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The following are guide tools to help you determine how effectively your organization is 'moving toward' principles of Sustainable Quality. These frameworks are also used by our evaluation team to analyze and award candidates.
The Natural Step (TNS)
http://www.naturalstep.org
THE NATURAL STEP FRAMEWORK
The Natural Step provides a simple yet elegant framework to integrate environmental
issues into the frame of business reality and to move the company toward sustainable
development. The framework's purpose is to explain systems in the simplest way so an
organization can deal with complexity without either getting lost in it or denying that it
exists. It includes four core processes:
 | Perceiving the nature of the unsustainable direction of business and society and the
self-interest implicit in shifting to a sustainable direction; |
| Understanding the first-order principles for sustainability, i.e. the four System
Conditions; |
| Strategic visioning through "back-casting" from a desired sustainable future;
and |
| Identifying strategic steps to move the company from its current reality toward its
desired vision. |
The Natural Step framework is used to develop a new shared mental model of business
reality, one that integrates environmental considerations into strategic business
decisions and day-to-day operations.
THE FOUR SYSTEM CONDITIONS
- Substances From The Earth's Crust Must Not Systematically Increase In Nature.
In a sustainable society, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and the
mining of metals and minerals will not occur at a rate that causes them to systematically
increase in the ecosphere.
- Substances Produced By Society Must Not Systematically Increase In Nature.
In a sustainable society, humans will avoid generating systematic increases in persistent
substances such as DDT, PCBs, and freon.
- The Physical Basis For The Productivity And Diversity Of Nature Must Not
Systematically Be Diminished.
In a sustainable society, humans will avoid taking more from the biosphere than can be
replenished by natural systems.
- We Must Be Fair And Efficient In Meeting Basic Human Needs.
In a sustainable society, achieving greater fairness is essential for social stability and
the cooperation needed for making large-scale changes within the framework laid out by the
first three conditions.
QUOTES:
Ray Anderson, CEO, Interface:
"Interface is committed to shifting from linear industrial processes to cyclical
ones. To do this, we use a compass to guide us, and a set of
tools to help us. They are both the result of The Natural Step. Interface will use four
fundamental principles of science described by The Natural Step as a guide to reduce its
impact and footprint upon the planet. We believe that institutions that continuously
violate these principles will suffer economically."
Jim Quinn, CEO, Collins Pine Company:
"The Natural Step is one of the easier things to get people to buy into even
though they may not be able to remember what the four System Conditions are. Once they've
been exposed to them, they have an instinctive understanding of what is being talked
about. It's easier to get people to equate to this as opposed to other management concepts
that are designed to motivate people. This is one that you can internalize quickly."
Malcom Baldrige
www.asq.org/ab+quality/awards/baldrige
Determining Organizational Quality
Approach:
- What are the core values, operting principles, or reasons for the effort?
- What is it based on?
- Which model, method, technique, or strategy is being used?
- What are the intentions, vision, mission, and purpose?
- What is its potential?
Deployment:
- Describe and document effective implementation of the approach.
- How has the approach been carried out?
- What actions have developed and delivered products and services?
- Describe how interactions with customers, employees, suppliers, and the public reflect
the approach.
Results:
- Provide evidence of outcomes that have been achieved.
- How sustainable are improvements?
- Describe the scope and importance of outcomes.
- Describe the rate of improvement.
- Compare performance relative to benchmarks.
See the SQ Evaluation Questionnaire for questions that will help your organization better align with Sustainable Quality. Note that the same questions you use for your own evaluation are used for SQ workshops and also for judging award applicants.
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