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Sustainability and Leadership: The Organisational Challenge
October 27—31, 2008
Allan Jones, Gaynor Coley, Paul Dickinson
Sustainability and Leadership
Leaders need a personal route towards inner and outer sustainability. Furthermore, achieving real progress towards sustainability requires identifying the right goals and strategies, and creating ownership of these processes within organisations. What models are there of organisations making serious progress towards sustainability and what can be learned from them?
This course is facilitated by and run in association with CarbonSense.
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Course summary
This course will provide participants with first hand experience from different organisations and businesses showing creativity in leadership for sustainability. Expert teachers and facilitators, who have, in exceptional ways, pioneered successes within different challenging environments, will lead the course. Participants will be inspired by these examples and supported in developing an innovative approach to their own leadership challenges. This course goes well beyond adopting best practice examples. It is about providing participants with the opportunity to develop practical ideas for their own organisation, within an exceptionally rich educational environment, with the articulation and creativity that it requires to lead substantial change back in the work place.
This course is intended for: those who want to work with expert teachers and facilitators to develop their own action plans and advanced skill set for sustainable leadership.
Teachers
Allan Jones is CEO of the London Climate Change Agency. He previously worked for Woking Borough Council, reducing CO2 emissions by 77.5% from 1990 levels.
Gaynor Coley is Managing Director and Deputy CEO of the Eden Project.
Nick Robins is Head of HSBC’s Climate Change Centre of Excellence.
Paul Dickinson is CEO and Founder of the Carbon Disclosure Project.
Course Detail
Objectives of the course:
- To support participants in the development of strategies and work plans based on inspiration and practice from a wide range of sustainable leadership examples
- To help participants move away from incremental changes and develop a radical approach to the sustainability challenge for their own sector
- To engage participants in skill development in communicating workable ideas and galvanising support from around their organisation, dealing with organisational barriers in a proactive way.
- To involve participants in a range of learning activities, designed to provide participants with a unique way of connecting with the global and organisational challenges they face and develop confidence to meet these challenges within the context of their work
Within the course objectives, the course aims to
- Provide examples of strong leadership from different organisations, around the issue of sustainability, demonstrating first hand what has worked and what has not in creating substantial impact
- Engage participants in the challenges and solutions both unique and common to a range of organisations
- Support participants in experiencing a deep engagement with sustainability challenges in order to support meaningful and authentic solutions
- Discuss tools and strategies for finding and using pressure points in organisations to ‘activate’ change
- Help participants develop advanced skills to engage colleagues at all levels of their organisation
- Engage participants in establishing solutions that are both useful in making meaningful changes in terms of sustainability and useful in PR and educational communication
- Encourage confidence in developing solutions, skills and strategies that can make positive and substantial change
Allan Jones: Moving cities towards sustainability
These sessions will look at the strategic challenge of moving energy infrastructure away from a centralised and non-renewable model, so that future energy needs can be derived from wholly renewable energy resources. This is one of the fundamental issues for any organisation seeking to achieve sustainability. At Woking Borough Council and Thameswey, Allan Jones with his unique experience and expertise in decentralised energy systems was able to tease out the real issues and barriers to a sustainable energy future through the actual implementation of such systems, including decentralised energy, renewable energy, fuel cell technology, micro-generation, alternative fuels from waste, water recovery and low carbon transport systems. This model is now being adapted in London to help to deliver the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan, and the concepts can be applied to any community in the UK or indeed in the world.
The sessions will cover the following:-
- Energy Services – Background to the formation of the London Climate Change Agency and the London ESCO as practical delivery agencies.
- Delivering Innovation – Overcoming bureaucracy, financial, commercial, regulatory and mind set barriers.
- The new London Plan and the Mayor’s Climate Change Action Plan – Delivering the London Plan today and future proofing for tomorrow’s energy, transport, waste and water infrastructure.
- Island London – Decentralised energy/private wire systems.
- Tackling climate change and delivering economic development in London.
- The Renewable Hydrogen Energy Economy – Building local sustainable energy communities for future generations.
Gaynor Coley will discuss putting sustainability theory into practice and the challenges this brings, even for one of the most pioneering projects in the UK. From temperamental biomass boilers to heated debates on packaging. – Hear how the Eden Project has tackled operational issues, how they are managed and integrated into the business; and how staff development helps bring substantial and on-going commitment.
Paul Dickinson & Nick Robins: Leadership and the future for sustainable and responsible investment
The sessions will cover the following:
- The structure of the financial system: asset owners, asset managers, trustees, fiduciaries and actuaries.
- Sustainability challenges: pricing externalities, time horizons, benefit sharing
- Emerging approaches to reform: ‘universal investors’, ‘responsible investing’ (UNPRI), sustainable investing (clean tech), social investing (microfinance)
- Climate change case study: scale of challenge, shareholder activism, collaborative engagement, integrated analysts, low carbon opportunities, stranded assets
- Future Transitions: capital market reform, emerging financial innovation, civil society linkages
Course structure
The course will consist of a mixture of presentations by and discussions with the visiting teachers, and sessions with CarbonSense facilitators who will work with participants to help establish ways for individuals to go away with useful information and confidently use it in the most productive way possible in their own context. They will help the group develop skills for furthering their ideas and strategy including dynamic approaches to colleague engagement and fostering support. The group size will be limited to allow for quality access to both teachers and facilitators and to encourage a time for team and individual work.
The programme is designed to incorporate a number of educational experiences to provide a deep learning experience for all participants. The programme will therefore incorporate field trips, tutorial sessions with faculty and teachers, dialogue sessions, presentations, physical work, group work and individual study. The engaging environment at Schumacher College will help you establish your own journey through their structured sessions as well as benefiting from communal work session, meal times, reflection and social events.
Expert Facilitation from CarbonSense and Theatre4Business
CarbonSense and Theatre4Business have extensive experience in facilitating courses and running consultancy sessions with leading companies from around the world. The facilitators of this course will help participants develop their own way of working with the threads and themes of each session. Using the course material as stimulation and focus, they will support participants in their development of individual strategies and plans. Time will be spent on developing the group’s ability to communicate their ideas with passion and conviction, to inspire change within their own organisations. Links to: CarbonSense Theatre4Business
Course Fees
For businesses: 1 week £1,600
For individuals, NGOs & Educators: 1 week £1,200
These include accommodation, food, field trips and all teaching sessions.
How to make an application – click here
For further information about Schumacher College please see About the College
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Schumacher College is part of the Dartington Hall Trust, a company limited by guarantee, registered in England and as a charity (company no. 1485560, charity no. 279756). Registered office: The Elmhirst Centre, Dartington Hall, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EL, UK.