Sustainability
approaches to decision-making and the taking of action
are consistently becoming a more widely accepted objective.
Sustainability evaluations, as a preventative approach
to environmentally and socially regrettable undertakings,
is seen as a means of expanding the emphasis of considerations
in decision-making that provides a more comprehensive
assessment of the many multi-dimensional problems society
faces today. Nevertheless, the central principles of
sustainability are not always well elaborated or applied – there
is significant room for improvement on how sustainable
development should be translated into practice.
The time has come for professionals to become skilled
at and able to implement a multi-dimensional way
of thinking about a future in which environmental,
societal, and economic concerns are considered evenly,
and simultaneously, in the pursuit of an improved
quality of life for all peoples. The challenge for
practitioners is to begin to conceptualize sustainability
in the context of inter-disciplinary scientific understanding
and promote the taking of action that reaches across
boundaries, disciplines, and cultures. The concept
and recognized need for sustainability in a global
arena is reaching the point that society expects
practicing sustainability professionals to act as
responsibly in advancing socio-economic progress,
protecting human health, and conserving natural resources
as other licensed professionals do in their respective
fields.
In
recognition of the above, Sustainability Now! hosted
a workshop in April 2006 to explore the possibilities
of establishing a Certified Sustainability Practitioner ™ process.
The Workshop Agenda was designed
to evaluate the need/benefits for such a professional
certification
process and to scope out what a professional working
in sustainability actually does, supported by a set
of needed competencies. Workshop breakout
groups examined what different criteria might
be established to judge the competency of an individual
working in sustainability.
Workshop
results published in the Workshop
on the Certification of Sustainability Practitioners
Report, listed
the Scope of Practice that might characterize a
sustainability professional, including the different
disciplines that might be involved and the different
tasks a professional might find themselves engaging
in. Criteria and Standards of Knowledge, Skills,
Education,
and Experience for Certification were also examined by the workshop participants.
The pros and cons for a certification process were discussed and next steps defined
if pursuit of developing a set of competencies to support professional certification
was elected by the sponsoring organizations.
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