Dr. Brian Nattrass is an internationally acclaimed author, speaker, lawyer, and senior corporate advisor on the organizational strategy, innovation, and implementation of sustainability initiatives and corporate responsibility.

Prior to dedicating himself to sustainable development, Brian had a twenty-year career in corporate law and finance. Having served as both CEO of a public manufacturing company and Chairman of Earth Day International, he brings a balanced and informed perspective to the issues of sustainability and corporate responsibility.

For the three years prior to forming Sustainability Partners, Brian and Mary Altomare led the consulting practice of The Natural Step in the US and Canada.

Brian is the coauthor of four books, including three with Mary Altomare on sustainability and corporate responsibility. Their most recent book, DANCING WITH THE TIGER: Learning Sustainability Step by Natural Step (2002), focuses on the dynamics of innovation, organizational transformation, and the integration of more sustainable business practices.

It features detailed case studies providing some of the latest learning from their clients such as Starbucks, Nike, the US Marines, the City of Seattle, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, and the global engineering firm of CH2M HILL.

A previous book, THE NATURAL STEP FOR BUSINESS: Wealth, Ecology and the Evolutionary Corporation (1999), has become a sustainability bestseller and is used by businesses, universities, and government agencies around the world.

KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS
 
VALUES-DRIVEN INNOVATION™ The Power of Values as an Engine of Innovation
Values-Driven Innovation™ is a disciplined approach to innovation that enables an organization to systematically examine all of its processes and products through specific values lenses. Those organizations that, through continuous and systematic innovation, achieve relative cost or value advantage, or enhanced new product generation, will win superior financial returns over time.

The achievement of sustainable competitive advantage in a time of hyper competition and rapid change in all markets requires broad-based innovation and improvement in resource productivity throughout the value chain. Counter-intuitively, a growing number of icon organizations have discovered that analyzing their strategy and operations through the lens of specific values, such as environmental sustainability or community responsibility, can produce a portfolio of benefits to the organization and its many stakeholders.

This presentation examines how globally recognized icons such as Starbucks, IKEA, the US Army, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) lead their respective fields utilizing the power of values as an engine of innovation.

BUSINESS FOR A BETTER PLANET™ Leadership for a Secure and Sustainable World
The most powerful institution in the world today – business – has lost the trust of much of the public. Revelations of deception, greed, and the destruction of the natural world undermine both our sense of security and our confidence in the integrity of our leaders. Isn’t there a better way? Can business be the engine of the economy AND lead the world as a model of integrity, a vehicle for improving the quality of life of people everywhere, and a steward of the natural world? This presentation will examine the qualities of leadership needed for a sustainable, inclusive, and vibrant world. Drawing lessons from the values, operations, and strategies of some of the most visible and successful organizations in the world, we will explore how we have it within our power to authentically create business for a better planet

DANCING WITH THE TIGER© Learning Sustainability Step by Natural Step
The Natural Step® model for sustainability has gained international endorsement from some of the world’s most respected scientists, business people, and community leaders. It provides an elegant intellectual framework that enables people from widely differing points of view to reach agreement on a common approach to sustainable development. Grounded in both hard science and organizational practice, some of the world’s most progressive organizations utilize this highly effective methodology. This presentation will examine key global drivers of unsustainability and insecurity, explore the framework for sustainability, and provide concrete examples of how more sustainable operating practices drive innovation and enhance value creation in such leading organizations as Nike, Starbucks, CH2MHILL, the global engineering firm, and Whistler Resort, the internationally-acclaimed mountain resort community.

CREATING A MORE SECURE AMERICA THROUGH A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD
America finds itself in a new and more powerful, yet ironically in many ways more vulnerable, relationship to the rest of the world. In this presentation we examine the connections between American security and global sustainability, and between American insecurity and global unsustainability. We also examine the proactive engagement of some major corporations as they struggle to become part of the solution to the problems created by increasing globalization rather than continuing to be, and internationally perceived to be, part of the problem. Nike’s evolution from "Just Do It" to its new maxim of "Do The Right Thing" will be examined, along with the growing corporate responsibility of a number of pioneering multinational firms.

FROM GOOD TO GOLD: Crossing the Chasm From Really Good to Truly Great
What does it take to become an icon organization — to be pre-eminent in its class? What is the plus factor that separates the really good from the truly great? We analyze the values of greatness, including enhanced corporate responsibility and sustainability, which help motivate and drive superior performance over time. Yet the road to greatness has many potholes and detours. This presentation will explore proven paths to greatness — how to successfully raise the bar inside organizations, including a transformation of values and sense of social responsibility — with examples from globally renowned organizations that embody a sense of values and mission that transcend the merely good.