Learning together to create more sustainable futures
The aim of the ASP Learning Events is to promote dialogue, debate and learning on a wide range of sustainability topics inspire, motivate and empower people to move from unsustainable to sustainable practices, by:
offering opportunity for open dialogue between individuals
stimulating awareness and consciousness
promoting visions and values
promoting skills and practices
These events can also provide ASP members with opportunities for networking and further collaboration and work to move the outcomes into practice.
Topics include key areas for focus e.g. carbon, energy, food, corporate governance and financial systems, and practices essential for sustainability practitioners.
Continuous Professional Development
The ASP Learning Events are designed to increase knowledge and awareness in a variety of areas and can count to attendee's CPD hours under the self-certification process. If in doubt contact your professional body.
27th-28th September, 09:30 – 17:30, The Shoreditch Trust, London
Expected Surprises
- creating the thinking for organisations to anticipate and respond
An innovative symposium organised jointly by the School of Management, University of St Andrews and SAMI Consulting
We invite you to join other thought-leaders and experts in analysing major global events that have taken governments and companies by surprise, as a probe to understanding the systematic reasons behind these.
Weak signals exist and are there for all to see, but few chose to see them and take action early, hence the growing interest in “Black Swans”.
This workshop explores why we don’t see such signals and how we might observe them and their patterning better so that impending crises do not sneak up on us. Our Keynote Speakers will give insights into recent events in the areas of:
systemic risks,
financial systems, and
humanitarian disasters
The two-day programme will combine these keynote speakers presentations with workshops for participants and speakers to work together, sharing experiences and creating new learnings.
Participants will include Decision Makers, Strategists, Social Scientists, Futurists from Public and Private Sectors, NGO’s and Academia. They will:
Collectively identify lessons learned and implications for organisations
Gain deeper insight and awareness of how their own organisations can better anticipate future events
Develop connections with a group of informed practitioners
Receive a summary of the event with conclusions and recommendations and a complementary copy of the “Beyond Crisis” book
Speakers
Keynote speakers of international renown with deep expertise in foresight will set the scene.
Professor Richard David Hames, Director of the Asia Foresight Institute and author of “The Five Literacies of Global Leadership”
Dr Randolph Kent, Director, Humanitarian Futures Programme – King’s College London
Professor Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge
REGISTRATION
To reserve your place please register on-line now…
Select the appropriate fee from the dropdown menu and click on the Register button
NGO, Public Sector, Not-for-Profit: £650 plus VAT
Corporates: £950 plus VAT
Sustainability Practitioners: the drivers of innovation for the future? Bristol
Post-election UK has seen some remarkable events: the first Green MP, a coalition forming with a discernable green/sustainable hue: the third runway cancelled, UK government announcing its intention to contribute to the 10:10 campaign. On the other hand, we are faced with massive cuts in the public finances with service cuts and enormous pressures on budgets and capital expenditure.
Yet sustainability is beginning to be seen by many as the single biggest opportunity for innovation, a stimulus to create the organisation for the coming decades, rather than try to just comply with CRC and other essential green legislation. These two different approaches will surely sort out the winners from the losers.
Will the latest political and economic developments change the way both public and private sector organisations view their approach to adopting sustainable practices? And how will SP’s need to adapt in order to keep sustainability as a strategic option rather than a compliance cost in their organisation?
Alpine Executive and ASP collaborate on an enquiry to explore the role of sustainability practitioners in the future.
Speakers include:
Howard Pearce, Director of Environment and Business, Environment Agency.
Sustainability: Compliance or Strategic Advantage in a time of economic austeri?
Everyone knows that Blue and Yellow make Green; or does it? How will the politics and actions of the coalition government change the way in which organisations engage in sustainable living/working?
What skills do sustainability experts need to bring to the fore in order to have and impact and re-gain the pre-election momentum?
By the end of the exploration participants will better understand:
How sustainability practitioners and others can respond to this emerging situation
How they can influence organisations to take the innovative, creative strategic direction
What impact and value they can bring to organisations, struggling with cuts and very little cash.
