This manual provides guidance on creating, implementing, monitoring and reporting on the progress of a One Planet Action Plan for a project, an organisation, a
738 KB – 25 Pages
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1Contents 1. Introduction 2About this manual 3About Bioregional and our vision of One Planet Living ® 32. The history and philosophy behind One Planet Living 4The origins of One Planet Living 5Bioregional™s One Planet Living framework 5What™s di˜erent about One Planet Living? 63. Your role as a One Planet Integrator 84. How to embed One Planet Living 10Step 1. Get buy in 12Step 2. Create your One Planet Action Plan 12Step 3: Implement your Plan 14Step 4: Monitor and report on progress 155. Peer review 16What is a peer review? 17 Why have your Action Plan peer reviewed? 17Documents to assemble 17 The peer review process 18 Criteria for peer review 186. Leadership recognition 20Being recognised as a leader 21 Maintaining leadership recognition 227. Contact us 23
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3About this manualThis manual provides guidance on creating, implementing, monitoring and reporting on the progress of a One Planet Action Plan for a project, an organisation, a city or a region. It covers both the creation and the implementation of a plan. The manual provides background on the philosophy of One Planet Living ® and the history behind it, and how to embed One Planet Living into a sustainability strategy. It also provides guidance on the process behind Bioregional-led ‚peer reviews™ of One Planet Action Plans and Bioregional™s system for recognising leadership. As well as familiarising yourself with this manual, it™s also important to read and be familiar with Bioregional™s Goals and Guidance for implementing One Planet Living. These provide advice to particular sectors and types of organisation on what goals, actions, indicators and targets to include in a One Planet Action Plan, and o˜er examples of good practice. Guidance is currently provided for communities, companies, cities and regions and schools at bit.ly/GoalsandGuidance.About Bioregional and our vision of One Planet Living Globally, we consume around 50% more in natural resources than the planet can cope with, in terms of renewing these resources or absorbing the wastes and pollution we cause. To protect the Earth™s limited resources we need to learn to live happy and healthy lives within the means of our one planet.Bioregional champions a better, more sustainable way to live. We work with partners to create better places for people to live, work and do business. Our vision is of thriving regional economies where we meet more of our needs from local, renewable and waste resources, enabling people to live happy, healthy lives within the natural limits of the planet, leaving space for wildlife and wilderness.We call this One Planet Living. We work with businesses in di˜erent ways, helping them to make their operations, products, services and supply chains more sustainable. We help to plan, build and manage communities around the world that have high ambitions for sustainability and for One Planet Living. And we work with partners to save energy and promote zero-carbon renewable energy sources, both in new buildings and in existing ones.
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6These are backed up by detailed Goals and Guidance documents that provide advice and ideas on the goals, actions, targets and indicators you could set to enable you to achieve One Planet Living Œ in other words, a sustainable ecological and carbon footprint which is consistent with Earth systems science. What™s di˜erent about One Planet Living? One Planet Living is not a certi˚cation or accreditation system. There is no test to pass or fail. Instead, it aims to help create a culture of innovation, exploration of opportunities and collaboration with like-minded individuals and organisations, to enable ˛exible systemic responses and rapid progress. This is what we believe will drive deep sustainability and enable ecosystems to be protected and to regenerate. We believe the following aspects are key to achieving transformative change: Inspiring change through a hearts and minds approach Researchers have found that we tend to form opinions and make decisions based on our attitudes, values and personalities, however rational we consider ourselves to be. Then we look for ways to justify our views and decisions. So in seeking real and lasting change, it™s vital to engage hearts as well as minds. We have made our guidance and tools as engaging and simple as possible, focusing on emotional as well as intellectual engagement. For example, in our training courses we ask participants to talk about sustainability at a personal level; our action planning tools include asking stakeholders how they feel about what they are doing. We also think it™s important to use images and stories as well as quantitative targets to measure and communicate progress. Making it easy to do the right thing One Planet Living aims to make it easy to live sustainably Œ so that it is easier to do the ‚right thing™ than to live unsustainably. For example, this might include designing communities where it is easier to walk and cycle than to drive for short journeys, thereby improving health as well as reducing carbon emissions. Sustainability requires people to make big changes, but along the way we can use new thinking to nudge them and edit their choices in the right direction. Goals and Guidance Œ not prescriptive standards Our Goals and Guidance documents are not prescriptive. The One Planet Goals contained within them are our best attempt at setting long-term goals for sustainability, consistent with the latest in scienti˚c thinking. They are goals that all projects and organisations need to achieve in order to enable One Planet Living at the global level. How you achieve them is up to you Œ your Action Plan should outline the strategies and actions you plan to implement to meet these One Planet Goals. As our knowledge changes over time and new technologies are introduced, you can update your One Planet Action Plan to take account of this. So think about your Plan as a working document which you can continually adapt and update for a changing world. Focus on actual performance Developing a One Planet Action Plan is only the start of the journey. To achieve and communicate change it is important to monitor and report on progress in implementing it. We encourage you to publish regular (ideally annual) progress reports, both to demonstrate what you have achieved
