Towards Sustainable Practice

Understand – Framework for Sustainable Practice

Framework for Sustainable Practice

• Understand - what sustainable success means

• Vision – using sustainability as a guiding light

• Baseline – where are you now?

• Plan / do – set strategy / take action

• Measure – evaluate, review

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Copyright © BusinessLAB Ltd 2008, adapted from The Natural Step

Understand - what sustainable success means

1. An understanding of the framework for sustainable practice and the steps your business can undertake to reach success.

2. Understand how you relate to that system on a personal level (TSP 1).

3. The explanation of the current situation using two converging trends and society’s response to these trends.

4. The opportunities and threats of these trends to your business.

5. A broad scope of what sustainability is and the issues with it’s explanation.

6. The complexity of systems and why understanding systems is important to understanding sustainability.

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Vision – using sustainability as a guiding light

1. Awareness of what the future will need to look like for society to be sustainable.

2. A principled definition of sustainable practice.

3. A clear co-created vision of what your organisation or business would look like in a sustainable society.

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Baseline – where are you now?

1. Enable you to see what your organisation or business looks like today.

2. Analyse current operations as part of the larger system.

3. Compile information about the patterns and resource flow in relation to and through your business.

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Plan / do – set strategy / take action

1. Brainstorm future actions for your company

2. List every possible action no matter how ‘crazy it sounds.

3. Prioritise these actions into short, medium and long-term actions using the three prioritising questions.

4. Create a strategic plan for your business.

5. Put the plan into action!

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Measure – evaluate, review

1. Identify the various tools that can be sued for verification, measuring and reporting on your move towards sustainability.

2. Ensure that there is a range of tools that allow you to measure numerous aspects of your organisation.

3. Regularly evaluate whether these actions are moving you towards your vision of success.

4. Review these evaluations and implement new actions if there is potential for increased action.

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure

Summary

• It is extremely important to understand the big picture and the systems in which the business operates.

• The aim is for the business to work within the system boundaries – both natural and social such as legislation and taxes.

• By undertaking each of the framework components and continually reviewing their progress, will assist the organisation to move towards sustainability.

• A strategic plan is only successful if it is applied by a team that works together.

Understand

Vision

Baseline

Plan / do

Measure