Page 26 – Sustainability Academy

As Canada celebrates Canada Day and the USA celebrates the Fourth of July, we take a moment to acknowledge all the government and non-government organizations it takes to run a nation and align countries internationally.

Governments and closely aligned NGOs are integral to the functioning of nations and international treaties. Yet, they are often overlooked as part of the sustainability movement.

In June, the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) celebrated the sustainability efforts of government and government-related organizations. Participants from the US Forest Service, the United Nations Federal Credit Union, and USAA attended our Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program, Advanced Edition 2018.

USAA offers banking, investing, and insurance to those who serve, or served, in the United States military, with more than 12 million members. USAA is growing its internal sustainability efforts and even diversifying into impact investments.

The UN Federal Credit Union manages over $4.3 billion in assets globally. Social responsibility is core to their business. CSE is proud to have multiple members from their US headquarters attend the training.

The US Forest service is highly cognizant of the UN SDGs as it moves forward domestically, and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines is focused on using sustainability opportunities to limit risk.

While we welcome government-affiliated participants, the training also included non-profits such as the Nature Conservancy, Atlantic Health System and The Resource Foundation. The fully booked course also had participants from such diverse corporations as Exxon, Celgene and Stantec.

CSE is proud of our service to progressing sustainability strategy, goals, and reporting. With consulting worldwide, our in-person trainings, and our award-winning Sustainability Academy, we offer important knowledge and resources in all aspects of Sustainability.

Our next training is in Houston, Texas, September 27-28, 2018. Appropriate to the region, the focus will be on the energy sector. Early-bird registration will end soon, and our recent trainings have been sold out. With questions or for more information, contact [email protected].

CSE delivered yet another successful session of the Certified CSR Practitioner Program, this time in Bucharest. The Advanced Edition 2018 of the global Certified CSR Practitioner Program was held in Bucharest for the very first time on the 21st and 22nd of June. This high level professional training was fully booked and CSE managed, once again, to bring together executives from different fields from both local and multinational companies such as KPMG, Baxter Healthcare, Raiffeisen Bank and other leading organizations.

The new GRI standards and SDGs together with the Social Return on Investment were among the key topics of the program. More than 1500 CSR directors from leading European companies have attented this leading program in the field of CSR.

This two day workshop was designed as part of CSE’s mission to further educate professionals and enhance their knowledge on CSR in order to increase their organizations’ positive impact on society, the environment and the economy.

Coming up next are sessions in Houston, Sept. 27-28, 2018. CSE is a leading advisory organization in training and consulting governments, large multinationals and small-medium enterprises in more than 30 countries. CSE’s experience has serviced Fortune 500 companies, governments and institutions across diverse sectors.

Next trainings for the year include Toronto in October, Dubai, UAE, in November, and London, UK, in December.

Acknowledging the extreme effects of the environmental fluctuations on communities and the need for rigorous action to protect the environment and individuals, Canada is leading the way to advancing policies and strategies that will ensure long-term sustainability in its cities.

Inspired by the country’s initiatives, CSE is bound to responsibly address the importance of the UN SDG’s and Carbon Footprint Reduction. Upon popular demand, the advanced edition of the Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program will be hosted in Toronto for the second time this year. The leading training program aims to provide the sustainability professionals with all the essential and practical tools and resources in order to deliver the most effective strategies in favor of the environment and society.

Following the 2017 UN climate report it is pointed that the effects of the climate-related events have increasingly shifted the lives of societies and global health. In this context, green buildings seem to play an important role in advancing the Sustainable Development Goals and addressing the challenges of rapid urbanization, resource limitations and climate change.

Building more but acting greener

Given the indisputable fact that building and construction account for more than 30 percent of CO2 emissions, the work of the World Green Building Council is significant in terms of promoting affordable and clean energy and facing the challenges of global warming. From this angle, Canadian Government has put into force innovative projects and policies in order to reach the long term goal of creating more “net-zero” cities in the future that promote the health and wellbeing while using climate-resilient infrastructure. Despite the growth of floor space over the past fifteen years in Canadian buildings, GHGs emissions have fallen, explaining how successfully local, federal and market actions along with the greening of the electrical network have been combined towards that innovation.

With regards to Toronto, the city is engaged in operations to achieve the gas reduction target of 80% by 2050 and improve its energy performance overall that will grow economy and will advance social equity.

