ISSP Member Meeting & Discussion Forum: Marketing Sustainability: Building the right communication strategies for different stakeholders
September 15 at Noon Pacific Time FULL
How do you sell sustainability? The September meeting invites you to discuss this idea with guest moderator
Beth Bengtson. To be put on a waiting list for this free conference call, send an email to Marsha WillardNext meeting topic: Eco-psychology. Watch for announcement of the date! |
ISSP New Member Orientations
September 9 at 9:00am PT October 6 at 4:00pm PT November 9 at 9:00am PT December 8 at 4:00pm PT
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 and indicate which session you'd like. |
Want a full news feed? Follow Us on Twitter
Twitter account: sustainableprof.
You do not have to have an account to see our Twitter posts.
|
Find ISSP on
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
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!
September is the beginning of our fiscal year and we have a lot of exciting plans! Based on member feedback, we're planning a conference September 21-23, 2011! So add it to your calendar now. And our Education Program is starting the year with a host of wonderful programs. Check out the detailed descriptions below.
This issue includes the first of what we expect to be a series of Directories. Instead of an article, this month we are publishing a Directory of Sustainability Assessments. In electronic form, this is free to members and available to the public for a fee. The next directory, already in the works, will chronicle sustainability planning and reporting tools.
In this issue, we are also starting what we expect to be a periodic segment called Regional News. We invite our members from around the world to write a short article on what's happening in your region. This first one is from our esteemed faculty member from Stockholm, Alan AtKisson, who is dismayed by what he calls the Assault on Sustainability.
|
2010 Directory of Sustainability Assessments
by Darcy Hitchcock This directory was assembled by ISSP to help you find the best
sustainability performance assessment tool to meet your needs. It
includes 14 high-level assessment tools for organizations and
communities. The collection reveals a wide range of approaches to
assessments. The electronic version is free to members. It is available in print (full
color) and downloadable for a fee from Lulu.com.
Members: Click here to get your free copy.Non-Members: Click here to order a print or electronic copy.
|
2010 Sustainability Professionals Careers and Salary Survey What's the average salary for someone in your role? What are the job prospects for you and your peers in this difficult economic environment? What bonuses and pay increases are currently being awarded across the sustainability sectors? ISSP is contributing to a survey being conducted by Environment Analyst - a market research firm dedicated to the sustainability industries. Because this is a global survey, Environment Analyst is seeking our help to distribute this to professionals around the world. Lend your input to this study and we'll all benefit. Participate in the salary survey here! |
Fall classes Sign up now for early registration price!
|
For a full list of the ISSP educational offerings, click here.
|
SEPTEMBER WORKSHOP Sustaining Sustainability
|
Sustaining Sustainability: Organizational Assessments
and SystemsDATES:Wednesdays (September 8, 15, 22, 29) at 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA Follow this link to the registration page. Register here. WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
Once
initial sustainability projects have been completed, organizations are often at
a loss as to how to maintain newly acquired practices and continue to move
their sustainability efforts forward. Management systems are the key to
ongoing progress. A SMS (sustainability management system) allows for
- systematic internal review
- monitoring
- corrective actions for continual
improvement
Discover practical methods to solidify and advance
sustainability efforts. Learn best practices. Apply proven management system tools and
practices. Customize a sustainability management system to fit your
organization's needs. You don't need a third-party
certified ISO 14001 management system to benefit from the Plan-Do-Check-Act
framework. With an emphasis on using the Plan-Do-Check-Act framework, learn what
level of sophistication works best for you and what elements to add as your
system matures. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:The Workshop will help you answer the following questions
for your own sustainability program: - How
do we move from ad hoc projects to an integrated program?
- How
do we go from a sustainability plan to a living sustainability system that
is part of our core business?
- How
do we assess where we are and set priorities?
- How
often should we review goals, projects and the program as a whole?
- How
many people should be involved?
- Do
we have training, communication, and support systems in place for our
program?
- How
can we keep the program alive if a key champion leaves?
INSTRUCTOR BIO: Dorothy Fisher Atwood has over 25 years
of environmental consulting experience with the last ten years focused
management systems implementation for private and public organizations. She is an independent consultant and also serves as the Management Systems program manager for Zero Waste Alliance (ZWA), a
Portland-based non-profit organization. ZWA is one of the eleven US
Environmental Protection Agency-designated Local Resource Centers in their PEER
center of management system excellence. Her work includes development of
implementation tools and procedures, training, and sustainability and
environmental management system (including ISO 14001) integration into core
business systems.
Ms Atwood is an instructor for the
University of Oregon's Sustainability Leadership Workshop Series and has
co-authored two booklets on management systems: Developing Effective Systems for Managing Sustainability and Embedding Sustainability into Your EMS,
which are part of the Axis Performance Sustainability Series.
|
September Workshop RESPONSIBLE PURCHASING
|
Scot Case | Responsible Purchasing: How
Consumers, Retailers, and Manufacturers are buying a better future using the
power of corporate/government purchasing to reduce costs and drive
environmental and social innovation.
