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Last updated: 16 July 2007
CSIRO Sustainable Communities Initiative
Mission: to create a more sustainable Australia through enabling communities to realise sustainable social, economic and environmental vitality.
Building on a decade of research, CSIRO and organisations from across the public, private and civil society sectors have come together to develop and deliver innovative and integrated solutions to local sustainability challenges and opportunities through the Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI).
21st Century Challenges Need 21st Century Solutions
In order to respond effectively to complex modern day challenges and realise the opportunities they present we need to change our thinking.
We need new ways of perceiving complex challenges and opportunities, and to respond with new behaviours and skills.
Responding to issues such as a changing climate, environmental degradation, and social and economic disadvantage is complex because social, economic and environmental factors are inextricably linked.
No one sector of society has all the answers. Effective solutions lie in integrating skills, resources, knowledge and passion from across sectors and organisations.
Responding in this way requires leadership and learning. CSIRO, along with participants from business, government and non-government organisations, are pioneering new collaborative approaches addressing complex challenges through the Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI).
Sustainable Communities Initiative (SCI)
The SCI is leading the development and delivery of projects in partnership with communities, businesses, governments and NGO’s from 2007 to 2009.
SCI projects enable participants to learn how to address local sustainability challenges and opportunities.
The SCI will provide valuable insights into meeting complex sustainability challenges to a variety of communities through engaging in multiple projects. Individually, SCI projects will deliver local ‘triple bottom line' outcomes, and collectively they will provide insights and learnings that will inform community scale sustainable development policy, programs and practice.
The SCI is underpinned by more than a decade of CSIRO research that combines participatory processes with ‘systems based’ methods and tools to identify the drivers of regional sustainability issues and challenges, and develops, tests and implements innovative and evidence based responses.
SCI Principles
The SCI is underpinned by three core principles:
Collaboration: harnessing and focussing effort and resources through partnership
Integration: seeking solutions to complex challenges by effectively combining knowledge, competencies and resources from across partners and communities.
Innovation: developing and delivering 21st Century solutions to 21st Century challenges.
The SCI Model
The SCI is a Catalyst and Initiator developing and delivering partnerships and projects that deliver mutual benefits for participants.
The SCI Collaborates and Connects people, organisations and communities to networks, resources and knowledge that support and enable sustainable development.
The SCI provides Credibility and Leadership enhancing the success of project activities and outcomes.
This SCI is Innovative and Action Oriented discovering, developing, delivering and sharing new ways to realise sustainability outcomes in Australian communities.
The SCI is Holistic and Systemic underpinning our by fostering whole-of-system understanding and solutions.
Participating Organisations
Currently 17 organisations from across the public, private and civil society sectors have committed to working together through the Sustainable Communities Initiative. These organisations are as follows:
SCI Foundations Members:
Department of Environment and Water Resources
Westpac Banking Corporation
Insurance Australia Group
Harvey Norman
Delfin Lend Lease
GRM International
Ricoh Australia
CSIRO
SCI Associate Members:
WWF – Australia
ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability
The Natural Edge Project
Department of Transport and Regional Services (DoTARS)
Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources (DITR)
Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF)
CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
Contact Sean Rooney
Phone 02 6242 1598
Email sean.rooney@csiro.au
Web http://www.csiro.au/science/SCI
