Who is NACC Sustainability and what is it on about?
What we're on about
Underneath it all NACC Sustainability believes that the world goes around a whole lot better when people have a significant level of control over their own lives. We also believe that people respond best when what they CAN do is tapped into rather than what they or others think they CAN'T do.
This is why we focus on some of the sustainability building blocks that enable this to happen, like:
- Supporting and motivating leaders who are respectful of social, environmental and economic needswithin their sphere of influence.
- Building enterprises and communities that have an optimistic and open minded approach to learning new and better ways.
- Finding out what people already do well and what they really aspire toward and helping develop their capability to achieve that aspiration.
- Building a sustainable balance in enterprises, families and communities that enables tomorrow's society to enjoy the world they will inherit from us
Who we are
The Managing Director and Principal Consultant is Howard Nielsen who was brought up on a fruit property in the Riverland area of South Australia and started out as a teacher, curriculum consultant and school principal.
He took on being CEO of Learning Network Australia (LNA) and the Global Institute for Learning and Development (GILD) in the 1990's. He worked also as a tertiary lecturer in learning and teaching and as a statewide consultant on parent-teacher partnerships and shared leadership before taking on freelance consulting work and the two contract CEO positions.
Howard and his wife Wendy live in the Samford Valley near Brisbane and their three adult children Michael, Stuart and Kate live with their spouses and partners in Brisbane and Toronto.
Howard spends a fair bit of time on local community activities as well as playing a bit of tennis and helping out with organising the local tennis club.
Events that have shaped ideas
Observations of the creative, optimistic and facilitative approaches by some managers, and the negative and domineering approaches by others, inspired Howard to focus on leadership characteristics that build on strengths and "can do" attitudes. This led to his work on sustainable leadership development programs that focus on inclusive, creative and optimistic approaches and recognise and build on the often un-tapped capacities of managers and leaders.
Strong insights from his wife and children and a memorable reflection from his then seven year old daughter Kate led to the initiation of a parent and family development program called Parents Matter, a program that builds on parent strengths and confidence as well as the taking on of new skills, attitudes and approaches.
An early awakening about sustainability issues at a workshop he attended in the early 70's sparked Howard's involvement in environmental education and environmental advocacy work. This led to his work in facilitating learning about The Natural Step www.naturalstep.org sustainability framework and in designing and implementing a triple bottom line strategic plan and auditing and reporting process while CEO at GILD in the 1990's.
His early experience with young school children and their parents and school communities highlighted just how important community engagement is to the development of autonomous young people. This led to Howard's involvement as an advocate and professional facilitator of parent-teacher collaboration and community engagement practices. This has carried on into his community develoment work in his own community with ViVa Samford www.vivasamford.org.au and Samford Green Streets via www.greenstreet.net.au
Facilitation of the national Reworking Tomorrow process in the late 1990's highlighted the value of an appreciative and inclusive approach to building communities and also prompted a key focus on conversation as an art in that building process.