This definition or explanation of sustainable practice is courtesy of Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. Sustainable practice is a dynamic process which enables all people to realize their organizational 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 organizations 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 organizations 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 organization 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.