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7and what lessons you have learned, so you can help others make swifter progress Œ and they can help you too. Complementing other frameworks and certi˜cation systems˚ The One Planet Living framework is not intended to replace other sustainability frameworks and certi˚cation systems such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals, LEED, BREEAM, GRI, FSC, BCorps and organic standards. It provides a high-level framework that can be used to identify gaps and enhance other systems and help them to join up. One Planet Living can also be used by community groups, schools and small companies which might not be able to a˜ord the costs of certi˚cation. That said, other frameworks and certi˚cation systems can provide important detail or ideas for writing a One Planet Action Plan. For example, adopting Forest Steward Council (FSC) certi˚cation, where it™s available, can help ensure sustainable timber sourcing. Systems thinking Our world is complex, interconnected and in a constant state of ˛ux. This means that responses to speci˚c actions are rarely linear and can have unexpected consequences. Global sustainability challenges such as climate change can be described as ‚cloud problems™ because they are always moving and changing shape. Prescriptive standards are often not ˛exible enough to deal with this complex world, and too slow to respond to changes. To tackle these challenges we need to be ˛exible, to de˚ne the outcome we want but to be open to adapting our course to reach this objective. This approach is often de˚ned as ‚systems thinking™ (bit.ly/2KMXed9 ) or ‚systems science™ ( bit.ly/2IFgaKl ). The One Planet Living framework is a conscious response to the reality of living in a complex and dynamic world. It enables you to create a ˛exible, responsive yet robust One Plan Action Plan which is right for you and those you are working with, and your particular opportunities and challenges. The need for heroism At Bioregional we believe that the rapid transformation that is required to achieve One Planet Living Œ and so live within our planetary boundaries (bit.ly/2LqBqp0 ) Œ goes beyond what many people would call ‚realistic™ or achievable™. So we need leaders, who can demonstrate just how much is possible and inspire others to open themselves up to the possibility of transformation. That™s why we have developed a system that recognises ‚National/Sector Leaders™ and ‚Planetary Leaders™, who are willing also to be heroes, inspiring others to follow their lead. Read about how Bioregional recognises leadership in section 6. Find out more about systems thinking Here are some resources to get you started in systems thinking: Why use a systems practice? A video by The Omidyar Group (bit.ly/5PK7UDQ)Thinking in systems, a primer. Donella H. Meadows, 2017 Systems Practice Œ a course by Acumen (bit.ly/2GSVLAD )
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9At Bioregional we describe people charged with implementing One Planet Living in a project or organisation as ‚One Planet Integrators.™ This is the person who has the job of integrating One Planet Living into strategies, plans and processes, as well as into organisational culture. You may be leading on sustainability in your organisation or a consultant working with a client on sustainability. Whatever your position is, if you are the person charged with implementing One Planet Living in a project or organisation, you have a pivotal role from the start Œ and you will need to employ a range of di˜erent skills throughout the process. Your role as a One Planet Integrator will vary from project to project depending on the skills and experience of the other members of your team. Your main role is to draw out the knowledge, experience and commitment of other team members to create a robust and achievable One Planet Action Plan and then, if required, oversee its implementation, monitoring and reporting. You may also have a speci˚c technical skill that you can bring to bear, such as in energy, waste, transport, marketing, communications, management, engineering or architecture. That™s great Œ just make sure you don™t let your speci˚c expertise cloud your ability to see the big picture. At Bioregional we think One Planet Integrators need to have all or most of the attributes below, or be willing to develop them: Ł Enthusiasm about your role and willingness to learn Ł Credibility within the organisation, with the authority to organise resources, meetings and training Ł Personal commitment to sustainability and walking the talk in your professional and personal life Ł Good communications skills , with the ability to facilitate communications between sta˜ and senior management and provide constructive feedback Ł Coaching and facilitation skills to bring out the best in people Ł Experience and wisdom that you can bring to bear to create a great One Planet Action Plan Ł Perseverance Œ being able to motivate sta˜, overcome barriers, resolve problems and continue with progress in order to achieve transformation The principle of co-creation The most e˜ective Action Plans come from a collective process with everyone involved Œ whether that be sta˜, customers, local people, suppliers, future residents, designers, engineers and so on. This enables you to harness their knowledge and wisdom, enrol them as supporters, create a sense of ‚we™re in it together™ and win hearts and minds. This is what we call ‚co-creation™. So we recommend that you use collaborative workshop processes to drive the development of your One Planet Action Plan, and that the document itself is developed in a collaborative way with di˜erent individuals or teams leading on certain principles and looking at how they all ˚t together.
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