CSE is on track with Toronto’s transformational low-carbon plans and invites you to one of its leading certified practitioner programs in sustainability this October, 25-26, 2018. Be sure to claim your spot and learn all about the hot trends including the UN SDG’s and newest GRI standards.

Houston is the 5th most populous metro area in the US. It has experienced unexpected population growth, was devastated by Hurricane Harvey and faces the potential for severe flooding in 2018.

Welcome to the new normal. How do urban centers and companies prepare? By hiring sustainability professionals.

Those trained in a focused sustainability methodology will be leading the way. Research shows 87% of Sustainability professionals are embedded throughout different organization departments, opening a wide range of job opportunities.

As companies are forced to rebuild from disaster and design strategies to take Houston into the 2020s, training becomes key. Module 1 of CSE’s Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program addresses the crucial business case for sustainability. By the time attendees reach Module 8, they are ready to apply important skills to the future trends.

Join the CSE Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program in Houston, Sept. 27-28, 2018. CSE is a boutique sustainability consultant and trainer with an international presence. Next trainings for the year include Toronto in October, Dubai, UAE, in November, and London, UK, in December.

SEE THE RECORDED WEBINAR (30 min.)

Learn why you should avoid greenwashing and how to do it by integrating the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals in your sustainability strategy.

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) and the Sustainability Academy recently organized this live webinar to provide a useful and comprehensive presentation of the risks of Greenwashing and how they can be avoided by the proper and effective integration of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals in your corporate strategy and Sustainability Report. The webinar was attended by Sustainability (CSR) professionals and managers and entrepreneurs.

The webinar was presented by Nikos Avlonas, President of CSE and distinguished Sustainability trainer of the Global CSR Practitioner Training Program, recently awarded by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation as Impact Practitioner of the Year 2018, and Rosalinda Sanquiche, CSE North America.

Key aspects of the webinar:

Provide groundbreaking insights of why greenwashing can have a devastating effect on an organization’s image, reputation and financial results.
Provide consultation of how to take conscious leadership to another level with concrete methods, according to the 17 SDGs
Provide practical tools on how to create sustainable business strategies using the SDGs
Provide essential tools on how to create a Sustainability Report incorporating the SDGs
Provide you with updated information on what cutting edge companies are doing to integrate the SDGs into their strategy
Uncover the essential personal development tools that you (and your team) need, in order to maximise your sustainability performance

ABOUT CSE

The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) specializes in global sustainability consulting, coaching and training. CSE has trained over 5,000 professionals, many from the Fortune Global 500. CSE is accredited by CMI (Chartered Management Institute) and is a GRI certified training provider. The Sustainability Academy offers affordable, specialized online education in sustainability and corporate responsibility. The Academy ambitiously plans to train 100,000 sustainability practitioners by 2020!

Want to access the webinar?

Fill in the Following Form and we will send you the recorded presentation

CSE trainings move beyond ESG metrics to show positive corporate results from incorporating the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Investors are increasingly calling for robust corporate sustainability reporting (CSR). Stakeholders are questioning long-term performance in a carbon-constrained world. Many are pressing companies to go beyond the standard ESG (environment, social, governance) approach — measures aimed at limiting corporate impact. They want to know how companies can improve the world. Working toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can guide companies toward areas of positive, measurable impacts stakeholders desire.

To facilitate this transition, CSE has incorporated the SDGs into its research, consulting and certification programs. CSE’s Sustainability Reporting Trends in North America 2017 finds that only 6.2% of companies are integrating SDGs in their reporting to stakeholders. This provides an enormous opportunity for companies to establish themselves as leaders. Top companies are listening! Forbes reported on CSE research, interviewing CSE president Nikos Avlonas, award-winning CSR pioneer and best-selling author.

CSE research informs their Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program, Advanced Edition, which has been updated for 2018. The program offers Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility training for professionals who want to maximize their company’s impact and become qualified with the latest knowledge in the field. More than 90% of FORTUNE 500 senior managers and VPs have attended the programs and joined over 1500 Certified Sustainability Practitioners from over 50 countries.

The need for practitioners is urgent in urban centers, leading CSE to offer three spring trainings in North America in Atlanta, Toronto and New York. Urban centers need an enormous influx of sustainability-trained staff. Whether it’s infrastructure, finance, transportation, or health care, manufacturing, real estate, energy or IT, trained sustainability practitioners are needed in every field and every discipline – public and private.

