Choosing our Future:
From Vision to Action
The Natural Step Canada is part of an international non-profit research, education and advisory organization that uses a science-based, systems framework to help organizations, individuals and communities take meaningful steps toward sustainability. The mission of The Natural Step is to act as a catalyst to bring about systemic change, by making fundamental principles of sustainability easier to understand and effective sustainability initiatives easier to implement. The Natural Step Canada is a registered national charitable organization with its head office in Ottawa. We have nine full-time staff, a network of highly trained associates across the country and a highly committed board of directors.
Founded in 1989 in Sweden by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt, the organization now has offices in 11 countries. The Natural Step has received numerous awards from around the world for its work in sustainability including Mikhail Gorbachev’s Millennium Award in 1999, The Blue Planet Award in 2000, considered the “Nobel Prize of the Environment”, and Dr. Robèrt was honoured with the first Laureate Medal for Social Responsibility issued by the new Global Centre for Leadership and Business Ethics in 2005.
How do we make economic progress, giving everyone the opportunity for a fulfilling life, without continuing to damage the natural systems upon which we all depend? That is the challenge of sustainable development. For new solutions we need more than science simply telling us about the impacts of our unsustainable activities. What is needed is a framework by which we can come to grips with the whole system – one that focuses upstream on the root causes of our damaging impacts and allows us to design the problems out of society, rather than reacting to unforeseen consequences. The number of tools and methods for dealing with environmental and social issues has grown to a point of confusion. They all have something to offer, but to be really useful there must be a way of evolving a shared, science-based mindset to facilitate complex decision-making and to integrate these various approaches.
Given this need and challenge, The Natural Step has:
The Natural Step Framework is now being used internationally by hundreds of organizations, including Fortune 500 companies, government departments, universities, municipalities, and small and medium-sized businesses in their respective journeys to sustainability.
The Natural Step provides two unique services:
Understanding the science of sustainability helps translate that science into practical, strategic steps in the right direction. The Natural Step Framework is designed to help lay the foundation for a continuous evolution toward sustainability.
The Natural Step Canada • 355 Waverley Street • Ottawa, Ontario K2P 0W4
Tel: 613-748-3001 • Fax: 613-748-1649 • Email: info@naturalstep.ca • www.thenaturalstep.org
The Natural Step Canada