DATES:Thursdays
(September 9, 16, 23, 30) at 10:00-11:30 AM Pacific Time-USA Follow this link to the registration page. Register here.WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:
In this four-part series, Scot Case will provide an
overview of the strategies government and corporate purchasers are using to buy
more environmentally and socially responsible goods and services while
balancing traditional supply chain concerns like price, performance, and
availability. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Learn how and why purchasers are incorporating human health,
environmental, and social considerations into the routine purchasing process.
- Identify some of the most successful green purchasing strategies.
- Gain practical writing skills found in
typical sustainable purchasing policies and practices.
- Differentiate among the several
environmental standards and how to avoid greenwashing.
- Understand how to
integrate meaningful environmental considerations into the routine purchasing
process while continuing to reduce costs.
WEEKLY OUTLINE:
Week 1: Purchasers
Save the World Week 2: Responsible Green
Purchasing ~ Tricks of the Trade Week 3: Writing a
Responsible Green Purchasing Policy Week 4: Avoiding
the Greenwash Gremlins INSTRUCTOR:
Scot Case is an internationally recognized expert on responsible
sourcing, green supply chains, and environmental marketing with more than 15
years of professional experience. As Vice President of TerraChoice, Scot has
helped connect purchasers seeking more environmentally and socially responsible
products with the manufacturers supplying them. |
OCTOBER WORKSHOP
Zero Waste Strategies
|
Wayne Rifer | Zero Waste Strategies
DATES:
Tuesdays (Oct
5, 12, 19, 26) at 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA Follow this link to the registration page. Register here.WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:Sustainability is a powerful tool for improving
business foresight. It helps people foresee emerging threats and take advantage
of new opportunities. In the solid waste field, sustainability is often framed
as zero waste. Examine what this trend means for your organization.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:- Engage in four interactive webinar
discussions oriented to stimulate creative thinking and solutions.
- Explore the themes causing the greatest
controversy in our society that require the most creative solutions: waste to
energy.
- Gain an understanding of the major
waste trends in the current system.
- Critique the implications of those
trends.
- Explore a new set of initiatives that
can challenge our basic mental models of our thinking.
- Learn about organizations that have
already achieved zero-waste-to-landfill.
- Grasp waste challenges: waste-to-energy
and when to recycle / when to landfill.
- Discover the best strategies for
sustainability, going forward.
WEEKLY OUTLINE:Week
1: Zero Waste and Resource Conservation Week
2: Product Stewardship Week
3: Waste to Energy Week
4: Dialog INSTRUCTOR:Wayne Rifer is a Zero Waste Alliance Product Stewardship Associate who
has extensive experience working with public agency waste reduction and
product stewardship. Mr. Rifer has been an environmental professional
for 25 years, working in government, industry and consulting. His work
has addressed integrated solid waste management planning, environmental
management systems, product stewardship and industrial ecology. He was
instrumental in the development of the Oregon State Department of
Environmental Quality Green Permits program and provides consultation to
public agencies from Washington, D.C. to Hawaii. |
NOVEMBER WORKSHOP
LEADERSHIP
SKILLS FOR CHANGE AGENTS
|
Bob Willard | LEADERSHIP
SKILLS FOR CHANGE AGENTS DATES:This course meets on-line on
Mondays (November 1, 8, 15, 22) at 5:00PM Pacific Time for 60 to 90 minutes. Follow this link to the registration page. Register here. WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION:This course prepares sustainability
professionals at any level in the organizational hierarchy to lead an
organizational change to a sustainable enterprise. It connects the dots between
timeless leadership practices and how to transform an organization to a
sustainability culture. Bob teaches how to quantify the
business case for sustainability strategies. LEARNING OBJECTIVES:At the end of this course, participants
will be able to:
- Lead the integration of
sustainability into their organization, using a seven-step sustainability
change process.
- Build an effective, relevant business
case to support their company's transformation to being a sustainable
enterprise.
- Be able to apply effective
change leadership practices during the sustainability change process,
capitalize on change paradoxes, and avoid potential derailers of their
initiatives.
- Help others be more effective
sustainability champions.
