Registration for the ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability Conference is Now Open!

The Natural Step Canada is convening this conference because we keep hearing increasing calls for greater collaboration to solve complex sustainability challenges. But collaboration is not easy. Many of us are used to addressing problems and issues at an organizational scale and do not have experience engaging diverse groups and being effective contributors to multi-stakeholder change processes.

We are not the only group who recognizes this challenge. Most of the organizations we work with mention that they can only go so far on their sustainability journeys before they run up against barriers – policy, market, financial, and so on – that require them to work with organizations they are not used to working with.

The ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability conference is designed so that participants will have the chance to learn about collaboration from experts and practitioners but also, importantly, to experience collaboration. Using many of the dialogue education processes that have become mainstays of The Natural Step’s courses, our intention is to create an environment where we will all learn from one another. There will even be a portion of the agenda that will be created by the participants, giving you an opportunity to share your own experiences and explore with others the topics that matter most to you, possibly even inviting collaborators to join you in your initiatives.

We are very pleased that many of the organizations we admire are keen to join us in a gathering focused on this theme. The endorsing partners for the ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability conference already include Social Innovation Generation, the Network for Business Sustainability, the Bloom Centre for Sustainability, Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, Green Living Enterprises, Corporate Knights and the Toronto Sustainability Speakers Series.

We’re also thrilled that so many thought leaders and expert practitioners have already committed to being a part of the ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability conference. The good news is that there are, in fact, growing numbers of groups and individuals with expertise in stewarding multi-stakeholder change processes. Many of them will be at this conference, helping us ask the right questions and learn together.

The time is right for The Natural Step to host an event like this in Canada. Convening partners, clients, learning program participants and kindred spirits from a wide range of sectors will give us all a chance to learn together and seed potential collaborative initiatives.  We are grateful to our presenting partner, The Co-operators Group Ltd., for believing in the importance of this theme and helping make the ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability conference possible.

For more information including how to register for the conference please visit “ACCELERATE: Collaborating for Sustainability”.

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I look forward to joining you in Guelph on June 10th and 11th.

Sincerely,
Chad Park