Our ability to adapt to today's changing environment is crucial in today's chaotic world.

In reality, the only way companies grow and change is if they put themselves through continual changes and chaos. Companies have to submit themselves to change and chaos in order to survive and grow, and so should you. You should not change too much of yourself, always seeking order; subject yourself to change and chaos to make you grow.

Although it is past the time of effective, positive change management in these types of situations, you must nevertheless take advantage of the situation. If you do not have confidence in your ability to guide them through the changes, your team will definitely not have confidence either. If you can help your team see how the new direction can still help your organization get closer to their mission, then they are much more likely to buy into the new direction and engage.

“The world will not be inherited by the strongest,

it will be inherited by those most able to change.” 

“It is not the biggest, the brightest, or the best that will survive,

but those who adapt the quickest.”

- Charles Darwin

What does "Sustain-ability" mean to you?

Sustainability is all about finding ways to satisfy life's needs without harming society and endangering future generations. It means creating and maintaining environments where the beauty of life can continue to thrive across generations.  

Sustainability is the ability to exist and to evolve without exhausting natural resources in the future.

The true meaning of "Sustain-Ability" is therefore a personal responsibility."

- Nicky Dare, Founder iDARE® and DARE Education

Sustainability is not a fear of an unreserved future, nor is it accepting limits as an answer. Sustainability challenges individuals, policymakers, and businesses to make decisions that are based on the long-term, with the interests of future generations in mind.    

Putting the effort in creating a solid sustainability strategy helps your business as well as the environment over the long run. Explore how adaptive governance and policy changes can change things for the better on our Make Climate Adaptation Happen course, or learn how ecological studies can inform global solutions on our Tackle Environmental Challenges to Achieve a Sustainable Future course.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can make changes related to the UNs sustainable development goals, why not take our course, Organising for Sustainable Development, and learn about what needs to happen at individual and society levels. 

To help you delve into this, and find what works for you, we enlisted a handful of experts from across the food and beverage industry, asking them to dispel existing misconceptions around sustainability, and showing you exactly how your actions can positively affect people and the planet, without breaking your lifestyle. In the past few years, it is been much easier to become informed about sustainability, and that explosion of information means that we are empowered to attempt action. As more and more people are discovering, sustainability is important across all fields, from politics and economics, to community and the natural world.   

Through an ecological lens, sustainability is about managing and protecting the earth's natural resources, ecosystems, climate, and atmosphere, so current generations and future generations will have what they need to lead decent lives. Nowadays, sustainability is generally defined as processes and actions by which humanity averts depletion of natural resources in order to maintain ecological balance, so as to prevent lowering of quality of life for contemporary societies. Thinking of sustainability more practically, sustainability can generally be defined as any actions or processes that we take that do not result in significant harm to the natural world or living creatures, including other humans.  

Sustainable development suggests that resources are finite, so they must be used sparingly and carefully, in order to make sure there is enough left over for future generations, while not degrading present-day quality of life. By adding the notion of development>, sustainable development means more than just that humanity must meet its present needs without impairing future generations ability to do likewise. The environmental definition of sustainability dates from UNs Our Common Future 1987 report, which appropriately describes sustainable development as satisfying present needs without compromising future generations ability to satisfy their needs.   

At the heart of this conception of sustainability is a recognition of finite resources and of impacts to the future we all share on this planet. For something to be sustainable under the current conventional definition, it has to balance the way it meets human needs against its ability to continue doing so in the near future, while not harming the natural environment. Sustainability does not only apply to the environment, but also has to be implemented in a number of other ways.  

Sustainability For Business Strategy

The purpose of the sustainability business strategy is to have at least a positive effect on the environment. A clear mission statement is a crucial component to becoming a more sustainable business.    

By identifying the importance and functions of sustainability in daily life, we can begin to construct a framework for balancing the needs of consumers with the strategies of the business, whilst protecting the Earth to the greatest extent possible. We must find better ways of engaging stakeholders in working towards sustainable solutions within the complex social-ecological systems they live in. First, we need systems thinkers--leaders who understand the connections and interactions among social-environmental systems that resilience challenges are playing out in.  

When we think of resilience, we are thinking of the ways that the United Nations' three core pillars overlap, meaning that we are thinking of the economic, social, and environmental impacts of the products that we use, how we travel, how we buy things, and so on. I think that sustainability efficacy lies in the ways we define it for ourselves, and then we put that definition into action. Sustainability for me is a lifestyle.

