All delegates can register for this open discussion on the conference website.

“Taking Care of Business: Sustainable   Transformation”

21 – 22 May 2012, Radisson Resort,  Gold Coast, Australia

The conference will update delegates on a range of issues including;

• Climbing the mountain: issues for business and society in the “Necessary Transition”
• Redefining CSR Post-GFC
• It’s all about me! Personalising Corporate Sustainability
• The Sustainable Australian CEO: transformation of Australia’s business leadership in the Asian Century
• The Business Sustainability Journey: progress report and likely developments to 2020

Filed under: Association for Sustainability in Business, Business Sustainability, Sustainability & Innovation Global Executive Study Tagged: Australia’s business leadership, Corporate Sustainability, CSR Post-GFC, Sustainability Conference 2012 ]]> http://sustainabilitybusinessassoc.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/the-2012-sustainability-business-association-conference-special-interest-group-sig/feed/ 0 sustainabilitybusinessassoc http://sustainabilitybusinessassoc.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/the-2012-association-conference-taking-care-of-business-sustainable-transformation-will-be-held-on-the-gold-coast-in-may/ http://sustainabilitybusinessassoc.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/the-2012-association-conference-taking-care-of-business-sustainable-transformation-will-be-held-on-the-gold-coast-in-may/#comments Sat, 18 Feb 2012 08:51:10 +0000 Association for Sustainability in Business Inc http://sustainabilitybusinessassoc.wordpress.com/?p=470 Continue reading »]]> The Association for Sustainability in Business Inc. is a Non Government, Not-For-Profit Organisation (IA 38885). The Association is not a lobby group, we aim to educate, and keep our members up to date with the latest trends, information, training and B2B opportunities while encouraging profitability and competitiveness.

The conference program is available on the website and will feature over fifty (50) presenters.

Ian Berry, Sparkenator will open the Conference
A sparkenation is a spark that ignites passion that leads to action that changes what’s normal. The author of Changing What’s Normal, Ian will ignite this conference before, during, and after his presentation.

Online Registration is available on the conference website.

Special Early bird Registration ($675) is available to members of the following organisations;

* Association for Sustainability in Business Inc.
* The International Society of Sustainability Professionals
* The Sustainable Energy Association
* The Australian Association for Environmental Education
* Local Government and Shires Associations
* Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Free wireless internet will be available to all delegates, sponsors, exhibitors and presenters at the conference and free broadband internet access in accommodation rooms. This will assist with B2B information exchange and networking.

Full registration also includes all sessions, morning teas, lunches, afternoon teas, conference materials including handbook and the ‘Welcome’ networking cocktail function.

I hope to meet you in May.

Knd regards

Angrela Green
Association Secretariat
The Association for Sustainability in Business Inc
Phone: (61 7) 5502 2068 | Fax: (61 7) 5527 3298

” Sustainability is the single biggest business opportunity of the 21st century.” – Will Day, chairman of the UK’s Sustainable Development Commission

Australian state road authorities plan, manage and oversee the delivery of safe, efficient and integrated transport systems for sustainable economic, social and environmental outcomes in Australia. However, each state has unique administrative structures, guidelines and requirements for implementing the principles of environmental and ecological sustainability. This diversity means that standard methodologies to enable comparison of construction tenders in relation to claims of greenhouse gas emissions is currently lacking.

As approximately $4.6B will be spent annually on road construction to 2013–14, it is imperative that methods to qualify, calculate, and assess sustainability claims in construction tenders for infrastructure projects be developed. That is the aim of this study.

The conference presentation will focus on mapping activities, roles and responsibilities for road construction tenders within each state. These maps are expected to provide points of adaptation for new sustainability methodologies utilising procurement assessment criteria.

The outcome of this study is expected to be one set of empirically devised prototype tools to enable road and rail authorities, and construction companies, to fulfil their sustainability obligations. It is expected that the findings will be integrated into state road construction tendering processes. It is also assumed that standard methodologies for comparison of tenders will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions during infrastructure construction in Australia.