Speakers being confirmed.
REGISTRATION
To reserve your place please register on-line now…
Select the appropriate fee from the dropdown menu and click on the Register button
ASP Associates: £70
NGO, Public Sector, Individual, Not-for-Profit: £85
Corporates: £120
Benefit from introductory training in the use of a free established tool for assessing the economic feasibility and CO2 reduction impact of a wide range of sustainable energy projects, both energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Improve your ability to make efficient, quick quantitative decisions about sustainable energy project options
Save time and money at the early stages of your sustainable energy decision process
Learn the full scope of RETScreen - a free software decision tool used by nearly 250,000 worldwide
Of particular interest for those working on renewable energy projects that may benefit from the new UK Feed In Tariffs (FiTs).
What is RETScreen?
It is a free, highly sophisticated spreadsheet-based software tool that is capable of evaluating the technical, financial and environmental impact of a wide range of sustainable energy technologies, both individually and in combination. It is comprehensive in scope and has been developed and used for feasibility assessments on a vast number of real projects for over 10 years. Many hundreds of man years of effort have gone into its development – and its continued development.
RETScreen’s partner organisations include NASA, the World Bank, United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP), Renewable Energy & Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), The Energy + Environment Foundation (EEF), Leonardo ENERGY Initiative.
Its users number at least 250,000 world wide, made possible through its translation into 35 languages, making it well suited to multi national projects as well as single country projects.
One of its key features is the ability to reveal the potential feasibility of a sustainable energy project very quickly. A project that normally takes many days to evaluate can be assessed in a few hours. That means many options can be evaluated reducing the risk of tunnel thinking when designing the energy system for your project.
Having completed feasibility assessments using RETScreen, you are then able to undertake more detailed and costly design studies with greater confidence leading to your project’s implementation and operation. This subsequent detailed design stage would be done by speacialists using more specialized tools and techniques.
More information can be found on the RETScreen International website: RETScreen International
RETSCREEN is a registered trademark of the Minister of Natural Resources Canada
26th May 2010, 13:00 – 17:30, Pierian Centre Bristol
Trusted Adviser Training - how to develop and maintain trusted relationships
Learning how to apply the "Trust Framework" from Constructive Interactions
A facilitated workshop in collaboration with Constructive Interactions.
Explore how organisations’ reputations, stakeholder engagement and ability to meet their goals – financial, societal and environmental - is dependent on the degree to which they consciously work at consistently nurturing trust.
Determine just how much of our individual success as a “trusted adviser” is dependent upon the extent to which we create “trust”.
Understand what affects trustworthiness, and how we can actively create and then maintain “trust”.
Gain hands on experience of a new Trust Framework from “Constructive Interactions” that can help us develop and maintain trusted relationships.
17th March 2010, 13:00 – 17:30, The Third Floor, Bush House, Bristol
Authentic Leadership - the path to sustainable business
“How can leaders become more effective in leading, both in and through their organisations, their staff, bosses, customers, teams?”
As a successful leader you need to understand who you are leading and their motivations, your own leadership philosophy and have a range of appropriate skills and techniques.
Together we will explore a wide range of models, skills and techniques that will help you become an effective leader in sustainability:
leadership examples
authentic leadership
practical models for communication
Spiral Dynamics
social, corporate tribes.
Outcomes:
think about your own practice in a different way
identify more effective practice, influence, leadership, techniques
understand the adjustments of language that will increase your effectiveness
acquire a social map to better understand people's attitudes to sustainability
determine where you and your relationships are on this map
learn from the experience of case studies from businesses who are already doing it.
Participants:
line and staff functions
environmental, CSR and sustainability champions and practitioners
communications, marketing, PR, HR, OD, Learning & Development
change agents, coaches, facilitators.