CSE addressed a major need in the US – sustainability in IT, an emerging sector in Atlanta, March 8-9, 2018. CSE research has identified weaknesses in the IT sector. Silicon Valley corporations lag behind the sustainability achievements of the Fortune Global 500, leaving a major opportunity for Atlanta. On top of a comprehensive agenda, other topics key to their regions were the focus of training in New York City, June 11-12.

As companies are forced to rebuild from disaster and design strategies to take Houston into the 2020s, training becomes key. Module 1 of CSE’s Certified Sustainability (CSR) Practitioner Program addresses the crucial business case for sustainability. By the time attendees reach Module 8, they are ready to apply important skills to the future trends.

For more information on city themes, registration and Group Discounts, contact [email protected].

From raging wildfires in California, to Hurricane Harvey in Houston and historic flooding and winter storms in Boston, cities and companies across the U.S. are on the frontlines of climate change impacts. They push back against the narrative that the U.S. is abandoning its commitments. They take long-term responsibility for their actions and realize the importance of sustainability in a transparent and honest way.

Houston: Sustainability Practitioners Needed

CSE is bound to help sustainability executives in this mission and genuinely guide them towards making a positive impact on the world. CSE’s Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program in Houston, September 27-28 will responsibly address the importance of Sustainability in the Supply Chain and Carbon Footprint Reduction in order to provide companies with all the necessary tools and resources to be sustainable and not cause harm to the environment and the society.

Donald Trump may have sparked unprecedented determination within the US to confront the danger of climate change. Following Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, the president was assailed by businesses ranging from Facebook to Goldman Sachs for risking America’s economic and environmental standing.

Perhaps most significantly, a coalition of lawmakers, companies and universities realized that they are at the forefront of climate solutions and took action in an attempt to reassure the world that the US wasn’t completely abandoning the field. New York City, Houston, Miami and San Francisco have all taken steps to mitigate the risks associated with rising sea levels and global temperatures.

In the beginning of June the International Mayors Climate Summit served as a critical opportunity for some of the most influential mayors and leaders to prioritize, collaborate, and learn from one another about approaches to the global crisis on climate change.

During the event, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said, “In Houston, we have to face the reality of climate change, when you’re dealing with three 500-year floods in three years … We don’t have a choice. If we don’t move with a sense of urgency, then our cities will suffer.”

Professionals who will complete the Certified Sustainability Practitioner Program in Houston, September 27-28 , will be enabled with all the practical tools to implement effective sustainability strategies, thus offering a better chance for overall success.

The importance of understanding the critical concept of social impact and how this is interlinked with the company’s environmental, financial and social operations along with its measurement is only but growing among marketing professionals.

According to current trends profitable organizations track and measure their societal outcomes. This is the only way to ensure that their investments have been effective. Therefore, an increasing number of companies and professionals are working towards that path in order to deliver on assessable expectations of their stakeholders. That, however, might involve a complex situation in terms of balancing calculations.

It is commonly known, especially in the age of social media that doing just profitable business doesn’t equal responsible business and that might affect a corporate image on a long term while also make the stakeholders to disengage sooner than expected. On the other half, it is not adequate for a company to simply assume itself active within the corporate social impact industry just by taking initiatives that stress the social and environmental aspect. Most companies are able to set social goals nonetheless not all might contribute to a succesful sustainability strategy. Recognizing impacts is not the difficult part to do whist translating the human experience into numbers might involve a failure in capturing all of it. What is key in the process of social impact measurement is knowing what to quantify, have internal and external focus on strategies that meet long-term goals and emphasize on purpose-driven communication efforts.

Steps need to be made to embrace a culture of change-making. In order for a successful vision to be established, it is required a shifting in consciousness. That means that professionals have besides strong leadership skills, also the ability to be open in constant learning over impact assessment. The more you invest in it the more likely is to find the framework and methods that best align to your needs. Once organizational capacity receives the right training and develops the skills to measure impact success then change is reflected.

Are you ready to advance your skills in Sustainability with a hands-on training? Sustainability Academy offers you the right online course to get all the information needed on Social Impact Assessment and SROI and takes you through the main issues of identifying inputs, outputs and outcomes of CSR initiatives.

Forty six years following its first celebration on June 5^th, the Environment is honoring its day and calls the world to action under the theme of “beating plastic pollution”. Holding number one place in the environment threat list, plastic accounts for 10% of all of our waste on a global scale indicating the need of individuals to unite and step-up efforts to reduce the amount of single-use plastics.

