Context: Everyone now accepts that things are going awry with our planetary life-support systems, and that at the same time key resources are becoming scarcer. The system seems so complex and so inexorable that our best remedial efforts seem futile. Sustainability is desirable yet with so many variables how can we possibly do it? And anyway, we’re not in business to save the planet, we’re here to survive and hopefully turn a profit.
The Natural Step (TNS)
The purpose of TNS is to develop an understanding of the principles of sustainability, learning from the master model of Nature (3,5 billion-year track record of resilience), so that we can develop in ways that work with, not against, those principles - and do so in a way that doesn’t break the bank now and that contributes to our long-term profitability.
A TNS intervention: depending on the audience we start with something of a wake-up with the main challenges presenting on our planet – Global Warming, Peak Oil, pollution, desertification . . . We track all these disturbances back upstream to discover that all of them are symptoms of four underlying systemic imbalances, all human-induced. Once these imbalances have been identified, we derive four rather simple and elegant “System Conditions” for sustainability. We explore how these System Conditions can be applied in our own circumstances, and then workshop together how we can use this insight to design systematic changes in our operations which will make us increasingly sustainable.
TNS does not judge or prescribe; it simply describes what works and what doesn’t. We have a large network with organisations worldwide who have used this model to plot their own courses towards sustainability, so we can share how others have dealt with the kinds of issues you are likely to confront. TNS also provides a common language which enables people in different disciplines, with different entry points to the problem, to converse meaningfully. Several large companies now issue their Annual Reports in terms of how they are faring within each of the four System Conditions.
An introductory TNS presentation can be as short as one hour, and for an organisation to adopt this model it is necessary that senior management have all been exposed to this presentation. We like then to take an hour or two with you to apply the model to the real-life issues of your company. Then to embed the deep wisdom of this method of thinking into your strategic planning we’ll need to identify one or more leaders who will be taken through a 5-day certification training and will then link with TNS-International to network with others around the world in your ongoing journey towards sustainability.
