National Centre for Sustainability
@ SWINBURNE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY, Capabilities
We provide commercial, government and non-profit organisations with a range of services including:
Sustainability Strategy Development
The NCS has created methodologies designed to take organisations through the process of reviewing and developing new sustainability strategies. We are also able to assist with detailed implementation planning and project management during the implementation phase. We have significant experience in the field of corporate and business strategy development. Areas of expertise include portfolio strategy development, marketing strategy development, market assessment and financial analysis. Programs such as the 'Business Transformer' and 'Business Sustainability Advocates' also provide advice and guidance on sustainable growth strategies and methods of implementation.
Training Programs
The NCS offers a range of customised training programs to meet the needs of your organisation. We can work with you to develop all necessary resource material to support training and delivery in the workplace. We regularly facilitate training programs in sustainability reporting, environmental auditing, environmental management and resource management. In addition, we offer a predominantly online Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability, which addresses the key sustainability challenges in terms of environmental, economic and social issues. The NCS works in partnership with Sustainability Victoria to deliver FirstRate Energy Rating Training for builders, designers and architects.
Stakeholder Engagement
We work with communities and organisations to undertake consultation and engagement. The process of engagement aims to maximise opportunities for people to be informed and have their concerns heard and taken into account, before decisions are made. A number of our projects centre around engaging communities in sustainability and working with communities to determine their specific needs to create community capacity.
Sustainability Reporting
The NCS is able to produce comprehensive sustainability reports for your organisation. A sustainability report provides a holistic account of the organisations activities and impacts and will help the organisation track its sustainability performance over time. We can work with you to integrate sustainability reporting into existing annual reports and advise on tools, processes, indicators, data collection, interpretation and suggestions.
Research
Our skill base is broad and multi-disciplinary, and can be applied to academic, industry-specific or organisation-specific research. We are able to design and manage sophisticated market research programs, using a range of qualitative and quantitative techniques. This research can inform the development of new marketing strategies for existing products and provide insights into potential barriers to uptake of new products and services. Market research can also measure attributes such as reputation and public opinion.