About ISSP

Services/Benefits

Networking—Similar to MySpace, the ISSP site helps 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! 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.

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.

Local Connections—Since many areas already have robust local networking groups related to sustainability, ISSP won’t focus on creating and managing local chapters. But you can create your own groups, either by geographic area or interest area, to organize your own networking opportunities and events.

ISSP History

In early 2006, the idea of an organization dedicated to the promotion and support of the emerging group of sustainability professionals was first being discussed at the Zero Waste Alliance.  So many other professions have their own professional association. Where was ours? After searching the Internet and talking with existing organizations that might be positioned to become one, we determined that we might need to start a professional society from scratch. An initial marketing effort was launched in the second half of 2006 to determine if we were the only ones that thought it was a good idea and discovered that many other people were eager to have such a resource.  The biggest needs, according to our market research, included:

• Networking: To be able to find other people who shared your interests or were working on similar projects

• Sharing Best Practices and Tools: To have a repository for case studies, sample policies and job descriptions, and other resources.

• Professional Development: Conferences and workshops

 By the end of 2006, a core group of committed Zero Waste Alliance associates had come together to seriously look at the feasibility, outline the framework and determine a timeline for launching. The executive team put in untold hours getting an initial website up and running but eventually exceeded the technical knowledge to finish it. AXIS Performance Advisors put up the initial capital to pay for a web designer to finish the site. By early 2007, we had an advisory board of respected sustainability professionals from around the world to help vet the design and a couple corporate sponsors underwriting the costs of getting the organization started.  Approximately 50 founding members from around the world started populating the site with useful material in 2nd quarter of 2007.  In October 2007 we opened the doors for inaugural members for a soft launch.  By early 2008, we already had about 200 members from around the world and began a webinar series.

 

FAQs

Why is this the right time?

More and more organizations are trying to implement sustainability and yet integrated, comprehensive approaches to promoting sustainability are the exception, not the rule. Director of sustainability or sustainability coordinator positions are proliferating to aid these organizations wanting to embed sustainability into every level of their operations/structure so that sustainability becomes part of everyday business. Why should they all have to start at ground zero? Where do these people go for career development? While there are a few universities with sustainability programs, there is a need for professional development on a broader scale. Many colleagues have expressed a desire to connect with others doing this work to support and learn from one another. See the survey for more information about the purpose and services of ISSP.

What is the philosophy of ISSP?

We believe... Sustainability can be defined in different ways in different contexts but at its root is an acknowledgement of the limits of nature and a long-term systems view that includes social and economic elements as well as environmental ones. The world is in its infancy in learning how to develop a sustainable society, so open dialog about different approaches will be key to our success. No one has the whole picture or the whole answer, so through collaboration, experimentation, and information sharing, together we can find paths toward a better, more sustainable world.

Why form another sustainability organization?

While there are other organizations related to sustainability, they tend to be focused on a geographic area, framework, philosophy or sector. None are truly professional societies dedicated to supporting the professional development of practitioners globally, across sectors and philosophies. ISSP will not compete with these other groups but instead will leverage what they have and extend their reach. Many of these organizations have content that would be of interest to people who would not want to be members. Why should everyone develop their own green purchasing guidelines or sustainability coordinator job descriptions. Certainly there are discussions that are best done in these other groups, but we see ISSP as the place to share materials of general interest and explore synergies across sectors, geographic areas and philosophies. Sustainability is about the whole system after all!

Who created ISSP?

ISSP was formed as a program under the Zero Waste Alliance (a program under the International Sustainable Development Foundation), a 501 (c) 3 non profit. There are currently four members of ZWA who act as the Executive Team for ISSP. We have an Advisory Board with respected professionals from around the world.  We also invited approximately 50 Founding Members who populated the site with useful content and will help recruit and support new members.

Why not create a separate non-profit?

If at some point it becomes advantageous to create a separate non-profit, we will pursue that.

Who controls ISSP?

While ISSP has an Executive Team of people who have volunteered countless hours to get ISSP up and running, the members are utimately in control of what ISSP becomes. No one can 'control' a web-based platform like this. The Executive Team members have had an 'if you build it, they will come' attitude and believe that the organization will become what the members need, evolving over time.