About ISSP

—Making sustainability standard practice—

As a professional association, ISSP improves the skills of sustainability practitioners through education, knowledge sharing and research.

Learn more about the benefits of membership below.  See also the history of ISSP , FAQs , and Founders & Sponsors.

Community - ISSP uses web technology to help you search for and connect with people who share certain interests or fit certain criteria. Search for people in your geographic area, within a specific organization, or find people who are working on specific types of projects or have certain skills.

Resource Sharing - Stop reinventing the wheel!  Start working together and building on expertise! The ISSP site allows members to post and evaluate content. Imagine being able to search for a tool, policy, case study, book or other resource and be able to see at a glance which ones were deemed most worthwhile by other professionals. Also, similar to Wikipedia, the ISSP site allows members to co-create documents or resources. We’ve started a glossary of terms but this feature could also be used to write documents with others.

Advancements in the Field - Engage in discussions through topic-centered forums to get answers to difficult challenges from experienced professionals.

Professional Development - ISSP will provide distance learning (planned for late 2008) so that you can take classes with a cohort of peers, accessing the best instructors from all over the world. The first planned offering will be a set of courses designed to get new sustainability coordinators up to speed in a hurry.

Conferences - Don’t waste time and generate greenhouse gases traveling to a conference. Instead, participate in periodic webcasts and teleconferences on leading-edge topics. Imagine being briefed on the latest development in the field or asking questions of the author of a newly released book. Eventually, we may also offer face-to-face conferences as well.

Career Assistance - Our web site will have a special section devoted to career advancement with job postings, job descriptions, salary studies and other useful information. We also offer discounted career development coaching services.

Professional Journal - ISSP will produce an e-Journal Digest that goes out to all members. It will point you toward the latest articles, book reviews, or events that have been posted on the site.

Professional Standards - Many members are expressing an interest in moving toward some form of professional accreditation. ISSP hopes to be the nexus where exploration about accreditation can take place.