Featuring inputs from:
Neil Crofts, Founder of Authenticis,
Alastair Sawday, Founder & Director of Sawday Publishing
9th February 2010, 13:00 – 18:30, University of Westminster, London
Beyond Crisis - organisational renewal in turbulent times
Achieving organisational renewal in turbulent times - creating purposeful self-renewing organisations
A facilitated workshop in collaboration with SAMI Consulting.
The next decade will present organisational challenges on an unprecedented scale
There will be no return to business as usual
Beyond Crisis introduced new organisational development principles,
and practical tools, designed to work in any type of organisation,
that will extend your capabilities and renew your thinking.
It mapped out the recent crisis and upheaval caused by debt, demographics, technology and new ways of thinking and behaving.
These principles and tools are based on extensive research and experience of consultants from SAMI Consulting.
Participants:
learned how to build a ‘purposeful self-renewing organisation’ to survive and succeed in the midst of chaos
explored a range of tools and future scenarios for diagnosing problems and creating solutions
explored how to apply these techniques in their own organisation.en
Featuring inputs from:
Gill Ringland is CEO and a Fellow of SAMI Consulting, which helps organisations make robust decisions in uncertain times. Previously, she was head of corporate strategy at ICL (now part of Fujitsu). She is the author of several highly-regarded books on scenarios including Scenarios in Business, Scenarios in Public Policy, Scenario Planning, and Scenarios in Marketing.
Oliver Sparrow is a SAMI Fellow and directs the Challenge Network, a group of senior strategic consultants. He spent two decades with Shell, chiefly in strategic planning, public affairs and new ventures. He has also directed a public-private sector strategic partnership out of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. He is well known as a speaker and thinker on policy at national and international levels.
Patricia Lustig is a SAMI Principal and Visiting Executive Fellow at Henley Business School, where she specialises in leadership development, change management and organisational performance enhancement.
…a facilitated exploration of what our emerging understanding of living systems tells us about leadership for Sustainable Development
Leadership is the new mantra for change, yet leadership initiatives come and go leaving little enduring capacity for improvement behind.
This is a unique opportunity to take part in a facilitated and highly experiential event that explores leading-edge thinking on leadership, work in living systems, and the achievement of effective teamwork.
Work on sustainability takes place within living systems. Yet how often do we make best use of our experience of how change occurs within such systems?
We will use the best of our shared experience and aspirations to...
Clarify the outcomes you seek from effective leadership
Experience being part of living systems and what this means for our work towards more sustainable futures
Share positive experiences of what works in leadership for improvement
Reflect on leading-edge thinking on leadership development
Explore what this means for you at local level
Plan action to take forward this important topic in concrete ways
Connect with others on a similar journey at and beyond the even
Featuring inputs from:
Tim Macartney, Founder of Embercombe and author of “Finding Earth Finding Soul”
Wendy Stephenson, CEO at The Converging World and The Third Floor
Professor Steve Onyett, expert on leadership development, solution focused coach, researcher and facilitator
…using tools of transformation: new results; less sweat
The workshop was the first in a series on “Leadership and Sustainability”, designed to empower those interested in being more effective in communicating and achieving
sustainability objectives.
Bringing together experts from the fields of business development, sustainability and human resources with leading practitioners in organisational and individual transformation,
this seminar was a unique opportunity for anyone with an interest in sustainability to take their leadership and ability to influence to the next level.
The workshop was organised by Future Conversations and the Association of Sustainability Practitioners. Our focus was for Sustainability and HR people to hear about
best practice in transforming organisations and communication enabling you to:
Better lead organisations, people and initiatives
Empower people in your organisation to develop their own leadership for sustainability
Create effective organisational cultures
Gain support from others who may currently resist sustainability objectives
Have initiatives, strategies and projects really fly
24th September 2009, Institute of Directors, London
Sustainability, the need for new talents and skills
…exploring how organisations need to adapt to take advantage of sustainabilty practitioners' talents
In the current economic situation more companies are embracing sustainability as part of their strategy to emerge stronger and more competitive. This will mean understanding how they can more effectively attract and integrate the talents and skills of sustainability practitioners, either in the CSR/Sustainability departments or embed them into the Line Management and Operational units.
