Sustainable NI is an independent, non-profit membership organisation that guides public and private organisations in addressing sustainability issues and providing solutions to barriers to achieving climate action in Northern Ireland. Since 1998, Sustainable NI has been at the forefront of delivering transformational change. We have successfully embedded sustainability across the public, private, and third sectors, making a significant positive impact on organisations to help them contribute to the protection of our planet.
One of our objectives is to simplify sustainability. Sustainable NI aims to advance knowledge sharing, leadership in climate action, and support for sustainability in Northern Ireland. We are transforming our approach to ensure that our knowledge and ideas are shared as widely and as simply as possible.
Through our advocacy role, we have contributed to shaping national and local policies by creating and drafting several Sustainability Strategies and Climate Action Plans for Local Authorities in Northern Ireland :
Sustainability Audits for a range of Small and Medium Businesses and organisations to establish a baseline to measure and evaluate progress on sustainability.
Our leadership role is also featured by our well-researched and informed consultation responses useful to guide policy development at local and national levels - https://www.sustainableni.org/policy.
We are the Secretariat of the Sustainable Development Forum, a network of practitioners committed to promoting and integrating sustainability across the public sector in Northern Ireland. The Forum meets officially quarterly to discuss pressing topics, share best practice and find together solutions to advance consistency and collaboration in climate action.
We are also the Secretariat for the All Party Group on Climate Action focused on ensuring climate action is a public and political priority for politicians to take decisive action.
In the last two years, we have increased awareness and informed over 2000 people through training opportunities and presentations about Sustainability and Net Zero, Sustainable Capital Projects, Responsible Procurement, and actions to take to tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis (https://www.sustainableni.org/sustainability-training). Informing and educating goes beyond our work with members. Therefore, we share best practice through case studies and articles published in our newsletter and featuring our website.
We are partners with Derry City and Strabane District Council in a UKRI Project. It is part of a two-year Innovate UK-funded project to support Derry City and Strabane District Council in realising its ambition of being a net zero climate resilient city and district by 2045. SNI is developing a new approach to positively transforming the Council’s procurement process and integrating sustainability into its day-to-day activities and functions. The aim is to identify the problem, suggest the solution and highlight the benefits of a more circular and responsible procurement.
In 2024, we will launch our decision-making tool, a web-based tool for organisations to assess their strategies, plans, and projects against sustainability and climate indicators based on the Doughnut Economics model of two concentric rings: a social foundation and an ecological ceiling. Organisations will be able to review their decisions based on the assessment outcomes and follow up with actions to address sustainability and climate gaps.
Innovation Factory, 385 Springfield Road, Forthriver Business Park Belfast ,BT12 7DG