The purpose of the case study is to chart an NGOs journey (Mission Australia Queensland) towards sustainability with the aim of encouraging other NGOs to begin their own journey.
The case study illustrates that becoming more sustainable is rewarding. However, it also illustrates that considerable effort is required by the organisation and that the process is sometimes far from straight forward.
As a consequence of process learnings acquired, a number of traits and practices were suggested as being useful.
By raising awareness about the nature of the journey it is hoped that NGOs will be better equipped for the undertaking.

Showing national governments change in their jurisdictions toward, or away from, a sustainable development path dominates invention and innovation in sustainability accounting. Helping sub-national governments do the same is rarely considered by accounting scholars.

When a nation’s per capita wealth is not declining over time is accepted as by many as a reflecting a national government’s success in guiding transition to a state of sustainability. Acceptance is based on three main arguments: economic theory, common sense, and simplified decision-making. The World Bank leads inventions in estimating change in a nation’s wealth, using a portfolio of five stocks: natural, produced, human, social, and governance capital.

A pro bono project adapted the World Bank model to assess change in a local community’s capital stocks through two phases during 2005-08. Change in natural, produced, and human capital stocks of the Campaspe community were assessed during 2005, using ABS small area statistics as quantitative indicators. Senior management in its Council then assessed qualitative change in the same indicators. Change in social and governance capital stocks of the Eurobodalla community were assessed during 2008, by combining a social network analysis tool with content analysis of Council’s Annual Reports and Community Services Directories.

This project shows how a social learning approach can be incorporated into evaluating public environmental programs. A social learning approach is particularly suited to complex environmental challenges which are inherently difficult to understand, predict, and manage, thus complicating the evaluation process. The project focuses on an Australian case study of dryland salinity management where there are major knowledge barriers impeding conventional management techniques. The research presented in this paper focused on evaluating a public demonstration program to
track its impact through its design, implementation, and monitoring phases. The project shows that, by incorporating social learning principles and practices, program evaluation can promote collective action, critical reflection, and increased knowledge to underpin improved environmental management

For more information see: Measham (2009) Social Learning Through Evaluation: A Case Study of Overcoming Constraints for Management of Dryland Salinity, Environmental Management Vol 43(6), pp 1096-1107
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00267-008-9265-5

SLAH was a behaviour change program for City of Port Philip residents, continuously improved over 9 rounds from 2001 to late 2008.

The format of SLAH was a series of 5 program workshops run over 3 months, attracting between 60 and 80 households participating in each round. The workshops focussed on practical actions around energy, water, waste, travel and spending. In addition to expert presenter information, householders inspired each other via group activities and discussion to implement actions relating to each theme.

Incentive products were supplied at each workshop (e.g. CFLs, worm farms) to encourage retrofit or behaviour change action.

In 2006, the Central Victorian Greenhouse Alliance (CVGA) secured Victorian Government support to fund a behaviour change program that would test – “by engaging a significant proportion of a township in household energy reduction – whether major savings could be achieved and measured at the regional level.” The objective was to get 500 households to commit to a long-term process that required active participation and input to achieve a 15 to 30% reduction in household energy consumption.

Castlemaine 500 was the project and used a participatory evaluation process that was built into the project from the beginning. In the report we draw on evidence from a number of evaluation methods used throughout the life of the project.