Sustainable Business Development

Background Briefing

This is an evolutionary tale of how a small group of progressive professionals from the manufacturing sector of Western Sydney, with guidance from the AMC, have grown from the Sustainable Business Development technology diffusion program to be in a position to launch the Australian Sustainable Business Alliance (ASBA) scheduled for early in 2003.

It all started when the AMC's Waste Minimisation team recognised there was a lack of sufficient commitment and expertise in Industry to meet the challenges of sustainable development. The realisation that the environment and its interplay with industry was becoming an increasingly urgent issue for manufacturers to address meant that leadership and action were required. To complicate the situation, sustainability is not restricted to environmental matters, it has many faces from Waste Management, Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Protection Legislation and Covenants, through to Corporate Citizenship and Ecological Sustainable Development among others. This was also an area in which the manufacturing professionals had limited experience and working knowledge. Operations Managers, Environment Managers, Engineers, Academics and Consultants had inadequate access to technologies and to overseas developments for their professional development.

The initial forum aimed to provide these interested professionals a range of opportunities such as increased technical expertise on specific topics through regular seminars, improved know-how in identifying companies' critical waste and environmental issues, networking and support from peers, and the exchange of information across organisations.

The strategy adopted was to cover a broad range of topics under seven key manufacturing sustainability themes:

• Eliminating Waste
• Benign Emissions
• Developing Renewable Energy resources
• Closed Loop Recycling
• Resource Efficient Transportation
• Training and Learning Programs
• Re-design

At first the program ran as a monthly special interest group meeting comprising 15-20 attendees; with the support of the AMC and Dept. of State and Regional Development it has now grown into quarterly luncheon seminars with two speakers and 40-60 attendees.

Interest in this program has come from a broad spectrum of industries and organisations. To date along this journey we have had over 500 attendees from over 150 organisations. The reach of this program has been further extended by keeping in regular contact and updating the full AMC membership, who are clearly interested in the developments explored in this forum.