Sustainability in Action

Environmental Sustainability - Learning - Leadership

Sustainability in Action is an integrated learning and leadership process that fast-tracks peoples’ journey to sustainability, building capability, practical action strategies to reduce ecological footprint and leveraging their special contributions to tackle the environmental sustainability challenge.

The Sustainability in Action Process has been honed through 30 years of action research by OzGREEN Co-Founders Sue and Colin Lennox. The Process was piloted by Sue and Colin at Freshwater High School 1989-93 (resulting in school designation as a Centre of Excellence in Environmental Education, UN Media Peace Prize and National Youth Environment Award). The exciting outcomes of this work led Sue and Colin to start-up OzGREEN in 1992, as a vehicle to scale the Sustainability in Action Process.

Today OzGREEN has 12 full time staff, 30 accredited facilitators and is working nationally in Australia and Internationally in East Timor, India and Papua New Guinea. Sue and Colin are recognised as leading Social Entrepreneurs (winners Social Ventures Australia Big Boost 2002) and Sustainability Educators (Environmental Educators of the Year 1998; Top 100 Most Influential People in Sydney List Dec 07; Elders at Australian Association for Environmental Education Conference, Darwin 08). OzGREEN is recognised as a leader in the field of Education for Sustainability (Eureka Prize 2007).

The Sustainability in Action Process provides pathways that progressively build peoples’ engagement with sustainability principles:

• Short Talks: ½ - 2 hour mini-workshops and talks that are accessible to larger audiences of 40-400 people.
• Living Communities: 8x2 hour module program with integrated co-coaching and follow-up.
• Leading with the Heart: 3 day residential sustainability leadership workshop.
• Facilitator Training: 5 day residential training with follow up experiential facilitator accreditation process.
• Special Purpose Programs: based on the Sustainability in Action Process but tailored for specific client needs.

Sustainability in Action Objectives

1.      Strengthen the capacity of people to tackle the ecological challenges of our time.

2.      Build and support a network of sustainability change leaders who are actively working in their community, business or school.

3.      Innovate and scale learning and leadership processes that facilitate rapid transition to environmental sustainability.

Sustainability in Action Process

The Sustainability in Action Process is a unique 3-step transformative learning methodology:

(1) enabling people to become informed and active participants;

(2) identifying and activating their special contributions to sustainability (unique value proposition); and

(3) strengthen resilience and connectivity by creating communities of support.

The process brings together sustainability education, leadership development and connectivity/network building. It supports participants to develop and implement a 2-stage plan for action: firstly their personal, village or organisation sustainability action plan; secondly their sustainability change leadership plan – how they will use their unique value proposition, as individuals and businesses, to contribute to the massive sustainability challenge.

The Process embodies leading edge education methodologies (eg participatory learning and action, experiential learning, deep ecology and strategic questioning) to enable transformational change and build pathways for change.

Focus: hands-on environmental assessments, community/workplace surveys/audits and ecological footprint measurement. A powerful presentation “Pulse of the Planet” provides up-to-date information about the state of the planet (including Footprint, Population, Energy, Climate Change, Peak Oil, Peak Food, Water, Biodiversity). The currency of this material is critical, with background readings for participants often being drawn from the previous week’s media and scientific journals.

Vision: Reflection, questioning and visioning processes enable participants to develop a vision for themselves and their business as sustainability leaders. Case studies and success stories help to inspire participants.

Change: Creative thinking and brainstorming ideas for change – harnessing the intelligence of the workplace, individual and community. Practical demonstrations and a field trip enable participants to see the change.

Action: Practical goal setting and action planning to develop a Sustainability Action Plan for home and work that enables people and businesses to be the change. Practical “how-to” handouts are drawn from freely available publications from NGOs, local, state and federal government.

Sustainability in Action Program Descriptions

Short Talks

Inspiring ½ - 2 hour talks and mini-workshops that introduces Sustainability in Action to staff, stakeholders and wider audiences. These talks sow the seeds for sustainability, enroll people in programs and enable participants to glimpse the potential they have to drive change.

Living Communities

The team agreed that OzGREEN and its Living Communities program was the best vehicle to provide the cross functional, volunteer team with the necessary ammunition to educate and empower the staff within Sun and to lead & drive change. Brodie James, Sun Microsystems

Living Communities is a structured 8x2-hour education program supported by a 50-page manual. The program can be flexibly delivered to match the needs and timeline of the business (eg a two day intensive workshop or a series of lunchtime meetings) – with follow up mentoring as staff implement the Sustainability Action Plan.

Living Communities engages staff intelligence and passion to innovate practical strategies to tackle the sustainability challenge at work, at home and at play. The most important outcome is the strengthening of a core group of committed staff (Eco-team) who develop and implement the Sustainability Action Plan. For companies that have already gathered good audit data, we work that material into the program to accelerate the dialogue and deepen the action plan.

Living Communities modules cover Sustainability; Food; Climate Change; Water; Energy and Transport; Biodiversity; Field Trip; Sustainable Consumption and Waste; Personal Sustainability and Wellbeing. Each module involves:

• Hands-on learning and auditing of ecological impact at home and at work;
• Innovation of practical strategies to reduce ecological footprint;
• Developing short and long term Eco-goals; and
• Reporting back on progress as the Sustainability Action Plan is implemented.

