The Centre is the newest school at the Otago Polytechnic created to meet the growing need for sustainable practice implementation.  The aim of the Centre is to build into a nationwide HUB for business, industry groups and government agencies alike.

Mission

To lead as a collaborative hub for enabling and implementing sustainable practice in Otago, New Zealand and internationally.  

Vision 

The future vision of the Centre is to be a reputable centre for accessing expertise in sustainable practice.  This will be achieved through:

1. Local, regional, national and international collaborations
2. Development and delivery of educational programmes
3. Modelling sustainable practice - walking the talk

Staff Structure

The CSP is overseen by Jean Tilleyshort, Group Manager of Regions at Otago Polytechnic.

Governance is provided from an advisory group consisting of representatives from the Otago region, local government, a range of industry areas, and the Chief Executive of Otago Polytechnic.

Staff include Steve Henry (Director), Ella Susanne Lawton (Sustainable Practice Advisor), Sharon Schindler (Sustainable Practice Advisor).  The centre also utilises a number of external associates to deliver courses and programmes throughout the country including Mardi Newman from EcoMe Ltd, and Simon Harvey from BusinessLab Ltd.

Core Activities

• Projects
• Programmes 
• Consultancy
• Research

Sustainable practice is a dynamic process which enables all people to realise their organisational potential and improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously build resilient communities and protect and enhance nature’s support systems.

Sustainable practice requires a number of components for organisations to walk the talk.

Firstly an understanding of the ‘what we are talking about and why bother’ – clarifying what sustainable practice is; what we are currently doing that is unsustainable; and the challenges we are experiencing with regard to social, environmental and fiscal pressures.

Secondly ‘the how’ – identifying the opportunities that following a strategic sustainable approach presents and that the greatest potential will evolve as we work together within and between organisations with a common understanding of what we are trying to achieve and process for getting there.

Sustainable practice is having a strategic plan in place that allows your organisation or project to see the long term goal of sustainability whilst having short term actions moving you in the right direction. The Guidelines for Sustainable Practice in the ‘petal diagram’ above help us to make decisions that lead us in that direction.