FOF SustainAbility Support Services Inc.

What are SUSTAINABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES?

The Fresh Outlook Foundation’s passion is to help build sustainable communities. To that end, it uses leading-edge communication and collaboration tools and tactics to encourage lasting behaviour change that enables community well-being.

To support these objectives, FOF is launching SustainAbility Support Services Inc. (S3) to help groups from the public, private, non-profit, academic, and faith-based sectors achieve organizational sustainability while contributing to community vibrancy and resilience.

Offered through FOF’s new social enterprise arm, S3 provides innovative, practical, and affordable ways for individuals, organizations, and communities to liberate their human potential, thereby accelerating progress toward social, cultural, environmental, and economic well-being. More specifically, S3 offers:

How are SUSTAINABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES unique?

S3 delivers quality consulting services at competitive prices. S3 is also distinct in four special ways:

1. Unique to S3 is the collaborative approach used in project design. At the onset of each project, a team of S3 professionals brainstorms various strategies to determine the best approach, given the client’s needs, wants, and budget. This guarantees not only proven, practical, affordable, and innovative strategies, but also cutting-edge practices being pioneered by industry leaders.
2. Corporate and community capacity building is another S3 focus. To that end, clients are encouraged to participate in ways that build awareness and specific project-related skills. Wherever possible, interns from local colleges and universities participate to help build capacity within the sustainability industry. And FOF shares success stories with other communities through its networks, events, and projects.
3. S3 is also intended to ensure that public engagement plays a lead role in the development of strategic plans, regional plans, official community plans, and management plans for water quality and conservation, wastewater treatment, solid waste reduction, energy efficiency, and active transportation. Because the quality of these plans directly reflects the calibre of the public engagement used to develop them, S3 helps facilitate authentic processes that inform and engage residents in meaningful and productive dialogue.
4. Finally, and in keeping with social enterprise practices, S3 helps support existing FOF activities such as the Building SustainAble Communities conference, the Reel Change SustainAbility Film Fest, and Talking DIRTy x10,000, and contributes to the development of new programs, projects, and events.

Why SOCIAL ENTERPRISE?

The Fresh Outlook Foundation (FOF) was incorporated as a nonprofit organization in 2007, and was granted registered charity status in 2010. To support its mandate, FOF seeks financial support through traditional means such as event registrations, sponsorships, grants, and donations. It is also exploring new, innovative sources of funding through social media and social enterprise. Rapidly gaining momentum in the nonprofit community, social enterprise is used by societies, charities, and cooperatives to sell goods or services in the
marketplace that create both financial and social returns on investment.

Research concludes that social enterprise is viable within FOF’s charity parameters. It is also an approach supported by local governments, as shown by the results of the Community Sustainability Snapshot surveys conducted by FOF in 2007 and 2010. The 2010 findings show that more than 80 percent of respondents would use sustainability planning services provided by a nonprofit; 84 percent would use research services; 72 percent would use public education and/or community-based social marketing services; 70 percent would use public consultation/engagement services; and 65 percent would use communication planning services. More than half of respondents said they would use education, facilitation, and event planning services provided by a group that fully commits all proceeds to a charitable purpose.

FOF used these research findings to help build SustainAbility Support Services, which are available to all
levels of government and First Nations, businesses, NGOs, and the academic and faith-based sectors.

For more information contact us directly.