On Thursday 3 July, Tasmanian Leaders hosted the Leading Climate Adaptation Workshop at the Inveresk campus in collaboration with the Launceston Institute.
Over 80 attendees had the opportunity to learn from experts in economic development, climate science, systems change and sustainability.
They gained practical tools, expert insights, and a clear sense of how to lead organisations through complexity, meet rising expectations, and make measurable progress on sustainability, including:
- Tasmania’s latest climate projections and what they mean for operations
- Aligning strategy with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
- Practical tools for navigating sustainability reporting and carbon certification
- How to identify your sphere of influence and take meaningful action
Special thanks to Kym Goodes, Dr Tomas Remenyi, Steve Willing and Patrick Viljoen for leading this workshop.
The evening networking event included an engaging panel discussion with members local businesses, government, community and industry. It explored the critical questions Tasmanian organisations need to be asking as they respond to growing climate risks, carbon reporting obligations, and rising expectations around sustainability leadership.
Panel experts Tom Green, Nikole Gyles, Joanna Mosur, Rocio Rutter and Patrick Viljoen outlined the misconceptions around reporting on sustainability and how data requirements apply differently to large organisations, cascading to smaller entities.
Associate Director at KPMG Joanna Mosur explained how the evolution of reporting is everchanging, and the sustainability reporting of today is vastly different to what it will be in the coming years.
“Don’t think you can go from 0 – 100 overnight. Take one small step at a time. Sustainability means different things to different organisations. You need to define what sustainability means to you first, before deciding on initiatives.”
“It shouldn’t be a compliance exercise but a lens to look at strategy through, so that everything is linked and going in the same direction. Put value on sustainability KPIs as with financial KPIs and track them together. Sustainability is a long-term game and we need to start somewhere” Joanna said.
Panelists outlined the common misconceptions that companies and businesses need to resource it all on their own. Patrick Viljoen, Sustainability Leader at CPA Australia encouraged early-stage conversations, engagement and collaboration down the supply chain as a key to risk management. “Focusing on sustainability can have a triple benefit – cost, environmental and reliability. If we can get collaboration working from the top (not in silos, we’ll see these benefits.”
“You don’t build a business model off the back of a reporting standard. Integrating sustainability with the other problems you’re trying to solve as a business makes it more tangible” Patrick said.
There were interesting questions from the audience around communicating the why in organisations, panelists explaining that tying sustainability goals to your strategy so everyone in an organisation understands the value proposition and what it means to them is key to making positive change.
Check out more Tasmanian Leaders events as part of the Leading at the Edge series.
