The Natural Step

When our best friends’ first son was born five years ago, I ran to the bookstore and bought a copy of “Where the Wild Things Are,” which remains one of my favorite books. The author, Maurice Sendak, believed that children need to confront the scary and fearsome things in life. And there are a lot of scary and fearsome things facing children these days.

Last year, a group of teenagers filed suit (Alec L. v. Lisa Jackson, et al, C11-02203) in federal court alleging that the federal government was violating its duty to protect the public by not acting to protect the public trust: our land, water and atmosphere. They request injunctive relief requiring the federal government to act to reduce carbon emissions, create a carbon inventory and create a carbon reduction plan.

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The Natural Step is pleased to invite you a webinar on PVC and sustainability. Targetted toward professionals within the PVC industry in Europe and interested stakeholders, the webinar is an opportunity to: 

• Learn about our role in VinylPlus and constructive industry collaboration with an NGO.
• Get an overview of how to use a strategic sustainability framework in your organization.
• Hear stakeholder feedback on VinylPlus, challenges and priorities.
• Discuss case examples of how VinylPlus is driving innovation and business success.
• Find out about a new Sustainable Innovation Forum in the PVC value chain.

More information

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Since 2007, the hotel chain has been working towards the goal of being completely carbon dioxide neutral by 2025. Now, four years later, Scandic has managed to halve their emissions and have thereby reached its sub target. What made this possible is the fact that Scandic now’s using solely renewable energy from wind and water for electricity in all the Nordic countries.

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The Natural Step is pleased to be hosting an exclusive 1-day dialogue on sustainable chemical management. Together with partipants from the Leading Change for a Sustainable Chemical Industry initiative, invited guests will join us to explore the link between chemical management and the wider sustainability agenda. In particular, what might we learn from combining the perspectives of proactive consumer brands and companies working upstream within the chemical industry?

To learn more about this and future events in this area, please contact us at chemicals@thenaturalstep.org.

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The first rule of Wendell Berry’s 17 Rules for a Sustainable Community is: Always ask of any proposed change or innovation: What will this do to our community? How will this affect our common wealth?

This rule encapsulates the element of sustainability often missed: social equity. This is somewhat ironic, because the common definition of sustainable development since 1987 has been “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Most organizations even use common vernacular for sustainability: The “three-legged stool” or “triple bottom line” are used as shorthand for economy, environment and equity.

In practice, however, few organizations measure their social equity performance beyond their own employment practices. Some organizations also include philanthropic contributions in their equity measures. While both of these measurements are important, are they enough?

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