Karen Miller

As a member of the advisory team at The Natural Step (TNS) Canada, Karen designs and facilitates social learning processes with organizations, communities, and networks of leaders to enable transformational change toward sustainability.   She holds a deep understanding of The Natural Step Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development, a solid background in sustainability science, as well as expertise in process design, dialogue education, and participatory leadership.  

During her time at TNS, Karen has provided advisory services to multiple clients and partners, including: The City of Ottawa, London Health Sciences Centre, The City of Edmonton and Halifax Regional Municipality, among others.  She has led the design of various programs to support youth leadership for sustainability in Canada, including The Cooperators’ IMPACT! Youth Program for Sustainability Leadership, and The Natural Step Canada’s Sustainability Champions program.

Karen regularly delivers sustainability courses based on The Natural Step Framework, including the Sustainability for Leaders Level 1 course, which is offered in various cities across the country.  She has led a training program for NGOs in the National Capital Region and co-facilitated the delivery of the Integrated Community Sustainability Planning course.

Outside of her work at The Natural Step Canada, Karen is an active contributor to the Art of Hosting Community of Practice and the Ottawa Young Environmental Professionals chapter. She is an Associate with Waterlution, where she creates learning experiences to connect young people with their watershed.

Karen holds a BSc. in Environmental Science and an MSc. in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability. She enjoys playing the guitar, writing songs, and outdoor adventures both large and small. You can find her music on CBC Radio 3.

Publications

• Embedding Sustainability into the Culture of Municipal Government.  Miller, K., Graves, S., Bertels, S. and Purkis, J.  The Network for Business Sustainability, The Natural Step Canada and The Beedie School of Business at Simon Fraser University. 2011.
• Backcasting using Principles to Implement Cradle-to-Cradle.  Chapter in the book: Facilitating Sustainable Innovation through Collaboration: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective, Springer Publishing, 2010. Co-authored with Freek van der Pluijm and Augusto Cuginotti. Eds: J. Sarkis, J Cordiero and D. Vazquez Brust.
• Design and Decision-Making: Backcasting using Principles to Implement Cradle-to-Cradle, MSc. Thesis. Blekinge Institute of Technology, 2008, co-authored with Freek van der Pluijm and Augusto Cuginotti.