HR professionals will need to review policy and practice for recognition, recruitment and reward mechanisms for these new emerging talents.
Line Managers are having to do more with less. New strategies and plans for more sustainable businesses will increase the need to understand how they can make best use of these skills and how to integrate them into their teams and plans.
ASP collaborates with Alpine Executive, in an enquiry for Managers, HR Professionals and Sustainability Practitioners that will explore how organisations need to adapt to offer new themselves new opportunities to take full advantage of these new talents and skills.
Contributors
Simon Henzell-Thomas, Sustainable Development Director, The Body Shop
Dinah McLeod, Head of Sustainability in Global Services, BT
Simon Sheppard, Driector, Organisational Development, Natural England
Marianne Mwaniki, Head of Sustainability, Standard Chartered Bank
"Climate change is becoming one of the most critical elements in corporate strategy. Failure to act in advance of the growing threats to commercial success is increasingly seen by shareholders and others as highly irresponsible. The consequences are likely to be serious not only for the environment as a whole but also for profits, shareholder value, competitiveness, indeed for most areas of corporate performance." - David Ballard, Director, Alexander Ballard Ltd.
ASP Learning Events collaborated with Alexander Ballard Ltd in half day workshops to highlight the ground-breaking methodology they have developed to help organisations assess their exposure and respond with appropriate strategies.
This session described the PACT (Performance Acceleration Capacity-building Tool) framework that emerged from ABL's work with Hampshire County Council, Climate South East and other leading organisations in the ESPACE project (European Spatial Planning: Adapting to Climate Events).
Participants:
gained insight into the nature and scale of the human and strategic problems climate change presents
gained insight into PACT and hands-on experience of the methodology
gained an overview into their own organisation’s current ability to respond, where it ought to be, and how to close the gap
'Collaboration: an essential for sustainable practices?'
What are the recent experiences and best practices from public and private sectors?
How NGO’s can collaborate for greater impact?
The Association of Sustainability Practitioners, The Environment Council, The Pierian Centre and Open Minds collaborated to host workshops in London and Bristol.
April 2009, The Pierian Centre, Bristol
Bristol Contributors
Mike Jones – Director Learning & Leadership, Open Minds
Mike Zeidler – Founder, modoto consulting
June Burrough – Founder and Director, The Pierian Centre
Lesley Seymour – Buro Happold
February 2009, The Environment Council, London
London Contributors
Simon Hamilton, Director and Founder of Three Hands
Mike Jones, Director Learning & Leadership, Open Minds
Mark Lawrence, Head of UK Operations (logistics), Marks & Spencer
Sian Peake-Jones, Director and Founder Open Minds
...a route to a fairer, steadier, open system for all
A series of enquiries, initiated by the Change Forum Ltd, in partnership with ASP Learning Events, facilitated by The Environment Council.
We are witnessing the most dramatic economic downturn we have seen in our lifetimes and although, as some financial experts, brokers et al are saying 'we’ve seen it all before', this one is different – it’s global and it’s serious.
It’s different too in that there is sufficient questioning momentum across the globe to enable significant change in our financial systems, the way we do business, the way we lead our businesses and our lives. We have a tipping point. Let’s tip the point!
The purpose of this enquiry is to seize this opportunity to create new financial strategies, forms of organisation et al, to create alternatives and to influence and direct them happening.
‘A problem is never solved by the same type of thinking that created it… Einstein’
Let’s create new thinking
Regional Enquiries:
The first regional enquiry was held in December 2008 at the University of Westminster, London.
Contributors:
Jenny Wardle – MD ChangeForum Ltd.