Prof Russell Kenley, Dr Toby Harfield, Dr Palaneeswaran Ekambaram
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22, 2012

Dr Judith Morrison

By Dr Judith Morrison, Trainer and Honorary Research Associate, Murdoch University, Mr Matthew Coxhill (Aquaculture, Publishing and Education.)

Failed negotiations around complex sustainability issues often involve high and counter-productive costs in time, money, reputation and trust.  Negotiations that don’t deliver mutually satisfactory outcomes leave communities, organisations and businesses cynical and unconvinced about the possibility of working together when sustainable solutions are needed.

Many organisations, public and private, are now required to negotiate around sustainability issues as part of their decision-making processes.  One advantage of open negotiation is its flexibility when stakeholders have to jointly look for solutions to problems in a more integrated way, and give equal consideration to the economic, social and environmental aspects of an issue that ensure ‘triple-bottom-line’ accountability.

However, attempts by stakeholders with widely differing viewpoints to find consensus often needlessly fail.

This presentation will show how this stalemate is often due to a limited understanding of negotiation skills, and that insufficient attention has been given in formal training to the crucial mix of skills required to negotiate through sustainability issues.   This emerging need is met through an accredited course Certificate IV in Understanding and Negotiating Sustainability Issues, which is designed to improve capacity to communicate ideas about sustainability back and forth between people who look at problems from very different perspectives.

The training has evolved from an understanding of processes of conflict resolution but takes a more proactive approach to help people practically and psychologically prepare for negotiations where stakeholders have inherently differing viewpoints.  In today’s complex decision-making and planning environments negotiators need more than natural, intuitive ability and good intentions.

They need specialised training and skills to anticipate, and hopefully avoid, some of the communication traps that undermine problem-solving processes involving a range of stakeholders. Cross-sectoral sustainability issue negotiations require competencies and skills well beyond those required for day-to-day engagement within one particular work sector or industry.

Dr Judith Morrison, Mr Matthew Coxhill
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

This paper firstly makes an historical comparison between living patterns of Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, and secondly considers where people will live in the future and what they will live in.

For over 50 years, people have been migrating to South East Queensland, and this has affected the rate of development and the spread of housing that people choose to live in. There are divergent stories between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast, with differing planning and housing vernaculars.

We are on the cusp of a new range of housing typologies which are now necessarily sustainable and affordable. This is being driven by people’s needs, but also requires interventions to break the old housing models and market misconceptions. The change agents in this industry include demonstration by government, the state of the economy and the aspirations of the major developers.

Some specifics are outlined for planning and housing types, social sustainability and universal housing, and zero/low emission housing.

Mr Adrian Just
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

Creating a cultural change in sustainable business practices requires a broader, more holistic approach then simply adopting a sustainability policy or reporting.  It requires affecting sustainable behaviour as a basis for operating not only within the workplace, but within our communities.

Organisational sustainability is a journey not an end point. On this journey there are numerous international principles and references to guide our process. In recent years we have also witnessed the emergence of organisational sustainability as a mainstream requirement for not only publicly listed companies, but for all companies who operate globally. In addition, carbon reporting, carbon reductions and carbon offsets, to create a low or zero carbon business operations, has evolved into an industry of its own.

This paper (to be presented at the Sustainability Conference in May 2012) utilises the experience of HASSELL in implementing organisational sustainability to propose a pathway of Principles, Process and People for organisations on the journey to a sustainable business.

International Principles and guides are reviewed and referenced along with international standards for Environmental Management Systems and Sustainability reporting. This is a holistic approach to embedding sustainability into the organisation. In addition the discussion moves into the methods of employee engagement, education and reporting required to ensure cultural change is ongoing and both from the ground up and top down in an organisation.

