Prepare for Sustainable Business Success & Boost your Impact by Integrating 4 Systemic Perspectives throughout your Business Model.
Learn how to build a sustainable, green, fair, just, resilient, circular, and regenerative business… even if you don't know where and how to start!
Course Enrollments
Opening Again Soon
Make sure to invest your time, energy, and capital in the things that matter most. Build a sustainable business in today's fast-changing world.
Sustainability is the buzzword of the decade. There's no doubt world is changing, and business leaders of the future want their organizations to be sustainable, green, fair, just, resilient, circular, and regenerative. But what does that really mean? What are the implications for your business? And, how can you start innovating for sustainable business success, right now?
All over the world, citizens, governments, and companies are waking up to the reality we are facing. They are joining forces to achieve the global Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 and work towards a sustainable society in which all human needs are met within the carrying capacity of planet Earth.
The effects of this global change can be seen on many levels. On the one hand, consumers and purchasers are becoming more and more informed and critical, demanding more transparency about e.g. the origin, labour conditions and environmental impact of the products and services they buy.
On the other hand, legislation around both social and environmental performance is rapidly evolving and becoming more and more stringent, recreating a new playing field with new rules and principles to play by.
These and many other systemic aspects of the global sustainability challenge are creating serious problems for all organizations that heavily depend on unsustainable practices, scarce materials, or unsavoury labour practices - while creating equally huge opportunities for those companies that embrace and anticipate these changes and strategically start innovating today.
As an entrepreneur, business owner, founder or manager, you’ve invested a great amount of time, energy, and money to build your business, and if you're serious about being successful in the 21st century, chances are you're already looking for the best tools and methods to transform into a future proof organization.
Now is the time to act upon these challenges and turn them into opportunities.
Unfortunately, existing approaches for business model innovation often focus on pieces and parts, and do not ensure that your business model is designed sustainable as a whole
with sustainability as the core driver for ánd of business model innovation.
6 week online course
Systems Thinking for Sustainable Business Modelling
Applying the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology
The Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology helps you Map, Check, and Innovate a business (model) from 4 integrated Systems Thinking Perspectives. It helps see more clearly what Universal Human Needs lie beneath fast-changing wants and desires of your Target Audience now and in the future, build Resilient Channels and Trustworthy Relationships with Partners and Stakeholders throughout the Value Chain, create Circular Activities and Regenerative Resources throughout the Life-Cycle, and enhance Strategic Decision-Making to fully grasp the Revenue-increasing, Cost-cutting, and Risk-reducing benefits of your unique Sustainable Business Model with a Triple Value Proposition at its core.
Click any of the images below to learn more about a specific module!
Learn how to build a sustainable business model!
Here’s Exactly What You’ll Get When You Sign Up
After confirming your participation and completing the payment procedure you will receive an email summarising all the practical details of the course as well as a clear outline of the different topics we will be discussing throughout the course. The course starts June 24th and finishes August 4th. Each week I will release several new short videos highlighting one of the 4 systemic perspectives described below and supply you with unique templates to apply this perspective to your own business model. Each week there will be a (optional) live-session to discuss and learn with each other about what everyone has done and to clarify any doubts about the material of that week. Your weekly time-investment will be between 2 and 4 hours.
Weekly In-Depth Videos
Each week we will launch 3 to 5 short videos highlighting one systemic sustainability perspective and explaining how to apply it to your business model. In total about 30 min/week.
Weekly Practical Templates
Each week we will supply you with a practical template and a variety of trigger questions to apply that weeks systems thinking perspective to your own business model.
Learn and Apply at your own Time
Each week new material is released and discussed. The videos and templates will be available te review and download) for the full course period, and up until one week after.
Weekly Discussion and Q&A
Each week there will be a (optional) online live-session to discuss and learn with each other about what everyone has done and to clarify any doubts about the material of that week.
Who is this Course for?
Don’t wait! Look at what past workshop participants have to say about the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology.
Robert de G.
Digital Transformation Agent
The SSCM offers several ways of mapping different parts of your business model with specific templates and trigger questions.
The Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology explains the broader topic of sustainability very well through several ways of mapping different parts of your business model with specific templates and trigger questions. Getting hands-on, I found the SSCM quite useful and applicable.
Pascalle B.
Innovation Specialist
I hope the SSCM becomes a reference for sustainable business modelling.
I am a fan of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology and I really hope it will become a method of reference on the complex topic of sustainable business modelling.
Franziska W.
CSR Expert
I can't wait to apply it to the company that I work at.
It was a really insightful event learning about sustainable business models. It was especially fun to work on a real-life example and hear other people's views. I can't wait to apply the Sustainable Start Canvas and see where the company I work at stands.
