Responsible Stewardship

Sustainable Living Academy - Stewardship - Charity - Non-Profit

Sustainable Living Academy operates in responsible stewardship of our communities’ resources. We uphold the best practices in promoting openness and accountability, and make our administrative and fundraising costs available to the public through a variety of means.

As a charitable organization, Sustainable Living Academy is in the business of helping the underprivileged and those in need. As a business, we are dedicated to operating at the highest level of ethical standards in all our practices. From top to bottom of this organization, we guarantee the highest level of integrity, honesty and transparency in the application and reporting of our charitable operations and programs.

In addition to following the standards set by the United States Internal Revenue Service, Sustainable Living Academy develops its own Transparency, Accountability and Financial Reporting policies, which are intended to ensure the highest degree of transparency and accountability when reporting financial information.

Sustainable Living Academy strives to ensure the funds raised are used as efficiently and effectively as possible. We rely on the generous contributions of community members and engage volunteers and interns to keep our costs as low as possible.

Sustainable Living Academy intends to spend 15 percent or less of total revenue on fundraising and administration costs, which means that 85 cents of every dollar raised goes directly back to the community.

Sustainable Living Academy is proud to serve and be recognized for its leadership role in the sustainable non-profit sector.


Code of Ethics


Sustainable Living Academy provides leadership, support and assistance to strengthen individual and collective sustainable development, and facilitate cross-Movement collaboration on sustainable issues to help its members improve lives and build community.

Our vision is for Sustainable Living Academy, “To become the most recognized, highly trusted, valued leader and partner in building sustainable and responsible communities.”

Sustainable Living Academy understands that achieving this vision is predicated upon the health of the entire Movement – that our collective success is dependent upon the individual behavior of its volunteers and staff.

The purpose of this Code of Ethics is to define acceptable behavior, to promote the highest standards of practice and to establish a framework for ethical conduct and responsibilities. In this way, Sustainable Living Academy strives to serve as a model of professional, ethical behavior for the Movement and for other organizations within the voluntary sector.

This Code of Ethics is based upon the Movement’s mission and is guided by its aspirations and values and well as by the goal and realizations of Sustainable Living Academy.


Sustainable Living Academy Movement


Mission

To improve lives and build community by engaging individuals and mobilizing collective action towards sustainability.

Aspirations

VISION: To create a multimedia production that utilizes, television, video, web content and social networking to raise awareness into personal and global sustainability. To present viewers with real-life sustainable considerations, decisions and practical solutions that can be used to bring families, groups and communities into greater alignment with nature.

We aspire to:

  • Energize and inspire people to make a difference;
  • Provide meaningful opportunities for individuals to realize their potential by demonstrating volunteer leadership in service to community;
  • Reflect the diversity of the communities we serve;
  • Craft human care agendas within and across our communities;
  • Build coalitions around sustainable objectives;
  • Increase investments in sustainable objectives by expanding and diversifying our own resource development and fundraising efforts and supporting those of others;
  • Ensure investments have recognizable impact;
  • Strengthen the Sustainable Living Academy Movement, building on individual and collective strengths and abilities.

Values

Our values are to:

  • Demonstrate trust, integrity, respect, inclusivity and transparency;
  • Energize and inspire volunteerism and volunteer leadership;
  • Endorse innovation, partnerships and collective action;
  • Provide non-partisan leadership;
  • Embrace diversity.

Strategies

Our strategies are to:

  • Engage and mobilize community (dollars, influence, time, knowledge, action);
  • Address underlying causes;
  • Strengthen the network of services and capacity of non-profits and community;
  • Influence public attitudes, systems and policy.

Sustainable Living Academy

Goal

To increase the capacity and accelerate the transformation of Sustainable Living Academy and the Movement as a whole to achieve our Mission.

We seek to realize this goal through:

  • Building the skills and capacities of our members;
  • Enabling collective action and strengthening our work as a Movement;
  • Strengthen the network of services and capacity of non-profits and community;
  • Providing leadership on issues of national significance.

The Code is intended to provide volunteers and unelected officers of Sustainable Living Academy with information that will help them to make sound, ethical decisions that comply with moral and legal requirements.


Accountability

Sustainable Living Academy volunteers and unelected officers occupy a position of trust with stakeholders – Sustainable Living Academy, donors and others – and shall act at all times to preserve that trust. To do so we commit to:

  • Transparency in monitoring, evaluating and reporting our performance;
  • Good stewardship of our resources including membership fees, grants, contributions and donations that are used for salaries, employee benefits and operating expenses; and,
  • Strengthen the network of services and capacity of non-profits and community;
  • Compliance with the policies of Sustainable Living Academy.

