From the President's Desk: Reducing Duplicative Efforts & Leveraging Resources Collectively for Greater Impact

On April 4, you should have received an email from us, formally announcing that ISSP will be co-hosting a Global Congress for Climate Change & Sustainability Professionals with ACCO. The first-of-its-kind Congress will be held in Chicago this December 9-12, 2019. Since its inception, ISSP has hosted three conferences, all of which have attracted the field’s leading voices. The Board and I pursued this partnership for our fourth convening because we truly believe we are stronger together; there are so many organizations doing great work in sustainability, and now is the time to reduce duplicative efforts and leverage resources collectively for greater impact.

We intentionally named this a "Congress" to indicate a very different focus from traditional conferences, with facilitated discussions on standardizing competencies and organizational structures, advancing professional credentialing, and establishing a uniform voice across the practitioner community. A heavily discounted presale for members of both organizations is underway until April 30th; join ISSP today to take advantage of this presale rate well below the market value of any comparable event! Please visit our event microsite regularly for the most up-to-date details (agenda, shoulder events and evening activities, etc.) as we finalize our plans. Should your organization be interested in supporting the Congress (financial or otherwise), click or share this link here. This will be the chance for your voice / brand to be heard / seen!

As you consider attending, we also hope you will look into participating in the countless Earth Day events that will be happening worldwide. While we are all working year round to “broaden, educate and activate the environmental movement,” those stateside can attend a volunteer clean up in more than a dozen cities on April 22 or submit their own cleanup here (we are looking at you, ISSP chapters and RLNs! :) ). Our International followers should be on the lookout for resolutions and reports from the Ninth Interactive Dialogue of the General Assembly on Harmony with Nature that will also be taking place on the 22nd, and shared on the United Nations website.

I leave you this month with the wise words of one of the greatest environmental stewards of our time:

“The Earth is what we all have in common.” -- Wendell Berry