Week by Week Course Program
There are 6 modules in this course, one released every week. The first module gives a general introduction of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology, the next 4 modules each highlight a specific perspective essential to the overall systemic sustainability of your business model. In the final module you'll bring everything together into your own unique Triple Value Proposition and Sustainable Start Business Model Canvas.
Triple Value Proposition
Envisioning Interconnected Value for all Systems
At the core of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology, we introduce you to the Triple Value Proposition. Where a Value Proposition generally only describes how you create value for individual customers, reality suggests that each and every organization, business model, and product in fact has a Triple Value Proposition: Human, Social, and Ecological.
The thing is, if you’re not intentional about creating real and tangible value for each of these systems, chances are that you create negative value for one or more of them. By being purposeful about your choices throughout your business model, your Triple Value Proposition design will help explain how you create and deliver sustainable value to the world.
Topics
- The Systemic Sustainability Challenge
- The Story of Sustainable Start
- The science behind the SSCM
- Nested Systems (Design) Thinking
- The Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology
- The Triple Value Proposition
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- What a Triple Value Proposition is,
- Why it’s at the core of a sustainable business model, and
- How you can get started on designing your own.
Universal Human Needs & Satisfiers
Creating Synergic Customer Value Forever
Everything starts with your customer, user or direct beneficiary, but often it’s hard to keep up with their fast-changing wants and desires shaped throughout time, culture, and context. In fact, what you generally might think of as a customer need, is most often just the current customer want, desire, or preference for satisfying a particular need in a particular way.
By enhancing your customer development process by applying the theory of Universal Human Needs & Satisfiers (Max-Neef), redesigning your Human Value Proposition will help you identify new areas for innovation and increase sales to people who value more responsible companies and products that satisfy their real needs, no matter how their preferences change.
Topics
- The Customer Development Challenge
- SSC: Target Audience & Human Needs
- Universal Human Needs & Satisfiers
- Applying a Target Audience centered focus
- Applying a Product/Service centered focus
- Innovation for Synergic Satisfaction
- The Human Value Proposition
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- What's the difference between needs and satisfiers,
- Why it’s crucial to create synergy and lasting satisfaction, and
- How you can use this to design an irresistible Human Value Proposition.
Resilience & Social Sustainability
Building Trustworthy Stakeholder Relationships
As a business, you are part of society and dependant on the overall well-being of all actors in your social system. You don’t have to be a social enterprise to have a social impact, in fact, every organization and business model benefits from healthy and trustworthy relationships with all stakeholders throughout your value chain.
By improving the relationships with your partners and other stakeholders through the lens of the Social Sustainability Principles (Broman, Robert, Missimer 2015), you can secure your license to operate, attract goodwill and talent, increase employee productivity, improve decision-making through more diverse perspectives, and make sure you contribute to a resilient and adaptive society.
Topics
- The Social Sustainability Challenge
- SSC: Channels, Relationships, and Partners & Stakeholders
- Social Sustainability Principles
- Applying a social system actors map
- Applying a Value Chain lens
- Innovation for Resilience and Adaptivity
- The Social Value Proposition
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- What actors are relevant to your social network,
- Why it’s essential to contribute to a fair, just, and adaptive social system, and
- How you can do so by designing a powerful Social Value Proposition.
Circularity & Ecological Sustainability
Improving Life-Cycle Environmental Performance
Beyond being a part of society, your business operates within the environmental and is dependant on the well-being of various ecological systems. If you're not purposeful about your environmental impact, your impact is most likely negative overall. Next to your direct operations, this includes all the (in-)direct impacts throughout the value chain and lifecycle of your product and business model.
By improving the resources, input, and output generated by your business model through the lens of the Ecological Sustainability Principles (Broman and Robert 2015), you can reduce exposure to volatility in fossil fuel markets, prepare for more stringent future regulations on emissions, reduce the cost and secure the supply of critical (scarce) resources, and prepare your company to thrive in a circular, water-constrained, low-carbon economy within a regenerative planet.
Topics
- The Ecological Sustainability Challenge
- SSC: Activities and Resources
- Ecological Sustainability Principles
- Applying an input-output focus
- Applying a product/service LifeCycle lens
- Innovation for Circularity and Regeneration
- The Ecological Value Proposition
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- What’s important to know about your input and output,
- Why it’s crucial to create synergy and lasting satisfaction, and
- How you can use this to design an irresistible Human Value Proposition.
Strategic Prioritization & Decision-Making
Ensuring Your Strategic Course of Iterative Action
As a business, you have to be strategic in the way you further develop, test, and implement the ideas for innovation sparked by the previous steps. Navigating our fast-changing and highly complex 21st century context, requires strategic decision-making and prioritization to effectively increase revenue while decreasing costs and risks.
