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THE OTHER HAND INTRODUCTION |
SUSTAINABLE ALTERNATIVE | PLANNING
PROCESS | FIVE
STEPS TO SUSTAINABILITY | WHAT
SEA O2 CAN DO FOR YOU |
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IDENTIFY ALL THE ISSUES |
SEE HOW YOU MEASURE UP | DEVELOP
TARGETS FOR THE FUTURE | MAKE
PLANS AND PROGRAMS | MONITOR
AND REPORT |
 | Identify All The Issues Bring together a representative group who know your organisation and identify all the issues that affect your organisation and all the global/environmental things that your organisation affects. These issues are your key sustainability issues. The issues that affect you may include:
The global/environmental issues that your organisation affect may include:
Choose as many indicators as you think appropriate remembering that you will be measuring and monitoring these. Consider the views of people outside of the normal decision making structure. These issues should be those that determine your success economically, politically and in the public eye. Choose as many issues as you can reasonably keep track of. |
| See How You Measure Up Now that you have determined a set of sustainability issues for your organisation, you should consider how to measure your performance against them. For every issue, you develop an indicator. An indicator is a way of describing the issues using numbers. Preferably, choose indicators for which there is information available. Determine what information is available to you. Select an indicator and then assign responsibility to someone to collect the data that goes with these indicators and process the data. Produce graphs that show performance over the past few years if the data is available. This indicator data is a powerful way to determine where your organisation sits in relation to its sustainability issues. Present the information in a brief with lots of tables and not too many words. People don't have time to read lots of words. When you have completed this, you have developed a sustainability baseline report. Congratulations! This is an event to celebrate.Now you know where you are in relation to those things that are important to your organisational success and in relation to your impact on the global systems that support you. |
| Develop Targets For The Future Now that you know where your organization is in relation to the main issues that affect you and you can see a trend, you are in a strong position. You can get a sense of where you are heading. Invent an alternative future for every one of your indicators. This is a type of planning based on innovation and aspiration rather than trend. Remember that every purchase, decision and action carries with it an intent based on either Business As Usual or Your Sustainable Alternative. Consider the small scale and the large scale. Be Bold. Stretch yourself. Assign someone the task of researching new options. Ensure that everyone knows of their findings.Important things to consider for reaching bold targets include, but are not limited to:
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| Make Plans and Programs Knowing where you are now and where you want to be in the future is a key feature of sustainability planning. Once you have developed targets, you must now create innovative programs and actions plans that will get your organization to where you have decided it should be. Be innovative - look everywhere for ideas. Cross subsidise: the projects that make money can pay for the ones that don't. Get the marketing people involved - a little sustainability goes a long way in the press. Some organisations subsidise their sustainability programs. Other organisations only pursue those projects that pay for themselves. It is your decision how to proceed.It is important that a sustainability program is implemented sustainably. A sustainability program should push the boundaries and be enduring. Try Maximum Sustainable Sustainability - go as hard and fast as you can within the constraints of your organisation. You will get good press for this! |
| Monitor and Report In order to maintain the momentum of your sustainability program it is important to monitor progress. This is achieved by regularly checking your performance against your sustainability indicators. Some indicators will be calculated annually, others can be measured more frequently. By measuring your indicators, you can chart your progress towards your Sustainable Alternative.Report your progress. If your program is going great, let people know about it. If its going backwards, publish that too. Make the quest for sustainability a part of your organization's culture Don't try to save the world overnight, do your sustainability in a sustainable manner. Every organization is different. Not everyone will agree. Publish an internal sustainability report. Award prizes for innovation and excellence and determination. Publish an external sustainability report. Put it on your website.Regularly check your issues are appropriate to your needs. |
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