Going neutral. Taking the important steps to complete neutrality
Going neutral. Taking the important steps to complete neutrality
level 4 school workshop
Designed for: School CFOs, Business Managers, Bursars, Facility Managers, Maintenance Managers and their teams
Delivery: Live with workshop leader. Online
Dates: Flexible. Arranged with school
Length: 2 school days + 0.2 day follow up
Investment: US$2,950
About this workshop
The concept of ‘sustainability’ is no longer confined to NGOs and activists, it is now integral to ensuring that businesses can continue to operate on a planet with finite resources. The successful schools of the future will be those that proactively responded to the global challenges of today, taking advantage of innovations in mission driven thinking and operational systems to drive impactful change and gain a competitive edge.
In this workshop we will be introducing you and your team to the key areas of sustainability management, covering what sustainability is, why it is important from an economic, social and environmental angle, and how a schools can go about integrating it into their operations to help their organization achieve mission alignment and operational efficiency.
What this workshop covers
Guided by a leading expert, you’ll be introduced to the argument for sustainability, how to integrate sustainability across areas of operation, the role of innovative planning, and technology in facilitating a sustainable school, and how to effectively communicate sustainability strategies and goals to internal and external stakeholders. This will be brought into your school context and we will introduce the possible routes forwards.
What you’ll do and learn
Welcome: The big picture & the reason why
Introducing the big picture and developing a rational of why mission driven change is important and advantageous.
- Identify the key systems pressures and trends that are affecting the economy and society
- Identify the key scientific findings that highlight the need to act on climate change and the degradation of natural capital
- Discuss how mission driven organizations need to add substance to their words
Session 1: Your school context; opportunities & hurdles
Why sustainability is good for schools and the importance of clear leadership in achieving change.
- Discuss the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that schools are currently facing and the commercial imperative for sustainability
- Examine how finance and operations each individually, and in collaboration, have a role to play in delivering sustainable outcomes
- Investigate the cost of inaction specifically relate it to mission, finance and futures.
- Illustrate how sustainability initiatives act as a driver for innovation and competitive advantage
- Debate the role of schools in promoting sustainable development
- Create a business case for sustainability for your own organisation
Session 2: Data driven decision making
Understanding your current context and the measurement tools required to build data based models, generating picture of current organizational position.
- Explore the data required to build a clear picture of your organization’s current profile
- Explore how to collect actual and historical data and understand the limitations of both this data and the data collection process
- Use tools to build a detailed understanding of the major areas of organisational focus
- Understand the different modelling approaches & limitations of the modelling tools
Session 3: Building a concrete picture
Taking the data a building a picture of the way forward.
- Identify the range of potential levers of change that could be applied to achieve sustainability goals
- Recognise the range of different approaches to sustainable operations that schools can influence
- Discuss how schools can challenge current operational practices
- Identify the degree to which schools have a responsibility to educate and influence stakeholders on sustainable consumption to shape future consumption patterns
- Identify the possible road ahead that leads to systemic change
Session 4: Going forward; financing, communication & rewiring
How to effectively fund, communicate and achieve sustainability strategies and goals with internal and external stakeholders.
- Discuss the benefits of and challenges to effectively communicating a common narrative across the school and to its stakeholders to achieve its sustainability goals
- Identify the ways in which financing can be used a vehicle for mission driven operational change
- Discuss the behaviour changes required in order to make cahnge permanent
Next steps...
The possible action steps required to translate thinking and discussion into action.
- Identify the key stakeholders that need to be onboard
- Discuss the next steps to achieve positive action
- Identify individual, personal commitments
What concrete outcomes can you expect from this workshop
You can expect a range of positive outcome to result from this workshop including:
Increased understanding
A deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities assocated with systemic change
A shared picture of the road ahead
A clear, concrete shared picture of the next steps that need to be taken
Mission driven dialog
An increased shared awareness that finance and operations are critical to the mission
A more cohesive team
A beeter shared understanding of the interconnected nature of the teams
Who you will learn with
This subject matter expert from the CNSF Institute for Sustainability Leadership guides the course design and appears in a number of course videos, along with a variety of experts in the the associated fields.
Neil is the Executive Director at the Carbon Neutral School Foundation and is one of the world’s leading experts on efficiently decarbonization school operations.
He has extensive knowledge and experience in working with schools across the globe on sustainability opportunities and challenges, helping them to understand the power of putting a 21st century approach to seeing mission, vision, operational efficiency and sustainability at the heart educational their establishment.
This course is for you if you want to?
Drive positive change
Enhance your leadership skills and learn new tools to effectively argue the business case for sustainability.
Improve your school
Build a practical action plan for overcoming barriers and seizing the opportunities to embed sustainability in your school.
Build your team
Enhance your leadership skills and learn new tools to effectively argue the business case for sustainability.
About the certificate of participation
Upon successful completion of the course, you’ll earn a certificate of participation from a world-leading sustainability institution, the CNSF Institute for Sustainability Leadership.
Your certificate will be issued in your legal name and sent to you upon successful completion of the course, as per the stipulated requirements.
Technical Requirements
Basic requirements
In order to complete this course, you’ll need a current email account and access to a computer and the internet, as well as a PDF Reader. You may need to view Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, and read and create documents in Microsoft Word or Excel.
Browser requirements
We recommend that you use Google Chrome as your internet browser when accessing the Online Campus. Although this is not a requirement, we have found that this browser performs best for ease of access to course material. This browser can be downloaded here.
Additional requirements
Certain courses may require additional software and resources. These additional software and resource requirements will be communicated to you upon registration and/or at the beginning of the course. Please note that Google, Vimeo, and YouTube may be used in our course delivery, and if these services are blocked in your jurisdiction, you may have difficulty in accessing course content. Please check with an Enrolment Advisor before registering for this course if you have any concerns about this affecting your experience with the Online Campus.
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