By making sure you act strategically and focus your efforts on what matters most, you can align the company’s actions with its purpose and values, grow brand equity through leadership on high-profile issues, protect critical infrastructure and services upon which the company depends, avoid reputational and financial costs due to law suits and regulatory breaches, and increase access to capital that values well-governed, future-focused companies.
Topics
- The Strategic Business Challenge
- SSC: Vision, Goals, Costs, and Revenues
- Strategic Guideline Questions
- Backcasting from Sustainability Principles
- KPIs & Materiality Analysis
- Various Forms of Capital
- Prioritization & Decision-Making
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- What makes for a powerful vision and inspring goals,
- Why it's crucial to start with the end in mind, and
- How you can use the strategic guidelines to prioritize your ideas for innovation.
Your Sustainable Business Model
Bringing All the Building Blocks Together
Finally, it's time to bring everything together on one page with your Sustainable Start Business Model Canvas and explore how the different building blocks compliment and strengthen each other.
By (re-)designing your business model using the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology, you apply an integrated systems perspective to your business. This will help you see more clearly what your target audience really needs and desires now and in the future, improve your social and environmental impacts, and support strategic decision-making to benefit from the competitive ánd collaborative advantages of improving your sustainability performance.
Topics
- Sustainable Start Business Model Canvas
- Sustainable Start Methodology
- Sustainability driven Cost & Revenue Models
- Collaboration, Creativity, and Consensus
- Action Planning & Iterations
- Thoughts on Testing & Measuring Success
- Next Steps & Opportunities
Learning objectives
At the end of this module you should have a better understanding:
- How all the building blocks work together in a complex system,
- Why it's essential to integrate each of the perspectives, and
- How to continue improving your business' sustainability.
Bonus
There's more. And it's all yours, if you want it.
What else is included in the course that I haven’t mentioned yet above? To celebrate that this is the first time that we're offering this course completely online, there are 3 amazing bonuses for you, if you decide to get serious about your business' sustainability performance. Check it out!
Exclusive LinkedIn Group
To have a space where we can share questions, ideas, and resources relevant to the whole class, we're inviting you into an exclusive LinkedIn group.
Because there will not always be enough time to talk through everything relevant with everyone, this online group will support us to continue the conversation, ask each other for help and apply our collective intelligence to shared challenges.
6 Extensive Articles
On top of the videos and templates we will share 6 in-depth blog articles with you going in depth on the material of that week!
Instead of having to review the video allover just to hear why this one things was so damn important again or how to approach from a particular perspective, you'll have a neat resource available to find back everything that was taught in the video (and probably a bit more).
Two Coaching Sessions
To help you get really practical in applying the material to your own business, we're adding two individual coaching sessions!
Instead of having to bring all your concerns, questions and comments to the weekly group session, two individual coaching sessions will allow us to go deeper into your specific business (model) and its context to highlight how to approach the things that are most important for you to address.
About the course instructor
Thomas van der Molen
Thomas is an intuitive and analytical systems thinker specializing in strategic sustainability, business model innovation, multi-stakeholder process facilitation and (inter-)personal leadership development.
He has close to 10 years of experience working with sustainable (business) development projects The Netherlands (where he is from), Sweden (where he studied), Brazil (where he lived for 2 years), and online with people from many other countries.
Thomas started Sustainable Start shortly after completing his thesis research for the Master in Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability in 2016.
With his background in business management and strong interest in innovation, Thomas was curious how to integrate a Strategic Sustainable Development approach into the Lean Startup Methodology and the Business Model Canvas.
Based on this research, the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology has been developed over the past 3 years in over 25 lectures, workshops, and trainings.
Thomas loves to work with people of diverse backgrounds and cultures to help:
- See things from a different perspective and develop a strong sense of shared purpose and vision,
- Understand their current context and their position in it,
- Spark creative ideas and innovative solutions, and
- Strategically transform into a future fit organization with a triple value proposition at its core and a sustainable, just, and regenerative business model.
Here’s what people are saying about the course instructor
Boshra J.
Technology student
It is clear that Thomas is an expert in this field.
He was very enthusiastic and it was clear that Thomas is an expert in this field. He communicated very clearly, explaining things in his own words and making sure the point was understood.
Helena M.
Innovation student
Great build up and interesting examples and exercises.
The build up of the workshop was great with a good pace and interesting examples and exercises. Thomas does a great job!
Florence L.
Digital Transformation Agent
Good balance between theory and practical exercises.
I like how Thomas clarifies and explains stuff. The workshop flow was very good, starting with some more theoratical basics to then dig deeper into various topics through conversation and sharing amongst the participants.
