The IPMS is a seven-day high-level seminar for senior officials from the public, private and non-profit sectors about strategies to meet the challenges of sustainability. Since its launch in 1994, the Sustainability Programme has attracted hundreds of participants from over 60 countries. Also the staff of the Programme has an international composition and is currently under the direction of Frans Evers, President of SCF (former CEO Association for Nature Conservation and former director-general at the ministry of Spatial Planning, Housing and the Environment).

The objective of the IPMS is to train participants in the techniques of consensus building and multilateral dialogue to resolve the conflicts that arise in the context of implementing sustainable development. The IPMS teaches a mutual gains or win-win approach to negotiation. On the basis of role-playing excercises, lectures and discussion groups an integration of theory and practice is achieved that enables a dynamic, interactive learning process.