The team has also gained much confidence from understanding that there is no single solution to improving sustainability, but rather a journey of continuous improvements that can deliver environment and financial benefits to Sun.  Re-think, Re-design and Wind-back is the approach taken to challenge the way Sun does business today and drive towards a sustainable future. Brodie James, Sun Microsystems

The Field Trip is co-designed with participants to meet their interests such as: passive solar building design, solar energy systems, grey water treatment systems, composting, permaculture gardening and a shared sustainable picnic lunch (social connections are as important as ecological connections!).

Depending on the structure and frequency of the sessions, follow-up support meetings are conducted at regular intervals to keep staff up to date with this rapidly changing sector and to continue to strengthen their capacity to carry out their plans and realise positive outcomes.  This is an important and powerful element to foster the resilience and follow-through of participants.

Clear outcome measurement processes are imbedded in the project design. Reduced ecological impact is tracked in terms of reduction of waste to landfill, energy and water as well as reductions in ecological footprint; increased staff capacity and well-being.

Impact and benefits of the program include: an average 35% reduction in participants’ ecological footprint - with some heroes achieving a 60% reduction; 50% reduction in waste stream (Dimension Data); Engagement of staff; Formation of staff Eco-teams that continue to drive the implementation of the Sustainability Action Plan; Increased personal sustainability leadership capability from 2/10 to 8/10; Increased sustainability know-how 4/10 to 9/10; Increased motivation to change 4/10 to 9/10 (from post program self ranking evaluation by participants).

There has been an environmental shift of consciousness in the Sydney office. People come to work feeling they can make a real difference. We couldn’t have done that without OzGREEN. Merle Singer, Dimension Data, Director of CSR and Reputation

Leading with the Heart

LwtH is a 3-day intensive sustainability leadership workshop that takes people on a journey to find their own wisdom and inspiration to live with passion and purpose on an endangered planet.

LwtH facilitates a deeper journey with the focusóvisionóchangeóaction process. Strategic Questioning and Deep Listening skills training and Deep Ecology work evoke deeper creativity, resilience and connectivity between participants.

The program is held in a beautiful natural setting and catered with gourmet sustainable meals provided by Guru Foods.

Feedback from participants rates the program as excellent (93%), really enjoyable (94%), really relevant (92%), and really interesting (94%).  30% of participants are now active volunteers with OzGREEN and 15% have undertaken Facilitator Training. Four Participants have been employed as Sustainability Leaders in their workplace and one has set up a major new eco-business (http://www.zerofootprintaus.com.au/about.php).

“Words fail to describe this program. The respect towards participants, sophistication of techniques, longevity and success of OzGREEN stories and dedication and self knowledge of all involved are unsurpassed in my experience anywhere.” (Hannah, Oct 06)

Facilitator Training

5-day intensive residential leadership workshop supported by a 200 page Training Manual, mentoring and co-learning community. The training encapsulates the practices, pedagogy and principles of the Sustainability in Action Process. Following initial training, trainees are able to assist in OzGREEN leadership programs (Youth LEAD and Leading with the Heart) until they demonstrate the skills to be accredited as Co-Facilitators or Lead Facilitators.

Special Purpose Programs

These programs are based on the Sustainability in Action process but tailored for specific client needs. For example:

Alps 2 Atherton (A2A) Initiative - Hunter Valley Stakeholder Forum (NSW DECC Apr 08): One day forum bringing together 30 organisation leaders from Industry (coal mines, power stations, wineries, tourism, horse studs), environmental NGOs, young people and Government (local and state agencies), to build commitment to mitigate climate change biodiversity impacts in the great eastern ranges, with a vision of building a continental scale lifeline to engage people with nature.

A magical process! Through this workshop OzGREEN has achieved outcomes in one day, that have taken two years of work in other localities. Ian Pulsford, A2A Project Manager (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/12323096@N03/sets/72157604927813033/);

Voices for the Future of APEC (Duke of Edinburgh’s Award/OzGREEN Sep 07): 100 youth leaders from 12 Asia-Pacific economies; 7-day residential program; accredited access to ABAC and APEC meetings; 2-day environmental sustainability intensive: “See the Change-Be the Change” featuring case studies from OzGREEN Corporate Partners and Youth LEAD participants (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFwGJAUaapU and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUk8tG7L8Vg)

The benefits of this collaboration between OzGREEN and AGSM Executive Programs have been extensive.

• It has engaged staff in the development and implementation of the AGSM Executive Programs Sustainability Action Plan.
• It has stimulated awareness and action amongst staff.
• It has built community, strengthened team cohesiveness and improved staff retention in a mostly GenY workplace.
• It has been fun and inspirational. Staff are enjoying the program. It is important that they know we care about the environment.
• Staff have built their capacity to talk about and act on sustainability issues at home, in the workplace and with other friends and colleagues.
• It is critical that AGSM Executive Programs walk the talk. Sustainability needs to be a core principle for any business and there is good evidence that organisations that get sustainability do better at business because they focus on efficiency and effectiveness.
• AGSM Executive Programs are leading the way and serving as a role model in walking the talk for their clients.

There have been particular benefits in working with OzGREEN. The initiative, professional experience and flexibility of their approach has enabled the program to be tailored to suit AGSM Executive Programs needs and core capabilities. The depth of knowledge and experience that OzGREEN brings is solid and the inspiration, energy and dedication of OzGREEN staff is catching.

Rosemary Howard, Executive Director AGSM Executive Programs (May 2008)