Why this course is cheap. And you should buy it now.
This is the most fully stacked and packed course
that we'll ever offer for this price.
Because this is the first time the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology is offered as an online course, we'll be more likely to give you more than what's good for you, rather than not too little. The truth is, some people highly skilled at marketing their knowledge will flesh out the most simple and mundane tasks and offer a stunning € 2000,- course around it. Instead, we are on a mission to make one of the most complex topics extremely simple and applicable to help you to innovate your unique value proposition and business model, in your specific context. For a fraction of the price.
Next time we offer this it will be more expensive and less extensive.
If we would sum up all the time and work that we're investing in creating the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology, or even just into the creation of this online course, and multiply it by a reasonable hourly renumeration that we charge for in person workshops or individual coaching, we make no illusions, this first launch will not even come close to cover this number. But that's fine with us. We're in it for the long-run.
If you'd want to get the same amount of information, insights, and action by attending
a series of in-person workshops you'd easily have to spend30X as much.
Consider the coaching sessions included as a bonus, just those two sessions would normally cost you more than this entire course. And that's good. We are still learning, testing, and improving many elements, making this a once in a life time opportunity to be an early adopter of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology.
Making your business more sustainable is well-known to do three things:
increase revenue, decrease costs, and mitigate risks.
Benefits and savings come in many forms: growing market share, and access to emerging markets through sustainable branding and leadership; enhanced resilience to sector volatility and legislation changes; improvements in operational efficiencies and employee engagement, collaboration, productivity and innovative capacity; increased ability to attract and retain talent; as well as reduced consumption of and thus expenses for energy, water, materials and waste that can be reduced, reused, recycled, down- or up cycled. This creates new value propositions and required new business models.
Have you considered the cost of not buying this course?!
Importantly, consider the business risks you can avoid that are associated with an unsustainable course and continuing business as usual. Will you still be in business 5 years from now? Without a doubt, becoming truly sustainable is an excellent a business innovation opportunity.
If you look at it that way, we honestly feel we can say:
this course offers incredible value for money, and you should buy it now.
regular course
Everything Above Except Bonus 3
opening again soon
advanced course
All the Regular And All the Bonuses
€
opening again soon
regular course
Everything Above Except Bonus 3
opening again soon
Advanced course
All the Regular And All the Bonuses
€
opening again soon
Course Enrollments closed on June 24rd 2020
You can still enroll for the regular course for:
100% Satisfaction Guarantee for 30-Days
If, for whatever reason, you feel you didn't get your money worth, we guarantee a full refund of the amount you paid within 30-days after the course ends.
There is no reason not to buy this course. It is a tool that you can return if you didn't find it useful. We trust in the value of our course and the content and exercises it offers you. So even if, for whatever reason, after watching all the videos, applying all the templates, participating in discussions and asking your questions in the weekly live-sessions, preparing for your coaching sessions and reading all the articles, you would still feel that the course was a waste of your time and money, we promise 100% satisfaction.
Don’t wait! Look at what past workshop participants have to say about the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology.
Robert de G.
Digital Transformation Agent
The SSCM offers several ways of mapping different parts of your business model with specific templates and trigger questions.
The Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology explains the broader topic of sustainability very well through several ways of mapping different parts of your business model with specific templates and trigger questions. Getting hands-on, I found the SSCM quite useful and applicable.
Pascalle B.
Innovation Specialist
I hope the SSCM becomes a reference for sustainable business modelling.
I am a fan of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology and I really hope it will become a method of reference on the complex topic of sustainable business modelling.
Franziska W.
CSR Expert
I can't wait to apply it to the company that I work at.
It was a really insightful event learning about sustainable business models. It was especially fun to work on a real-life example and hear other people's views. I can't wait to apply the Sustainable Start Canvas and see where the company I work at stands.
Frequently Asked Questions
When are the modules released?
When are the weekly live-sessions?
What's included in each module?
When are the articles released?
How large is the group at the Weekly live-sessions?
When are the coaching sessions?
How much time wil it cost me?
Do you offer 100 satisfaction guarantee?
What if I have any other questions?
regular course
Everything Above Except Bonus 3
opening again soon
advanced course
All the Regular And All the Bonuses
€
opening again soon
regular course
Everything Above Except Bonus 3
opening again soon
Advanced course
All the Regular And All the Bonuses
€
opening again soon
"We depend on the whole as the whole depends on us."
On a personal note,
I sincerely hope you will join and enjoy this course. I strongly believe that integrating the 4 systems thinking perspectives of the Sustainable Start Canvas Methodology will help you make your value proposition irresistible and your business model fit for a flourishing future. I invite you to take the first step towards our shared success together.
