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Tel: +618 6188 7634
Embedding Sustainability
The Net Positive Program
The Net Positive Program was inspired by Paul Polman’s book Net Positive where he describes flipping the chart, instead of dropping our waste and emissions and other metrics down to zero, show them increasing in value to zero, where zero becomes the baseline. Using any metric you want to zero-out in this way (like waste, or accidents or emissions) means, when you get to zero you then want to get to positive territory. After zero-accidents means you want to create a health-producing workplace. Going further that workplace may in fact make customers and communities healthier.
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Companies using this model are better positioned for the future and are ultimately more successful. By being ‘less bad’ by reducing environmental impacts to zero leads us down the wrong path.
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A Net Positive business serves others. A Net Positive business lives within natural boundaries or thresholds to respect the planet and its inhabitants. It observes moral boundaries for how we treat each other. And it attempts to repair, restore, reinvigorate and regenerate.
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With that framing in mind our vision of Net Positive is as Polman describes ‘A business that improves well-being for everyone it impacts and at all scales. Every product every operation in every region and country, for every stakeholder including employees, suppliers, shareholders, the community, customers and even future generations of the planet.’ This of course is an ideal we will never achieve but it is a north star, something we should all be striving for.
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Download the Net Positive Program overview:
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Why sustainability? In 2024 sustainability is a subset of quality assurance for your business – because it connects your business with the realities our society and our economies are facing and that has financial, legal and governance impacts. It is also worth noting that businesses that are not across this, voluntarily accept increasing business risk, and with the pace of change and disruption, this inherent business risk increases, year on year. But the flipside of risk is opportunity. Embedding sustainability as a business strategy opens the door to competitive advantage, in increasing efficiencies and lowering cost, in engaging staff and enhancing workplace culture, in becoming an employer of choice and improving brand appeal in a burgeoning green economy upon us.
What does the Net Positive Program mean for your business?
Resilience and growth - via internal performance, compliance (ongoing) and market appeal.
It is hard to predict the future, esp as sustainability is a long-term venture,
but this is the established pathway
for our clients....
THE FOUR STAGES OF BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY:
Base year (year1)
Unlocking your baselines.
Embedding sustainability as a business strategy concept.
GRADUATE :
Sustainability system set-up, KPIs, targets in place.
sustainability
alignment
Refining your system: strength-testing,
Build your audience.
GRADUATE :
System runs smoothly, meeting targets.
brand
alignment
Nailing your message
Identifying your traffic strategy, Your Brand precedes you.
GRADUATE :
Measured decarbonisation, credentialed sustainability performer, Full client pipeline.
maximum
impact
Sustainability Leader in sector,
Scale if desired,
Advocate,
Mentor – send the elevator back down.
Carbon Footprint
It's not about the piece of paper
- it's about what standing up as a carbon neutral or net zero business represents.
One part of our Program puts SMEs on a net zero pathway using the Australian (Climate Active) Carbon Neutral Standard for Organisations.
But the reality is, society at large is running out of time and will be called to act within a matter of years – the science is clear, and of course what we are seeing now is our climate radically reinventing patterns that have been stable for ten thousand years.
They talk of climate change being COVID19 on steroids.
Beginning to calculate and address your carbon footprint now, means by tracking your emissions, you’re also tracking waste and cost in your business, which can often result in reducing your cost profile, running your business leaner and saving money.
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In acting we, in fact, become sustainability leaders.
SDGs
Our Program maps your policy framework to the SDGs which means you are mapping to a convention that moves the needle on sustainability, holistically.
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With the development of the SDGs, humanity has for the first time agreed on a global development path that integrates aspirational human development goals with a stable and resilient planet.
In fact, the SDGs explicitly include four of the nine planetary boundaries: freshwater (SDG 6), climate (SDG 13), oceans (SDG 14) and biodiversity (SDG 15). What’s more, the Goals implicitly include all of the boundaries, through:
SDG 2 on sustainable food systems (the land and nutrients boundaries) SDG 7 on clean energy (the aerosol boundary)
SDG 12 on sustainable consumption and production
SDG 11 on sustainable cities (the novel chemicals and ozone boundaries).
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In acting we, in fact, become sustainability leaders.
Cultural Change
When a business becomes a sustainability leader, staff can often rally behind the greatest cause of our generation, sustainability. This can create engagement and cultural improvements, which can lead to productivity and innovation increases. Often, staff can get behind the momentum in the company to save costs and look at innovative ways to be more efficient.
Our Program assists that cultural shift by developing strategies to engage your staff and even measures progress via a sustainability survey at the commencement , mid-point and end of the Program, taking your staff on the journey towards buy-in, engagement, innovation and productivity.
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Please see what some of our clients are saying about our Program:
Dino Sheref, Director,
PepNet Technologies.
The Team at Practice Capital assisted us to embed sustainability practices and accredit us as carbon neutral for 2021, making us one of the first IT businesses in Australia to achieve a carbon neutral status. We are really proud of this achievement and sustainability is now in our DNA. In terms of atrracting a new more enironmentally conscious clientele, being a sustainable business is now beginning to open doors that otherwise would have been closed.
Maria Coulson, Director, Coulson Legal, Solictors.
"We greatly appreciate the work Practice Capital has done in aligning our values with our sustainable operations into the future. This has been one the the more inspiring achievements for our firm."
Roslyn Holmes, Director, Holmes Architects.
We started this journey after joining Architects Declare, we wanted to go down this road as a learning opportunity to understand what we could do in our business to make a difference. We are passionate about designing environmentally friendly homes that are more sustainable - and if we can then bring that sustainability to our business practices then we are walking the walk. It was good to measure emissions in our operations and realise where we can improve, and then seeing the big picture through things like the SDGs - it's not just about built environments - there are many ways we can make a difference.