It is the commitment to consuming better, using resources better, and making better, educated decisions on what products you purchase, on things like the recyclable and the lifecycle of a product.    

Sustainable and Resilient Communities

Sustainability means being able to re-use everything, extending the lives of daily products, and ending a use-it-once-and-throw-it-away culture we were so lazy to get caught up in. Action must be a natural result of our thinking, and that is where our definition of sustainability is truly tested.    

The government needs to set a time frame, let us say 2025,

• when all plastics and non-environmentally sound packaging is made illegal, and then set aside the money to help manufacturers move away from producing these harmful products to producing eco-friendly, compostable packaging that benefits everyone.
• Brands should demand better-quality products made by people who are treated fairly, with sustainable resources, and think about ways that they can change for environmental good. Brands can build loyalty with their customers, as well as gain new customers that want to support more sustainable brands over ones that use non-biodegradable products, use too much water or resources, etc.    
• Increasingly, companies are making public commitments to sustainability by taking actions such as reducing waste, investing in renewable energy, and supporting organizations working towards a more sustainable future. Until there is fundamental change in policy, it is critical for citizens to take the lead in pushing markets away from cheap food, and that, when possible, they advocate for sustainability systems. 

Let's continue, if not start now, to build Sustainable and Resilient Communities in the coming years for our next generation to come!

In a nutshell, resilience seeks to safeguard our natural environment, human health, and the health of the ecosystem, all the while driving innovation without impairing our lifestyles. Sustainable development is about balancing local and global efforts to address essential human needs without disrupting or degrading the natural environment. In practical terms, sustainability refers to efforts that balance economic development with the preservation of the natural environment and the welfare of people.

Environmental sustainability is important in order to conserve resources such as clean air, water, and wildlife for future generations. Environmental sustainability requires us to halt global warming, but we need to look beyond climate change and tackle the other key challenges facing our planet. Last week and this week, many of us were rightly focused on the existential threat of climate change, but we should not lose sight of other deeper issues in environmental sustainability that also demand action. 

A healthy environment also provides resources to promote economic growth and means for dealing with natural hazards.

Sustainability is about taking actions that safeguard our shared environment--air, water, land, and ecosystems--in ways that are economically feasible, healthy and good for human health and wellbeing, and socially just over the long run. Sustainability is about more than the environment (4), it is about our health as a society, ensuring no one person or region of life is harmed by environmental regulations, and it is also about studying the long-term effects of actions humans are taking, and asking questions about how they can be improved (2).

Protecting ecological quality surely means, in many cases, maintaining open spaces and stopping or preventing pollution, but it also means dealing with the decline of habitats for plants and animals, conserving resources (including food stocks, like fish populations), seeking out alternative sources of energy, practicing sustainable development and farming, building according to ecologically responsible principles -- in other words, paying attention to ecological quality in all that we do. A sustainable campus must incorporate educational and management aspects of sustainability, together with its three dimensions (environment, economic, social), into its various practices. Climate change, toxic land contamination, destruction of ecosystems, air pollution, and water pollution are all forms of ecological degradation we must understand and take action to mitigate. 

Source: Nicky Dare on Roadmap To Sustainability

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills provide an opportunity for businesses, schools, organizations and individuals to practice the life saving “Drop, Cover, and Hold On” earthquake safety procedure. 

It’s free and can take as little as one minute! 

Let’s get to the basics, and commonly asked questions for ShakeOut? Or as may we call it Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills.

1) What are Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills?

Everyone, everywhere, should know how to protect themselves during earthquakes, whether they live, work, or travel to an area where earthquakes are common.

Great ShakeOut Earthquake Drills are annual opportunities to learn and practice earthquake safety with millions of people worldwide!

Each year, ShakeOut participants in schools, businesses, non-profits, government agencies, neighborhoods, organizations, and households all across the world practice “Drop, Cover and Hold On” and other aspects of their emergency plans.

The goal of ShakeOut is to encourage people and organizations to be prepared to survive and to recover quickly when the next big earthquake happens.

ShakeOut began in Southern California in 2008. Since then ShakeOut has grown to include participation across the United States and several other countries. More than 30 million people worldwide participated in 2021.

The 2022 International ShakeOut Day is October 20.

Participation is free and may take only a few minutes, depending on drill plans.