Making Sustainability Standard Practice
Vol. 11       No. 2      February 2017 
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TopFrom the President's Desk
Engaging Stakeholders and Creating Dialogue  Now More Important Than Ever
By Jeff Yorzyk,  Director of Sustainability, Green Chef, Boulder, Colorado
"Today, no leader can afford to be indifferent to the challenge of engaging employees in the work of creating the future. Engagement may have been optional in the past, but it's pretty much the whole game today."
- Gary Hamel, visiting professor at London Business School and cofounder of The Management Innovation Exchange

Gary Hamel's above quote is a great reminder that engaging stakeholders and creating meaningful dialogue is a critical skill for sustainability professionals, and it appears that these skills are needed more now than they ever were before. ISSP courses in February and March are designed to help people refine these skills as they cover key areas of the Body of Knowledge requirements for ISSP-SA and ISSP-CSP credentials. The current credential testing window has also been extended to April 8. Sign up and become recognized for your skills in this field as you work to create meaningful change!

ISSP-SA Test Season Extended Through April
ISSP is pleased to announce that we've extended the current ISSP Sustainability Associate (ISSP-SA) Test Season to provide sustainability professionals more time to prepare, apply, and take the ISSP-SA exam! Registration will now remain open through April 8th, 2017, and the exam may be taken any time until April 22nd. ISSP Members qualify for discounts on the exam and study materials , which include a study guide and flash cards.

The expanded Test Season is accompanied by the rollout of our Credential Maintenance Guidebook (pdf) for those who've already earned an ISSP-SA or ISSP-CSP credential. This resource provides comprehensive information on keeping your ISSP credential valid, an important part of maintaining its value for your career.

For more information, visit our FAQ or read the Candidate Handbook (pdf). If you have further questions, please email certification@sustainabilityprofessionals.org.

Profile: City of Fort Collins, CO
The municipal government of the City of Fort Collins is the subject of the first article in our occasional series profiling ISSP Organizational Members.

Fort Collins is a city with a population of 158,600 nestled at the base of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, USA, approximately 5,000 feet above sea level. A rapidly urbanizing community, Fort Collins is a home rule city with a Council/Manager form of government, with 6 council members elected on a four-year basis. City employees have been involved with ISSP for a number of years and attended the ISSP Denver Conference 2014. Dr. Rosemarie Russo, the Sustainability Coordinator for the city, has served as a member of the ISSP Certification Committee. Kathy Collier, city Environmental Planner, passed the ISSP-SA exam in 2016 to become one of the pioneer ISSP credentialed professionals.

What organizational accomplishments are you most proud of?
The City of Fort Collins has taken a leading role in climate adaptation and mitigation for decades. In 2015, the City Council unanimously passed a climate resolution to adopt accelerated carbon reduction goals of 80% by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. The existing goals were a 20% carbon reduction by 2020 from the 2005 baseline inventory. The City as an "organization" and the community-at-large have identical goals for carbon. The municipal organization has 10 additional numerical sustainability goals to address energy, recycling, education, alternative fuel, biodiversity, tree canopy, health and safety, funding, purchasing, and local food.

The City surpassed its alternative fuel goal in 2015 through the conversion of buses to natural gas and the purchase of over 65 fleet vehicles to electricity powered (EV). The City in conjunction with DOE, Colorado State University and Loveland launched a major EV Workplace Charging Challenge and Early Adoption Project with Drive Electric Northern Colorado. In 2016, Fort Collins had one of the highest EV sales records in the nation and provides public and private charging stations within a six mile radius throughout the community. The organization is "Leading By Example" by restructuring departments to better address Triple Bottom Line analysis and project implementation. Fort Collins is a semifinalist in the Georgetown University Lose-A-Watt Energy Prize competition to reduce gas and electricity consumption.

Why did you choose to become an Organizational Member of ISSP?
City staff members have been individual members of ISSP for some time now and have benefited from being involved.  The City of Fort Collins set some ambitious climate goals so we have now joined as an organizational member to educate more staff and to increase our connections with other sustainability professionals and organizations, especially local governments, that are working to promote sustainability practices in the public sector.

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ISSP Webinar Catalogue Now Available
ISSP is thrilled to announce a new member benefit: the self-guided ISSP Webinar Catalogue!

Check out our Catalogue to learn more about the topics and presenters we've hosted in our regular professional development webinars over the last five years. And - here's the best part - use the links on the catalogue to access recordings, slide decks, and additional resources from your favorite webinars.

Recent hot topics include Alan AtKisson's guided tour of the UN Sustainable Development Goals; Euan Murray's discussion of  greening global supply chains; and Anastasia O'Rourke and Allison Kinn Bennett's wonderful dive into the world of ecolabels.  

Webinar recordings are free for ISSP members or $25 each for non-members. As always, we welcome your proposals and feedback! And don't forget about our upcoming live events.

We'd also like to make a special shout-out and thank-you to ISSP's intern, Lisa Eldridge, who was instrumental in developing the catalogue.  Lisa, thank you for all your time and hard work - we couldn't have done it without you!
ISSP Webinar: 
The Sustainability Reporting Standards - What are they and what do they mean for me?
Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. PT
Alyson Genovese, GRI
Since 2000, GRI's Sustainability
Reporting Guidelines have been used by thousands of organizations in more than 90 countries to report publicly about their impacts on the economy, the environment, and society. Now, the world's most widely-adopted sustainability reporting guidelines have been further refined to become the first-ever Sustainability Reporting Standards. Find out about the GRI G4 Guidelines transition to the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards, and how this will impact your reporting.

The new GRI Standards aim to make sustainability reporting more accessible for organizations and policy-makers, and to encourage more consistent, higher quality sustainability reporting, focused on material issues. This webinar will help you learn the key components of the Standards, how they have evolved from the G4 Framework and understand what this transition means for your organization.

Webinars are free for ISSP members. 
ISSP Course Series:
Stakeholder Engagement Strategies 2017
ISSP's new series of two-week courses details stakeholder engagement strategies, essential workshops for sustainability professionals managing sustainability initiatives as consultants or in their own organizations. 

The first course in the series, Community Engagement with Kathryn Cooper, starts today!  Join us for Community Engagement, and reserve your seat now for Employee- and Supply Chain Engagement.

 

Increasingly business, municipalities 

and other organizations are recognizing that stakeholder engagement is essential. Stakeholder engagement can be either an enabler of, or barrier to, an organization's goals. Join us as we identify the significance, purpose, benefits, and best practices of stakeholder engagement in the context of community and organizational engagement.

 

Organizations of all sizes and functions consistently indicate their biggest employee engagement pain point is lack of participation. The primary hurdle here is that few organizations are able to authentically translate their engagement strategies into aligned and transformational employee action. In this module we will cover the foundations for planning and implementing a sustainability engagement strategy. We will break down the process and framework needed to create an effective sustainability movement and the key elements for success from start to finish.

Supply Chain Engagement with Robb Dods 

Sustainability is likely to be THE defining business issue of the 21st century. Every purchase of goods or services commits a portion of your organization to operate on either a sustainable or an unsustainable basis. All procurements include financial responsibility considerations and many incorporate environmental responsibility, but few include any social responsibility considerations. In this module, we will comprehensively cover the importance of sustainable procurement and supply chain engagement and how to maximize your efforts to green your supply chain.

 


Sustainability Events Around the World   
 
The International Society of Sustainability Professionals (ISSP) is the world's leading professional association for sustainability professionals. ISSP is a member-driven association committed to moving the profession of sustainability forward through building strong networks and communities of practice.