Major Changes at The Natural Step and Scaling Up Through Collaboration
This autumn marks The Natural Step’s 20th anniversary – 20 years of facilitating a dialogue to understand the science of sustainability and the development and promotion of a new language for strategic sustainable development, starting in Sweden and expanding across the globe. We are celebrating by remembering our history and accomplishments and launching a bold new vision for The Natural Step which will carry us forward into the next 20 years. The new vision will be based on our dynamic global network, strong strategic partnerships, and harnessing the power of new communications technologies. We will be asking our stakeholders and partners for advice and input over the coming months: tell us what you can contribute and tell us what we can do to support you in your journey to sustainability. We invite you to work with us to co-create a movement for change.
This autumn also marks a major change with The Natural Step team in Stockholm. For health reasons, David Cook will be stepping aside as Chief Executive. David has led the Natural Step since 2005 and we are grateful for his years of leadership. He will remain part-time with the team in Stockholm and will continue to work on key advisory relationships and be an ambassador for The Natural Step internationally. Meanwhile Lena Johansson, Head of Business Development and long-time advisor with The Natural Step in Stockholm will serve as our interim Chief Executive until April 2010 when we will transition to a new structure with new leadership.
Everyone is talking about scaling up these days. Non-governmental organisations around the world are exploring ways to scale up their impact, replicate their successful programs and disseminate their knowledge and learning in effective ways. Partnering with other organisations is just one of the ways TNS is scaling up.
This issue of Stepping Stones features some recent partnerships TNS has developed and celebrates some of our ongoing collaborations. The Natural Step has forged new alliances with the Global Footprint Network, the Nickel Institute, the World Economic Forum and universities from Italy to Aotearoa.
This issue also highlights some of the more complex issues about how we can scale up – what can we learn from others (Knowledge Based Organisations), and how do we go deeper on social aspects including building trust in society (Trust deficit) ? And, as usual, we have included short snap-shots of some of the work TNS is involved in around the world everyday – going beyond theory to action.