Opportunities for Social Business
At the Clann Credo “Common Cents” conference in Dublin on March 28th, Emmanuel Vallens of the Single Market Policy unit spoke about the development of the new Social Business Initiative Read More
Training ‘green’ entrepreneurs
SustainEd is delighted to have won a contract with the Ballymun/WhitehallPartnership to work with ‘green’ entrepreneurs on their strategic and business planning. The work is part of a long term incubation project that supports entrepreneurs in developing their business ideas into profitable enterprises. Read More
Defining Sustainability
A talk on green jobs
On the 12th March Victor Branagan gave a talk to business students in the Dun Laoghaire College of Art and Design about the prospects for them in the new green economy. This was part of the college’s Green Enterprise Week. The talk focussed Read More
Investors and the value of sustainability
Many people still assume that there must be a choice between protecting the environment and protecting profitability. As if any decision that counts environmental costs Read More
Submission to government
SustainEd responded to the call for submissions to the governments Framework for Sustainable Development by making suggestions about some opportunities that exist for businesses in Ireland in respect of sustainability. A copy of our submission document can be seen here http://www.sustained.ie/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/SustainEd-SusDevReport-Mar2012-print.pdf
Competition – a cautionary tale
“The great challenge of our time is to build and nurture sustainable communities – communities that are designed in such a way that their ways of life, businesses, economies, physical structures, and technologies do not interfere with nature’s inherent ability to sustain life. The first step in this endeavour is to understand the principles of organization that ecosystems have developed to sustain the web of life”.
Fritjof Capra. The Hidden Connections (London:Flamingo, 2003).
Our current understanding of learning from nature is to misquote Darwin, stating the ‘survival of the fittest’ will allow nature’s competitiveness to select the winners and that this will be ‘efficient’. Read More
for Organisations…
Sustainability is about building a better future for the whole society. It is not the preserve of just the environmental organisations. SustainEd believes that many of our existing community organisations can bring sustainability understanding to their members through the benefits gained from our education and training programmes. SustainEd can design, develop and deliver bespoke training to organisations, we offer ‘train the trainers’ courses that can help the organisation re-focus on how sustainability can energise their offering to a variety of stakeholders.
Courses include: Understanding Sustainability, Principles of Sustainability, Collaboration as a skill, Social Entrepreneurship and Being Enterprising, and many other topics.
Consistent with our approach, the key is to deliver information tailored to the needs of your organisation, rather than handing out a set of generic definitions. This helps ensure your members understand and adopt the ideas that will help them make a more effective organisation.
for Businesses…
Businesses across the globe have the resource capacity, the market reach and the motivational drive to affect real change towards sustainaiblity. SustainEd works with businesses on transformational change programmes that focus on the opportunities offered by sustainability.
Energy use measures – this is where most businesses first interact with the issue of sustainability. We can offer practical audits, personnel training, measurement tools, advice and critical support on the behavioural issues that affect the success of any new measures introduced.
Waste reduction measures – Most enterprises have engaged in waste reduction as a cost saving measure and this is a very useful step towards sustainability. By re-thinking waste to a zero waste policy we can invert the idea of waste as a cost and turn it into a positive income stream.
Life Cycle Assessment – this is the most widely used product design tool in the world today and we can offer detailed professional courses in conjunction with our Swedish partners which they accredit under the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System* at degree and postgraduate levels.
Sustainability for business – Participants gain a deep understanding of the various forces at work that affect a business’ ’licence to operate’ and the relationship between society and business today.
Corporate Social Responsibility – An effective CSR programme that meets the business’ needs can really help staff motivation and stakeholder engagement and also ensure that positive corporate image is achieved.
Principles of Sustainability – This course provides a common language and scientific understanding to how and why sustainability changes the rules and offers real opportunities to the innovators.
Executive Briefings
It is important for business owners and managers to gain customised understanding of sustainability as it relates to their own company and to clarify what decision making options are open to the individual.
As this is a high level programme, the process and timelines are tailored to match your exacting requirements.