Diversity and Equality

Sustainable Living Academy is committed to reflecting the communities it serves both in terms of diversity and geographic representation. In so doing, we commit to:

  • Providing equal opportunities regardless of race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability;
  • Promoting diversity in all of our activities
  • Not showing favoritism in or influencing the selection of staff, consultants or vendors who are relatives, friends or are affiliated with or employed by a person or organization with whom we have a relationship that could suggest partiality; and
  • Thwarting any form of discriminatory behavior or harassment.

Political Activity

Sustainable Living Academy supports involvement of volunteers and non-elected officials in their communities; however, as a charitable organization, it cannot engage in partisan political activity. As a result, in our capacity of Sustainable Living Academy volunteer or unelected officer, we will not:

  • Engage in political activity in a way that may give the appearance we are representing a political agenda. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:
  • Directly or indirectly supporting or opposing any political party or candidate for public office;
  • Engaging in propaganda;
  • Distributing political literature or leaflets to the public during an election campaign that directly or indirectly supports or opposes any political party or candidate;
  • Financing political activities either directly or indirectly;
  • Being a candidate for any public office;
  • Treating candidates differently in terms of providing opportunities to present their position on an issue.
  • And we will:

  • Make it clear that we are acting as individuals and not as volunteers of Sustainable Living Academy if engaging in partisan political activities.

Personal Conduct

Honesty, integrity and respect for others in personal conduct under all situations are essential to the organization and individuals. In this regard, we commit to:

  • Communicating in an open and honest way with each other and with our stakeholders;
  • Creating a positive working environment where different views are appreciated and criticism is constructive and delivered with sensitivity;
  • Striving for excellence in all that we do;
  • Treating others with respect and fairness; and
  • Promoting voluntary giving and avoiding coercive tactics in dealing with donors and vendors.

Conflict of Interest

An important aspect of maintaining the trust of stakeholders in Sustainable Living Academy and the Movement as a whole is to avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of a conflict of interest. To this end, we commit to:

  • Taking every due and proper measure to ensure that there is not and shall not appear to be, any conflict between the personal and private interests of volunteers and non-elected officials and our responsibility to Sustainable Living Academy, its stakeholders and the general public;
  • Ensuring that employment and other activities do not adversely affect performance of our duties or the achievement of the mission;
  • Ensuring claimed expenses relate to activities conducted in pursuit of the mission of Sustainable Living Academy and not for personal gain or interests;
  • Refusing to accept any gift, gratuity or favor in the performance of our duties except for promotional items of nominal value, and any food, transportation, lodging or entertainment unless directly related to the business of Sustainable Living Academy;
  • Not knowingly taking any action, or making any statement to influence decisions of Sustainable Living Academy that would result in financial benefit for ourselves, our immediate family or any organization in which we or our immediate family members have a significant interest;
  • Divulging all known conflicts or potential conflicts of interest in any matter before the Board of Directors or any committee upon which we serve;
  • Withdrawing from any discussion, review and voting in connection with matters that may constitute a conflict of interest; and
  • Filing a disclosure of all known potential conflicts of interest with the Board Chair at the beginning of each term.

Privacy and Confidentiality

Respecting the privacy and confidentiality is paramount to preserving the trust of our stakeholders. In this regard, we commit to:

  • Taking appropriate precautions and complying with federal and provincial laws regarding the disclosure of information;
  • Safeguarding the privacy rights of volunteers and non-elected officials in the performance of their duties.
  • Adhering to the Board policies and procedures on privacy and confidentiality.

Disclosure of Breach of Code of Ethics

Known or possible breaches of the Code of Ethics should be disclosed to the Board Chair. Reports of possible breaches will be:

  • Treated promptly and fairly;
  • Treated in confidence to the degree allowed by the law and the organization’s duty to investigate (Individual(s) disclosing the possible breach will be notified if confidentiality cannot be maintained.); and/li>
  • Investigated and, if needed, appropriate action taken

Retaliation against the individual(s) who disclose the possible breach in good faith will be treated as a separate breach of the Code.

Sustainable Living Academy © 2024 Sustainable Living Academy, Inc.· All rights reserved.
We collaborate with ambitious brands and people; let’s build something great together.