INSTRUCTOR:Bob is a leading expert on quantifying and selling
the business value of corporate sustainability strategies. He has given
hundreds of keynote presentations to corporate, government, university, and NGO
audiences on the bottom-line benefits of sustainability strategies. Bob applies
his business and leadership experience to engage the business community in
proactively avoiding risks and capturing opportunities associated with
environmental and social issues. He has authored three books, The
Sustainability Advantage, The Next Sustainability Wave, and The Sustainability
Champion's Guidebook, plus created a DVD of his presentation, The Business Case
for Sustainability. He worked 34 years with IBM Canada, is on the faculty of
the Sustainable Enterprise Academy, and serves on the advisory board of the
Natural Step Canada. He has a PhD in sustainability from the University of
Toronto. See www.sustainabilityadvantage.com for more information about him and
his resources for sustainability champions. |
NOVEMBER WORKSHOP
Sustainability and Supply Chain
Management
|
Sustainability
and Supply Chain Management
DATES:This course meets on-line on (November
2, 9, 16, 23) at 12:00PM Pacific Time for 60-90 minutes. Follow this link to the registration page. Register here. WORKSHOP
DESCRIPTION:Sustainability professionals have a new
opportunity to create long-term business value while enhancing supply chain
performance. Learn how the supply chain is an
integrated system. Understand
relationship building and aligning values. Identify key levers within supply chain network. Discover strengths and limitations of
3rd party certification. Explore
vendor qualification and selection tools. Survey a few formalized tools. Gain practical knowledge of internal and external reporting. As supply chain management (SCM)
evolves from a traditional focus on purchasing and logistics to a broader
emphasis on value creation, supply chain managers seek new approaches to
increasing profitability and efficiency. Applying sustainability principles within SCM processes represents the
next stage in this evolution. LEARNING
OBJECTIVES:The workshop will be divided into two
sections over four weeks. Section 1) A macro examination of the
core business processes and stakeholders within SCM, identifying strategic
opportunities for the application of sustainability principles and discussion
of the unique and largely untapped role that sustainability professionals can
play in helping to improve supply chain performance. Section 2) Focus is on specific
application of tools at a tactical level to achieve sustainability objectives.
This will include discussions related to measurement and metrics, supply chain
partner identification, third-party certification programs and sustainability
reporting. INSTRUCTOR:Rick Woodward is a graduate of Portland
State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and
Masters in Business Administration. He is active in various industry and
business groups discussing the measurement and communication of the value of
sustainability of both products and processes. He is a frequent guest lecturer
at various colleges, universities, and business groups presenting
sustainability as a critical success factor and corporate strategy for value
creation. Until recently, Mr. Woodward served as
the Corporate Director of Operations and Sustainability for Coastwide
Laboratories, a Staples Company, a leading chemical formulator and distributor
of janitorial and sanitary maintenance products in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. Woodward serves on the boards of
the International Society of Sustainability Professionals and the Network for
Business Innovation and Sustainability. He is a US Green Building Council LEED
Accredited Professional and a member of the Institute of Management Accountants
and the Responsible Purchasing Network. |
Webinar October 7, 2010
Connecting Corporate Sustainability and the Financial Services Sector
|
ISSP WEBINAR: Connecting Corporate Sustainability and the Financial Services Sector Thursday Oct 7 at 12:00PM Pacific Time-USA Free to ISSP Members. $25 for Non-members. Follow this link to the registration page. Register here. Join
Peter Soyka, an environmental management and strategy consultant and founder
and President of Soyka & Company, and Ira Feldman, founder, president and
senior counsel of greentrack strategies and ISSP board member for a
presentation on Connecting Corporate Sustainability and the Financial Services
Sector. They will speak to the emerging trends and the relevance, changing
landscape and implications of Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) role in
sustainability plans. Better integration of ESG into corporate and
financial sector decision making seems highly likely, and understanding of this
area will become increasingly important. Relevance: - How
does ESG performance influence security risk and opportunity, insurance
portfolios, and loan books? - Changing
stakeholder expectations for corporate social responsibility. - Importance
of and dramatic growth in SRI. - Bottom
line-more people are using more corporate ESG data for more different
purposes, especially in the financial services sector. The Changing Landscape:- Advances
in investor (SRI and other) sophistication concerning ESG issues. - Greater
availability of ESG data. - Entry
of large mainstream financial sector institutions into ESG space. - Evolving
interpretations of fiduciary duty. - Activist
investors. - Emerging
trends and growing expertise in Europe and Asia. Regulatory
uncertainty. Implications for Those Involved in Sustainability
and/or Finance and who should attend: Sustainability professionals who
need to better understand how ESG information is used, by whom, and for what
purposes within the financial community: - What
endpoints, metrics, and indicators matter?
- What
types of analyses are performed using ESG data?
- How
can companies more effectively interact with financial sector entities and
professionals?
Investment, insurance, and lending professionals who need to better understand the points of
intersection between ESG issues, corporate sustainability management practices,
and ESG performance and financial risk and opportunity: - What
ESG issues pose the biggest risks and provide the greatest opportunities?
- What
types of corporate governance and management practices provide the best
assurance that a company will outperform in the future?
