ABOUT THE EVENT
The sustainability profession is a relatively new one, having its roots in the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1990. The Summit was the first truly global effort to recognise that sustainable development would only be achieved through the integration of social, environmental and economic imperatives, and to provide a plan, Agenda 21, for doing so. While professionals working to conserve and protect nature existed well before that, the sustainability profession emerged largely from those employed to prevent, reduce or manage environmental environmental impacts. This included putting into practice concepts that focused on reducing the use of energy, water and material resources, and preventing through re-design, reduction at source and re-use and recovery wastes and emissions from production, service provision and consumption.
Despite a range of job titles that reflect different areas of focus, the rise of dedicated sustainability professionals, as served by ISSP, has developed mostly within the last fifteen to twenty years. It's not unusual for sustainability professionals to refer to themselves as carrying on their shoulders the weight of all of the world's major social, environmental and economic challenges. Twenty years is not a particularly long time given the significant responsibilities that come with the job, and the relatively low level professional support that would be commensurate with those sorts of responsibilities. So how do they cope? This webinar reports on the key findings from interviews conducted with a range of sustainability professionals, including those who lead sustainability from within or from outside the organizations they work for or are contracted to. The interviews form the basis for a book on the subject.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN
What drives sustainability professionals and how do they sustain passion through the challenges of practice?
How do (or don't) formal qualifications prepare them for those challenges, and how does (or doesn't) on-going professional development help to fill the gaps?
What essential knowledge and skills tend only to be learned through practice — and how do these learnings help to build effective leadership skills?
How do employers, clients, policy-makers, professional support organizations, networks and educators more effectively enable sustainability professionals?
YOUR PRESENTER:
Lesley Stone, PhD, MSc, SEP is a highly experienced sustainability specialist with a strong track record driving positive social and environmental change. Her sustainability practice is informed by world class qualifications, peer reviewed research and real-world experience. Her core specialities include world ranking, strategically savvy and context-specific interventions to advance sustainability. They are underpinned by an in-depth understanding of mechanisms for enabling iterative, shared learning and culture change in public, private and not-for-profit sectors, a unique combination of science-driven analytical skills for measuring, understanding and using social and environmental KPIs to bring about change, including stakeholder engagement, perceptions, behaviour, organisational culture, as well as a full range of technical options for improving organisational environmental outcomes. In her most recent formal role as sustainability manager for the University of Auckland she was instrumental in the University’s #1 placing (2019, 2020) in the international Times Higher Education Impact Rankings that measure universities' contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.
To learn more and register for the event, visit the ISSP website