Sustainability Workshop 1

Mid Course Correction: Introducing sustainability to small business

…. Thank you BSSB partners, supporters, funders, mentors,

workshop participants

BSSB was created to help small business take advantage of opportunities and prepare for

challenges:

• It’s a first for practical, relevant, common sense sustainability:

- Small business knowledge and skills

- Hands-on sustainability for small business

- Small business networking, collaborating, influencing,

showcasing

BSSB has 3 key sections:

• Free workshops at Beaudesert, Tamborine Mountain, Boonah

• Mentoring, Training & Leadership Program

• Networking, influencing and showcasing sustainable small business

Free Workshops

• Series of 3 at Beaudesert, Mt Tamborine, Boonah

• 1 whole of shire strategic workshop late 2008• Introduction to the big issues and how they

could affect your business (opportunities and threats)

• Very practical and hands on – relevant to your business

• Great networking opportunity

Mentoring, Training, Leadership Program

• Fits your business, family and life commitments – time-friendly

• Practical, hands-on, real and relevant outcomes for your business

• 3 x half days with business mentor• Accredited progress towards Cert 4 studies with Permaforest

Trust– 6 classes over 5 months– self-directed research and planning for your business

• Workshopping, networking, peer support• Real outcomes for real businesses• Subsidised fee that includes everything $619

Shire-Wide Networking

• BSSB website with resources and links• Creation of sustainable business network to influence and

lead• Development of sustainable business directory to showcase

your business• 2009 Beaudesert Eco Expo – showcase your business• Help create a clean and green region – maximise

opportunities for your business and the region

How to get involved:

• Come and talk to us (Jan and Sally)

• Fill out an Expression of Interest and leave it with us tonight

• Let your friends, neighbours and colleagues know about these opportunities

Now to the Workshops

The Aims of our workshops include:

• Developing practical understanding about sustainability and how it’s relevant to small business

• Recognising emerging issues, opportunities and threats for small businesses within external drivers like climate change, peak oil, water scarcity

• Revisiting and reviewing your business in light of external threats, to better understand your business story and consciously include sustainability

• Linking practical, relevant sustainability tools to your business that also address emergent issues

• Identifying relevant sustainability tools for your business• Identifying sustainability-linked incentives, rebates, grants and other

resources that are available to small business• Bringing together small business players in the region to network and

collaborate and evolve local economies and enterprises

Workshop 1 TopicsMid Course Correction: Introducing

sustainability to small business

• What is sustainability and why is it important to business?

• What are the ingredients of a sustainable enterprise?

• Emerging issues and threats – what’s already happening and what’s on the horizon?

• Benefits of sustainability – what’s in it for you and your business?

• Strategies and methods for implementing sustainability

Workshop 2 Topics Bringing Local Business and Economy

Home

• The local business and economic landscape in the community and region

• Globalisation and localisation (including the rise of localisation

• Relationships and collaboration – beyond marketing to meaningful relationships

• Sufficiency – living within our means

Workshop 3Creating Your Own Sustainability Story

• Local inspirations – real life case studies and examples

• Creating your own sustainable story – beginning with your business to create or adapt a business plan that includes sustainability

• Exploring the Sustainability Toolkit – links, resources, information

• Reflection and next steps

What is Sustainability

Sustainability is all about meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

There are limits imposed within sustainability because the foundation of life on earth, human society, the economy and business is the ability of the Earth to function effectively – clean air, water, soil, the flow of sunlight energy, biodiversity.

The Earth also needs to be able to absorb the effects of human activities while functioning effectively.

Sustainability is a journey – it’s a process of change and adaptation.

Why is sustainability important to business?

All economies, communities, cities, towns, households, businesses and enterprises – all humans depend on a healthy, functioning planet

Enterprise is different to business – it’s about local needs and conditions, it’s adaptable and it’s universal

The ‘Affluenza’ endless growth economy cannot be sustained – population growth, consumption growth, resource scarcity, waste, poverty and social injustice. Even wellbeing and happiness are compromised

The four pillars of sustainability are:1. Ecological 2. Economic3. Social4. Cultural

Sustainability has been around a long time

• First Nations and Indigenous People were the masters

• In Australia the Aboriginal People lived in deep sustainability at every level

• “Treading Lightly” by Tex Scuthorpe and Karl-Eric Svieby tells this vital story

What are the basics of a sustainable business?

1. The Trinity of Management – Great product, great marketing, great financial management (Ernesto Sirolli)- Good systems, structures and governance

2. Resource management – energy, water, ‘waste’- Pollution, emissions and other impacts – compliance- Reducing, reusing, recycling- Reducing, controlling, stabilising and avoiding costs- Regenerative practices – within the business, in the community, with the Earth- Passive and moving infrastructure – materials, embodied energy, orientation

What are the basics of a sustainable business?

3. Culture, Values, Heart- Enterprise can be solutions-driven – an opportunity for positive change- Relationships, networks, partnerships, alliances- Localisation, local investment and building community- Leadership and influence- Social justice, equal opportunity, participation, living wage- Learning in and from action- Observing, monitoring and maintenance

The Ray Anderson Story

• Interface – 21 years of business as usual• Compliance• Paul Hawken’s “Ecology of Commerce” – the spear through the chest• Daniel Quinn’s “Ishmael”• We have become ‘takers all’• Restorative enterprise• Reduce, reuse, reclaim, recycle, redesign• Adopt best business practices - then advance and share them• Sustainable technologies – use and investment when viable• Challenge suppliers• Threshold of the next industrial revolution• Biomimicry – emulating nature’s systems• Available income not natural capital• Cyclical practices not linear• Do well by doing good

Emerging issues, threats and opportunities – the bottleneck

• Climate change• Peak oil• Energy costs and issues• Resource scarcity – water• Thomas Homer-Dixon “The Upside of Down”• Ian Dunlop “An Unholy Trinity”• “A Crude Awakening”• There are innovations, solutions, opportunities• “Think Global: Eat Local”• Rural Futures for the region• Localisation, decentralisation, resilience and innovation

Benefits of business sustainability What’s in it for you and your business?

• Creating an aware, informed, nimble, resilient and adaptable business

• Creating networks and collaboration – strength in numbers

• Efficiencies – resource use and costs

• Green is the new black – consumer awakenings and emerging markets

• Government legislation, incentives, grants, support

• Values alignment for you and your staff

Reflection and Action

• A short story “Being in family, community, country”

• What’s in that pack of yours?

• What’s made you sit up and think?

• Reflecting upon your own business and its direction

• One action you can take from tonight

• The Regional Network and Directory

• Mentoring, Leadership and Training Program

• Come back for workshop 2 – focus on our region and home economy

Contact Details

• Building Sustainable Small Business in Scenic Rim Regionc/- Ethos FoundationBeechmont Q 4211Ph: (07) 5533 3813

BSSB Email: info@bssb.org.auEthos Foundation Email: info@ethosfoundation.orgBSSB Web: www.bssb.org.auEthos Foundation Web: www.ethosfoundation.org

“We want and deserve the delight that comes with working communities. Wandering into a cavernous

Wal-Mart is a desolate experience. Cheap, but cheap in every way. Wandering through a town

where you depend on the people around you, and they depend on you – that’s called living. Humans

were built for it…”

Bill McKibben