CSE’s training in Houston builds on Environment Day lessons, presenting an opportunity to all Sustainability Practitioners who want to focus on climate change challenges and make an impact.

Choosing to celebrate our Environment on a single day aims to act more as a reminder on how its protection should be embedded in the human mindset and our overall behavior on an ongoing basis.

After Canada and “connecting people to nature”, World Environment Day 2018 has India this year’s host country. Recent reports indicate the disturbing level of pollution deriving from plastics and micro plastics and the necessity of their replacement to non-plastic or more biodegradable ones making them easier to recycling. India seems to be one of the booming countries in the world with regards to recycling rates while statistics report that an average Indian uses about a tenth of plastics compared to the usage of an average American. On the contrary, the Indian government aims to increase the per capita plastics consumption as it is perceived that it represents an economic advance.

Nevertheless, the country is willing to deal with that matter by initiating some interesting and creative actions. Part of the celebrations today includes a plastic clean-up in Taj Mahal as well as in 100 more historical cities.

The UN Environment communicates some tips to reinforce the movement such as:

To bring your own shopping bags to the supermarket
Carry a refillable eater bottle
Refuse plastic cutlery and straws
Support the non-plastic packaging (food suppliers)
Support single-use plastic bags

The Center for Sustainability & Excellence values the Environment Day and designs its trainings to highlight the foundation as trusted by Fortune 500 global executives in order to help organizations make every day significant to our Environment.

Next stop for the Certified Sustainability (CSR) Programs will be in Houston, 27-28 September and upon popular demand for the second time this year in Toronto 25-26 October. Register now and get all the tools you need.

When the Centre for Sustainability and Excellence (CSE) began its research into Sustainability Reporting in North America, we knew we’d get important insights on how companies approach reporting, what they include, perhaps most importantly, what they omit.

Of the North America companies under review in the 2015-2016 sustainability reporting period, only 6.2% integrated SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals) in their reporting, and only 6% integrated all 17 SDGs. Most incorporated some, and 21% just mentioned them, stating they were under review.

Fast forward a year, and we are finding that in many sectors, the use of UN Sustainable Development Goals in reporting and strategy has increased dramatically. Over 13% of companies which provide sustainability reports in telecommunications include the SDGs; 12.2% in the chemicals sector; 10.4% in retail.

WHY are companies ramping up use of the UN Sustainable Development Goals?

Some argue is it purely greenwashing. How could key multinational corporations have addressed ALL the SDGs mere months after they were presented to the world? Maybe those companies merely took existing programs and imposed them on the SDG framework.

How could reporting of SDGs double in some sectors in just over a year? Again, might they be cherry picking SDGs to match what they are already doing?

And, what of the arguments that the SDGs are too focused on development, an excuse for and justification of continued unsustainable corporate growth? Need a company only claim to follow a few SDGs to otherwise operate unfettered? If a beverage company adheres closely to clean water targets (#6), does it get a pass on good health and well-being (#3)?

There is no perfect corporation, no perfect solution to poverty (#1), peace and justice (#16) or any of the other SDGs. Yes, there may be some contradictions in the targets – how does one simultaneously “develop” and “protect”?

Yet, the SDGs offer GOALS, targets, and ambitions. They refine complex concerns to easily understandable concepts. They demonstrate interrelationships, emphasize the need for collaboration and unite nations in common action for the greater good.

As for greenwashing, SDGs provide a framework within which corporations can state efforts, measure progress and strive for more. Once a company claims progress on an SDG, it opens itself to scrutiny. If a company says it is committed to protecting life on land (#15), its actions are then viewed through this lens. SDG language, perhaps started as greenwashing, becomes a promise by which stakeholders can judge a company’s actions.

Have SDGs never been and never will be used for greenwashing? Of course not. Whether on purpose, poor planning, or oversight, the less vigilant can fail to meet their promises.

That is why CSE holds trainings in strategic locations. The Energy sector accounts for 13% of sustainability reporting in the US, followed by Financial Services – both critical to the regional economy. These sectors will be expected to report at minimum on progress toward clean energy (#7), decent work and economic growth (#8), industry, innovation, and infrastructure (#9), and climate change (#13).

What the SDGs provide is a checklist by which companies can be held accountable. The sooner companies can manifest them throughout their corporate culture, the better for all of us.

By Nikos Avlonas

Originally posted to CSRWire

Continue reading “UN Sustainable Development Goals – Rather than Corporate Opportunity Are SDGs Used for Greenwashing?”