SUSTAINABILITY: The mission’s learning journey
Wesley Mission values the worth of every individual and seeks personal salvation for all. It is committed to the enhancement of skills, opportunities, knowledge and the safety of its people, to integrity and accountability in all it does. The wise managementof resources and leadership founded on servanthood, vision and innovation are core values.
Wesley Mission’s commitment to sustainability stems from these values. It comes from the Mission’s sense of Christian stewardship, which dictates the notion of inter-generational equity, in which humans are to care for people and the planet. There are good theological arguments in favour of sustainability. The Bible takes a long view of human history, with references to “your children’s children”.
This eternal view is as relevant today as whenit was written, especially in a nation where there is a growing disparity between the rich and the poor, between those who have access to knowledge and resources and those whoare marginalised by socio-economic change. With 4,000 employees and an annual revenueof $150 million, Wesley Mission as an entity has a substantial impact on the communityand an ability to influence social, economicand environmental change. These factorsalone bring into focus its responsibility and role as a prophetic, witnessing church, andas a corporate citizen.
The journey towards sustainability is a learning one, a path to which the Mission has committed itself. Wesley Mission recognises the principles of sustainability must be integrated into its management system and embraced through the implementation of effective policies. Reporting on triple bottom line outcomes — social, economic, environmental — are an outworking of that management system.
As an ongoing commitment to improving our response to sustainability we are honoured to be part of an Australian Government initiative, funded out of the Department of Environment and Heritage, with the Australian Research Institute in Education for Sustainability (ARIES), based at Macquarie University, Sydney. Thisis a 12 month project to make positive steps towards organisational change for sustainability. Wesley Mission is one of 10 organisational participants in this project. It will develop and implement action plans to assess and improve the effectiveness of sustainability practices and processes. These practices will be the drivers for developing an internal sustainability culture that will be an example for others to follow.
Dr Keith Suter
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