THE NATURAL STEP ACADEMY

Learning sustainability together.
Ready to apply.

The online platform for professionals who want to learn to think and act with The Natural Step framework. Practical, inspiring and ready to apply in your organization.

30+

years of systems thinking
and change management

50+
countries worldwide
where it is applied

200+
Dutch organizations
went before you

Start today

The Basics: sustainability at a glance

Our online foundation course. Learn the core of The Natural Step in a short time and apply it straight away in your own work.

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THE NATURAL STEP

What you will find with us

Learn at your own pace, go deeper by theme and see how others approach it.

Online courses

That you can use in your work right away. Practical and at your own pace.

Courses by theme

Leadership, circularity, biobased and climate adaptation.

Practice cases from the Netherlands

Including what did and did not work at organizations like yours.

Inspiration

Short updates, events and new lessons as soon as they are available.

Why learn with us

From challenge to approach

You learn systems thinking, so you stop lurching from one challenge to the next
You work with the 4 sustainability principles as a practical compass
You gain language and tools to bring colleagues along
You build a shared vision of the future and the steps back to today
You learn as an individual, or together as a team or organization

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For and by professionals

Our courses help you make sustainability concrete in your daily work. With insights from years of practical experience, you learn how to translate sustainability into choices, processes and projects.

Learn to apply faster

The coming years call for pace and agility. That is why you learn with us to weigh options sharply, make decisions, adjust in time and learn from what does not work. This way you move forward yourself and bring others along in the change.

From talking to doing

Sustainability only gains value when it leads to action. In the TNS Academy you learn how to translate ambitions into strategy, experiments and new ways of working. We work from practice, with theory that helps make choices clear, well founded and repeatable.

They went before you

What participants say

“

Getting lost in the right direction is better than standing still.

Mandy Figaroa
Sustainability Communications Advisor, Gemeente Eindhoven

“

The point is that it has become normal, that you simply do things sustainably.

Rosemarijn Vollebrecht

Facilitator and Communications Advisor, Brabant Wonen

“

If you want long-term impact, you really have to do it together.

Naomie Wierts

Sustainability Manager, Vidomes

Want to talk it through?

Could you use some help?

Sometimes fifteen minutes of talking it through is enough to know where to start. Tell us what you are dealing with and we will think along with you, no strings attached. Just a conversation, not a sales pitch.

Prefer to call? 040-8796136

The foundation

The four sustainability principles

Every TNS Academy course is built on the same scientific foundation: four principles that together define when a society is truly sustainable. Easy to remember, ready to apply in your own organization.

Principle 1

Substances from the Earth's crust

No systematic build-up of substances from the Earth’s crust.

Principle 2

Substances produced by society

No systematic build-up of substances produced by society.

Principle 3

Degradation of nature

No systematic degradation of nature faster than nature can recover.

Principle 4

People's basic needs

Do not hinder people in meeting their fundamental needs, now and in the future.

In every course you learn to translate the principles into policy, projects and everyday choices.

Online foundation course

Learn the approach online right away

In this online course you discover The Natural Step approach and learn to plan strategically for a sustainable future. Practical examples and videos show you right away how it works in practice.