Newsletter masthead
July 2010                                                  Vol. 3 No. 7
In This Issue
New Members
What's New at ISSP
ISSP Member Meeting & Discussion Forum: "Marketing Sustainability"
Member

September 15 at Noon Pacific Time

How do you sell sustainability? The September meeting invites you to discuss this idea with guest moderator Beth Bengtson.

To participate in this free conference call, send an email to Marsha Willard
ISSP New Member Orientation
Member

July 13 at 9:00am Pacific Time

New (and even old) members are welcome to join this free orientation conference call. Learn about the benefits of ISSP, the contents of our web site, and meet other new members. If you'd like to participate, send an email to Marsha Willard

News

ISSP brings you the news two ways:

Just want the few critical news stories each month?
Join the News You Don't Want To Miss group.

Want a full news feed? Follow Us on Twitter
Twitter

Twitter account: sustainableprof.

You do not have to have an account to see our Twitter posts.
Find ISSP on

ISSP LinkedIn Group

Don't forget to link to the ISSP LinkedIn group.This is a great networking site for sustainability professionals. Click on the graphic to go to our group.

Maintaining Our Email List Reminder
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Please note that the move to using Constant Contact for our emails, members will be updated every month to ensure we have an accurate list. When a member joins, they will be automatically subscribed. If a member does not renew, they will be automatically unsubscribed.

All non-members will be responsible for maintaining their contact info. This is done by clicking on the Update Profile/Email address link found at the bottom of every email. It is best for everyone to save our emails as a "safe sender" to ensure your emails get into your inbox.
Greetings!

This month's journal issue focuses  on sustainability indicators. The featured article, Sustainability Circus, shows how to integrate a number of the most popular sustainability frameworks. And this month's webinar "How to Assess a Living Wage" will grapple with this important social aspect.

ISSP is conducting a follow up to our Competency Study. We discovered that many people skills are key to our success, but certainly we should know something about sustainability too! Please participate in the Sustainability Knowledge Competency Study by taking this survey. It only takes 10 minutes.

Reminder: The management team is heading off on retreat early in July so be sure to take the member survey before July 2. What classes do you want? What new features are important to you? Should ISSP have a conference. These are some of the questions we've included in our survey. We are on a Sept-August calendar year, like many educational institutions, so we'll report on our plans, based on your feedback, next month. So if you haven't already, please take the Member Survey now.

Don't forget to visit the new website and explore.


Sincerely,
The ISSP Management Team
  Executive Director: Marsha Willard
  Managing Editor: Darcy Hitchcock
  Education Director: Christy Nordstrom
  Marketing Director: Jessica Vreeswijk
  Board Liaison: Dorothy Atwood
Featured Article

Sustainability Circus: Bringing the major frameworks and indicators under one tent

by Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard, ISSP Management team and founders of AXIS Performance Advisors

Courtesy Stockvault.net
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Are you trying to make sense of all the sustainability frameworks? There's TBL (triple bottom line) and The Natural Step. Some talk about ESG (environment/social/governance). And then there's the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative). This article shows how you can collect them 'under one tent' to provide a robust set of sustainability indicators. Go to article.
Member Involvement
Sustainability Knowledge Competency Study

This year, we released the Sustainability Competency Study which showed that sustainability professionals needed a host of interpersonal, change management and project management skills. But certainly we need to know something about sustainability too! Watch for a survey which is a follow-on study. It will only take 10 minutes. Help us answer the question,

What are the most important sustainability terms, concepts and frameworks sustainability professionals know?
Take the survey now.
Upcoming ISSP Events

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Webinar:  "How to Assess a Living Wage"
with Judy Gearhart
July 29, 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA

SAI logoJoin Judy Gearhart from Social Accountability International (SAI). SAI has developed a series of recommendations and guidance for assessing living wages in a way that is both time and place specific.

Part of sustainability is paying people a living wage, not just minimum wage. But how can you assess the adequacy of wages? What's fair in one location isn't in another. Do you base it on a single wage-earner family of four with two cars or a recent college slumming with roommates? How do you come up with a number that is defensible and appropriate? Where can you find useful statistics? And what qualitative analysis is needed?

Webinar: Thursday July 29, 2010 @ 12PM Pacific Time-USA. Webinars run about an hour in length.

This event is FREE to members and $25 to non-members.
Registration is required.
Register Now.
Fall classes
Sign up now for early registration price!
Follow this link to the registration page.  Register here.

Workshop: Sustaining Sustainability: Organizational Assessments
 Wednesdays (September 8, 15, 22, 29) at 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA

Workshop: How Consumers, Retailers, and Manufacturers
are Trying to Buy a Better World
Thursdays (September 9, 16, 23, 30) at 10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Time-USA

Workshop: Zero Waste Strategies
 Tuesdays (Oct 5, 12, 19, 26) at 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA

What's New @ ISSP
New Web Site Feature: "Groups"

Start or join a group


This is a new feature on our web site that will help you connect with other members that share an interest or reside near you or help you stay abreast of late breaking new and events. You can subscribe to any group and be automatically notified of postings and announcements. We already have three groups formed:

  • Darcy Hitchcock created a "news" group. Join this group and get updates on relevant news items.
  • Tajana Mesic has created a group for ISSP members in Texas
  • Karen Nathan is trying to organize people in the Mid Atlantic region and hopes to begin holding member gatherings.


To check these out go to http://sustainabilityprofessionals.org/og (you must be logged in first)


To form your own group, log into the site. Click on the "create content" link in the right hand menu list and then select "discussion group" from the list of content types.


New Job Postings

Visit the job posting page on our site for details about these new openings!
http://sustainabilityprofessionals.org/jobs

Associate Director for the Center for Sustainable Processes and Practices at Portland State University (Portland, Oregon).

Director of Communications and Marketing at Climate Solutions in Seattle, Washington.

Project Coordinator, Sustainable Biofuels Stakeholder Engagement Project at Climate Solutions (locations in Montana, Oregon and Washington).

Pioneer Cities' Project Coordinator, New Energy Cities at Climate Solutions (locations in Montana, Oregon and Washington).

Two positions are open at the prestigious Presidio Graduate School which specializes in a sustainable MBA: Academic Operations Manager and Student Services Coordinator.


Book Reviews
Darcy Hitchcock has new book reviews in the member resource section.

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Korten, David C (2009) Agenda for a New Economy.Berrett-Koehler: San Francisco, CA.




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Lui, Meizhu et al (2006) The Color of Wealth: The story behind the US racial wealth divide. New York, NY: The New Press.

Sustainability Conference Listing
Take at look at the upcoming conferences and trainings around the world.

See details on the ISSP site under
Education & Events - Non ISSP events
  • CRC Energy Efficiency Summit, July 6-7, London
  • Disaster Risk Reduction Certificate, Sept 6-17, Lusanne, Switzerland and November 8-19, Bangalore, India
  • Sustainable Building Advisory Program,  October, Portland, Oregon
  • Gaining Ground 2010, October 4-7, Victoria, BC