- What
types of ESG information are most likely to be of value to analysts,
investors, and their clients/beneficiaries?
PRESENTERS:Peter Soyka is an environmental management and strategy consultant and founder
and President of Soyka & Company, LLC. With 24 years of environmental
management experience, he has served a wide variety of private- and
public-sector clients focusing on improved, cost-effective environmental and
sustainability performance. Mr. Soyka's recent work has been focused on
identifying and capturing the financial and other organizational benefits of
proactive environmental management and sustainability practices. Recently he provided expert research, facilitation, and guidance to a
cross-Agency Steering Group within the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) formed to examine and leverage domestic capital markets to promote
environmental/sustainability performance improvements. Mr. Soyka has been a featured invited speaker at a number of national and
international environmental management conferences and symposia, and has
participated in workshops and taught courses on such topics as corporate
finance and governance, environmental accounting, pollution prevention, and
environmental performance/sustainability indicators. Mr. Soyka holds Master of
Environmental Management and Master of Business Administration degrees from
Duke University and a B.A., in Zoology and Environmental Studies from the
University of Vermont. He also is a founder and serves as President of the recently formed Sustainable
Enterprise Institute, a not-for-profit research and training organization
dedicated to promoting sustainable business practices. Ira Feldman is founder, president and senior
counsel of greentrack strategies, a consultancy focusing on strategic
environmental management and sustainable business practices. He is on the ISSP
board and is a co-author for ISSP's The
Sustainability Professional: 2010 Competency Survey Report. He
has cut an interdisciplinary swath across three usually distinct spheres:
"big picture" environmental policy; environmental law and regulation;
and environmental management. Today, he is widely recognized as a thought
leader in linking the regulatory and non-regulatory trends that form the basis
of a "greentrack" or dual track approach to environmental regulation and
management; for championing the implementation of a new generation of
environmental management tools; for creating voluntary environmental excellence
initiatives, and for advancing the state of the art in environmental auditing
and disclosure. Mr. Feldman is perhaps best known for his
leadership role in the development of the ISO 14000 series of standards in the
US and at the international level, and for his early recognition of the public
policy and regulatory implications of voluntary environmental management
standards. He is now one of the six US experts in the multi-stakeholder
process developing ISO 26000 on social responsibility. Mr. Feldman also played
a key role in the early development of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
and in the identification of sustainability metrics used in the GRI protocol. Mr. Feldman has both a legal and a technical
background in environmental issues. He completed an interdisciplinary B.A./M.S.
program magna cum laude at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia where
he was a Benjamin Franklin Scholar. Mr. Feldman completed additional graduate
work in environmental risk assessment and toxicology at the Johns Hopkins
School of Public Health in Baltimore, and he received his doctorate in law from
the Columbia Law School in New York where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
Mr. Feldman has returned to Penn as a visiting professor to promote
interdisciplinary approaches and sustainability concepts in environmental
policy, law, and management. He also has an adjunct appointment at American
University's Washington College of Law. |
Hold the date! Sept 21-23, 2011 Portland, OR ISSP is planning its first un-conference, a combination of traditional conference sessions plus skill building sessions and generative dialogs. Get this into your budget for 2011!
|
|
View from Europe: Assault on Sustainability
Alan AtKisson | Our faculty member and author, Alan AtKisson, summarizes the state of sustainability in Europe and around the world.
"Reading the news has not been easy for
champions of sustainability in recent weeks, at least in the Western World.
That means the news has not been kind to the interests of future generations,
to new economic thinking, to accelerated innovation, to long-term prosperity,
or to life on Earth, for that matter." Read more....
|
NOTE: We now have a relationship with Better World Books, a bookseller that shares our values. We will begin to provide links to purchase the books we review on the ISSP site, at least the books BWB carries). So if you want to purchase books and benefit ISSP at the same time, check for links at the top of book reviews on our website. Darcy Hitchcock has new book reviews in the member resource section. Glennon, Robert (2009) Unquenchable: America's water crisis and what to do about it. Washington CD: Island Press. Robert, Karl-Henrik (2002) The Natural Step Story: Seeding a quiet revolution. Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Publishers. Order book.
|
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 eventsSpecial discounts for ISSP members. Disaster Risk Reduction Certificate, Sept 6-17, Lusanne, Switzerland and November 8-19, Bangalore, India Green Initiatives Conference, September 29-30, Atlanta, GA GoGreen, October 5, 2010, Portland, Oregon, April , 2011, Austin, Texas, April 2011 TBD Sustainable Building Advisory Program, October, Portland, Oregon Gaining Ground 2010, October 4-7, Victoria, BC Integrating Life Cycle Thinking, October 26-27, Miami Photovoltaic System & Grid Integration Forum 2010, November 9-10, Beijing Mine Wastewater Management, November 15-16, Perth, Australia
|
|
|
|