Dr. Martin Blake – Director CSR Royal Mail, Trustee Findhorn
David Bent – Head of Business Strategies, Forum For The Future
Prof. Richard Owen – University of Westminster
Saba Khalid – Director IFEES
Bruce Nixon – Veteran Change Agent, Speaker and Author
Cheryl Buggy – Express FM's Station Director
Listen to two of the main contributions…
Bruce Nixon's contribution play Dr. Martin Blake's contribution play
The second enquiry was held in March 2009 at the Pierian Centre Bristol.
Bristol Contributors:
Jenny Wardle – MD ChangeForum Ltd.
June Burrough – Founder and Director, The Pierian Centre
Jamie Walton – Independent Financial Systems Researcher
Ian Chambers – Programme Director, Orange
Jim Roberts – Independent Consultant in Financial Services and Investment
Hilarie Owen – Chief Executive, Institute of Leadership
What happens when stakeholders lose trust in a company’s Environmental, Health and Safety regimes?
How many partnerships flounder because the trust evaporated?
The current financial crisis has shown just how essential trust is in holding our economic and business systems together: people don’t trust the financial institutions and financial institutions don’t trust each other.
This lack of trust can arise from failures in a number of areas: “motives”, “ethics and values”, “systems” and “regulatory frameworks” or simply in communications with stakeholders.
The Association of Sustainability Practitioners, The Environment Council and John Turner from Constructive Interactions are collaborating to host a workshop in London on 29th January.
Contributor
John Turner
John has over 26 years in the nuclear industry, working in a highly technical and controversial area of business, constantly in the spotlight of public scrutiny and concern. As the former Group Head of Corporate Responsibility for BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels plc.), John advised the BNFL Executive and Board on corporate responsibility issues and lead the development of the group wide strategy for corporate responsibility.
John Turner’s recent research and years of corporate experience are the basis for a set of frameworks for identifying an organisation’s dependence upon stakeholder trust, and for then pro-actively building and managing trust.
November 2008 at Buckland Hall, in the Brecon Beacons. The 6th Annual Walk Your Talk Conference
‘Leave your Heart at the Door!’
- can we afford to work without heart?
This year’s theme was– ‘Leave your Heart at the Door!’ – a chance to explore, both practically and personally, the role of the heart in your work. Is it possible to reconcile our heads and our hearts? How do we create a heart-based culture in an organisation? Do the terms ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘diversity’, and ‘sustainability’ mean anything without heart? Are we all running around like heartless chickens, or can we lead from the heart?
Our conference was held in ‘Open Space’, a facilitated process in which there are no designated experts or leaders. We learned by walking and talking, sharing passions, curiosities, hopes, expertise and questions. Drawing on each other’s wisdom and experience, we discovered the creative possibilities of each individual and the group as a whole.
November 2008, held at Coexist Centre for Sustainability, a mixed use building on Stokes Croft, Bristol
Creating Food Futures:
Based on issues raised in a new book “Creating Food Futures: trade, ethics and the environment” (Gower/Ashgate).
'Managing Competing Values in Organic Food and Farming'
- balancing commerce, ethics, community, culture and ecology
How can organic farming contribute towards the development of ‘sustainable communities’ in rural areas?
How do farmers and other actors in the organic food chain define and work towards the protection of ‘non-market values’ - and what works against them?
Contributors:
Re-connecting with Food. Barny Haughton, Founder Bordeaux Quay
The ‘social-economic footprint’ of different types of farming systems. Matthew Reed, Senior Research Fellow at the Countryside and Community Research Institute.
The impact of the organic sector in Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany) on sustainable regional development.Martina Schäfer, Professor for Sustainability Research at the Centre of Technology and Society.
September 2008 at The Environment Council, London.
Engagement 2.0: Stakeholder Engagement Workshop
Themes:
political drivers for engagement
development of Stakeholder engagement as a change process
development of Online Engagement, its potential and pitfalls
Contributors:
Rod Stern - Trustee of The Environment Council and Head of Change Strategy at WWF
Edward Anderson - Head of Practice at Involve
Mark Corderoy - New Media Director at IMS plc
Mike King - CEO The Environment Council
