Working for the recently founded Centre for Sustainable Development for Astana, the new capital city of Kazakhstan, to produce their first strategy for sustainable development up to year 2030.

Taking responsibility for the report editing and production, which involved drawing on the work of a number of specialist consultants work to edit text for the report, illustrating the document, producing mapping, appointing graphic designers and working closely with the translators who were producing a russian copy of the strategy.

Working in a context where the concept of sustainability was not yet established, which was lacking in much of the usual office infrastructure (skills as well as hardware), dealing with the language difficulties and bureaucratic barriers, made the process truly challenging. However, the abundant energy and enthusiasm of the local team as well as the urgency of establishing sustainable practice in Astana made it all truly worthwhile.