The paper looks at the methods reviewed by HASSELL, the organisational strategies implemented and the level of commitment by staff to engage and live by these principles, which was achieved by a small dedicated team of individuals within the Sustainable Futures Unit and regional sustainability communities in four countries.

Ms Suzette Jackson
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

By Ms Ophelia Cowell, Masters  student, Murdoch University

The Peel-Harvey Estuary, located in the South West of Western Australia, has long term and acute water quality problems. With its significant phosphorus load and sandy soils, periodic incidents include algal blooms and fish kills. Previous research findings confirm that the main source of P is nutrient discharges from the catchments that feed into the estuary. 

Nutrient management is essential for maintaining drinking water quality and primary industries but also aquatic ecosystem health; aquaculture; human recreation and cultural values. A range of approaches (regulatory, community education, engineering) have been applied but reducing P inputs to the 75 t/year required to protect water quality will require new approaches.

Market based approaches have been used to manage various types of pollution in other jurisdictions. This study will examine the characteristics of successful schemes and, as a case study, the potential for a market-based approach to improving water quality in the Peel-Harvey catchment.

Ms Ophelia Cowell
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

Being green, generates green.  Yet, a lot of human energy is being squandered in conflict over short-term environmental obstacles.  People debate symptoms and solutions, but persistently fail to offer positive incentives for change.

We don’t need disaster to motivate change. A great, contagious idea or two can create all the motivation we need.  It’s time to engage human imagination and our entrepreneurial spirit to move forward not just against the phenomena damaging our environment, but also toward a sustainable and prosperous future.

Bryan Welch, author and founder of the highly successful Ogden Publications (publishers of Mother Earth News, Natural Home and Utne Reader), aims to close political divides and provide a positive, empowering counterpoint to the gloom-and-doom tone that pervades today’s discussions about sustainability, our environment and green business.

In this presentation based on his Nautilus Award-winning book Beautiful and Abundant, Welch demonstrates that it is possible to do well in business without destroying natural or human resources. He outlines four queries for building a collective vision of a sustainable future and reaching a sustainable business model:  Is it aesthetically beautiful, economically abundant, ethically fair and irresistibly contagious?

Through the lives and accomplishments of inventors and entrepreneurs, Welch explores a path toward a sustainable business culture we can proudly pass on to future generations. He shares achievable strategies for how businesses can use conservation and innovation to achieve a balance between profitability and conscientious business practices, including:

* What companies can do to make their business more conscientious?
* How executives can foster a business culture of conservation and innovation.
* Examples of companies that do a good job of balancing profitability and conscientious business practices.
* How companies and executives can reach a sustainable business model using the four queries for creating a
beautiful and abundant future.

Mr Bryan Welch
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

Streets are one of our most valuable community assets; they have been around for thousands of years and have been the centre of our social networking, our economy, our play space and of course they also play a role in mobility. 

In the last 60 or 70 years however the street has been more and more dedicated to the car, and no longer quite so suitable for its original purpose, or purposes. 

How does this “design for cars not people” philosophy is impact on the shape of our cities, towns and villages and what might we need to do to change this design philosophy. 

We need to deliver to active, vital communities, not single us car based suburbs and create inclusive liveable places, not storage lots to keep people when we are not using them.

Mr Steven Burgess
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,

Almost 70% of Australian workers believe that it is important for their organisations to behave in a sustainable way*. And they are looking to their senior managers to lead real change.

So what does sustainability leadership really mean to staff and organisations?

Sustainability at Work believes that understanding current attitudes and behaviours towards sustainability in both the workplace and at home can provide insights and a platform for organisations to promote positive sustainable behavior within organisations.

A national study of more than 1,000 Australian workers found that overwhelmingly, Australians believe that change needs to come from the top.  Senior managers need to implement processes and systems that help staff with more sustainable practices at work.

Ms Tania Crosbie
Taking Care of Business: Sustainable Transformation Conference
Radisson Resort, Gold Coast – May 21 & 22,