your thinking will be useful to develop strategies and actions with a clear business case as the next step.



References

Session 5: Evaluating important relationships

Objectives

The famous blue door
  • Understand the importance of recognising how others can help or hinder your sustainability goals
  • Learn how to identify potential partners and collaborators that can help address complex sustainability challenges

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Introduction

Shops in Akihabara

Many sustainability issues are very complex to solve and require a lot of people, or organisations, to contribute to a desired solution. Many people, particularly in businesses or government organisations, also have strong vested interests in maintaining the status quo. Identifying, evaluating and understanding these important relationships can significantly affect the success of new initiatives.

Identifying relationships that will influence success

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Pursuing bold initiatives that change the way things are done to achieve sustainable outcomes inevitably requires a big effort, with lots of people working together. Even within a single organisation, it is likely to require different departments and teams to work together and change the way things have been done. More often than not, these initiatives require working in new ways with suppliers, communities and new partners to achieve success for ambitious goals.

Important relationships and stakeholders are those that will play a significant part in bringing about the success of the initiative. Typically, the have something to lose or gain from the initiative. In a community setting it may be people from local government, politicians or community groups. In a business context, it may be executives, other team members, suppliers, new partners or even customers.

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Activity

Read page 13 of the Planning for Sustainability guide for a comprehensive explanation about how to evaluate important stakeholder relationships. Then consider a sustainability initiative that you’re familiar with and note down the important relationships that are critical for success.



The importance of collaboration

Asia sunset

Because of the complexity of sustainability issues, and the need for a range of players to contribute to success, collaboration is emerging as perhaps the most important skill for leaders and decision-makers. Establishing shared interests in solving vexing problems, and working with large multi-stakeholder groups is often difficult and requires a new type approach, particularly in the business world.

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Activity

Read this article from the Guardian’s website - Unilever’s Paul Polman: challenging the corporate status quo. Then note down your thoughts about what the big challenges are for working with others who are important stakeholders in system changing sustainability efforts. How might these challenges best be overcome?



References