ISSP plans to offer a variety of workshops to enhance the professional skills of members. We will likely begin with a certificate program that marries sustainable practices with organizational change theory. We have a grant request to fund its development. We hope to offer this late in 2008. Please see the draft design below.

To register for workshops, click here.

Implementing Sustainability: Key concepts and practices for sustainability directors and coordinators
(distance learning--in development)

Note: This is a concept design only. We hope to offer this in the fall of 2008.

Implementing sustainability in an organization requires both an understanding of sustainability and also an understanding of organizational change practices. This series leads you step by step through the process of developing an implementation strategy, getting some practical projects going, and then embedding sustainability into the culture and systems of your organization. This is delivered in a distance learning mode so that you can fit it into your schedule while also developing relationships with others in your learning cohort. You also receive one-on-one coaching assistance from the instructors.

Take the whole series for a Sustainability Professional Certificate or take individual semester classes.

Semester 1: Foundations Course

• How to take an online course
• Role of sust. coordinator; change agent concepts (articles and discussion).
• Sustainability related trends
• Building a compelling business case for your organization
• Common sustainability frameworks in use: strengths and weaknesses
• Understanding your impacts and opportunities
• Implementation steps and approaches
• Business simulation (online exercise)
• Assessing your organization
• Picking logical projects for the coming year
• Getting top management support (for sustainability and the project ideas)

Semester 2: Places to start—Common low-hanging fruit

• Bleeding edge concepts: Where is the future of energy going (peak oil, hydrogen, etc.)? What are the latest natural resource conservation strategies and will they be enough?
• Easy opportunities in your office operations
• Finding energy savings—facilities upgrades and behavioral issues
• Waste reduction—zero waste as a concept; strategies; how to do a waste audit
• Purchasing—strategies and techniques. Making sense of the certification schemes out there.

Semester 3: Developing better systems

• Bleeding edge concepts: An exercise on imagining a fully integrated sustainability effort in a fully sustainable world.
• Sustainability management systems—structures and processes
• Structures such as steering committees, task forces, green teams, etc.
• Human Resources
• Chemical management systems
• Decision tools and techniques (life cycle costing, sustainability cost/benefit, etc.)

Semester 4: Communicating with the rest of the world

• Bleeding edge discussion: Global reporting; trends in global regulations, market pressures, etc.
• Public relations
• Marketing sustainability: should you do it and how
• Sustainability reports
• Stakeholder management techniques

Advanced Electives: Advanced methods and emerging strategies

• Product stewardship/cradle to cradle
• Supply chain management
• Life cycle assessment
• Biomimicry
• Converting products into services

About the Instructors

The core facilitators for the Implementing Sustainability Certificate Program are Darcy Hitchcock and Marsha Willard, authors of The Business Guide to Sustainability and the SCORE assessment process. Guest instructors , experts in the field, will supplement the content.

Contact us at: info@sustainabilityprofessionals.org

Other Resources

EcoSpeakers

EcoSpeakers provides speakers for campus events and conferences. Topics include sustainability, climate change, community planning, green business, water, energy, transportation, recycling, pollution, green building, and more.

For more information visit EcoSpeakers at
http://www.ecospeakers.com