Participants

Highlights of the meeting

Purpose of the proposal we discussed:
To identify and promote key factors of processes that produce local and regional actions that accelerate sustainability.

We will not duplicate the many endeavors that already exist worldwide to identify and promote best practices for sustainability. Our focus will be on the key precursors, conditions, ingredients, and processes that produce these best practices.

How proposal will be implemented:
We will create a living, dynamic knowledge base by networking people interested in accelerating sustainability at the local and regional level. The network will share information, learning, analyses, and syntheses, and will be supported by a website and periodic meetings. An Advisory Committee of 10-14 people will oversee project activities. Funding for the project will come from a variety of sources.

Next steps:

• Mark and Bob will revise the proposal based on today’s discussion, and send it out to meeting participants for their comments. Mark and Bob will also send out an updated participant list.
• Meeting participants will submit comments about the revised proposal back to Mark and Bob, and will also supply names and contact information of others who might be interested in participating in developing this proposal. Participants will also check on possible funding for this proposed project at their respective organizations.

Participants will use the listserve function available on the European Environment Agency website, www.eea.eu.int , to stay in communication, provided this is more advantageous than a simple email list. (Who will decide?)

Questions and issues addressed during the meeting:

• Monique began the meeting by describing the severe realities of living sustainably that she heard at a meeting the day before, for example, limits on the amount of meat eating and jet travel. How can we respect such limits given the way we live today? Monique, whose background is in finance, further challenged us to bring accountability into the sustainability equation. Currently we just account for the flows through the system; we should also be including the assets.
• How will we navigate between science and political taboos? We agreed that our focus should be local and regional initiatives because they are less constrained by politics than national initiatives. We further agreed that we will distinguish between scientific and political realities. Related to this, David noted that talk of the need to reduce population risks blowback and is unnecessary if we maintain focus on overall impact of people on the planet.
• Matthias said that sustainability is the most used word among politicians. How can we make sustainability concrete and less fuzzy? Mary said that there is no current mandate for sustainable development; the mandate is for environmental protection. As an example, the USEPA used to be involved with the OECD, but there was no Congressional mandate to continue, so the EPA was replaced with the Commerce Department to work with OECD. The Commerce Department seems to have little interest in sustainable development. Moreover, there exists no commonly held vision or metrics for sustainable development. Bob added that few within government—at least in the U.S.—have authority to deal with sustainable development. If people in government are dealing with it, it’s extra-curricular. The core issue, declared Bob, is how do government agencies move toward sustainability?
• Bob noted that balancing or making trade offs among the environment, equity, and economy is passé. Matthias said that environmental interests have little power challenging economic interests. Our focus will be making all three E’s work together.
• Carlos suggested that we should stress setting objectives within timeframes, and adopt this planning orientation for the website we will create. Pernilla noted that this might be difficult given the broad scope we intend to address.
• About midway through the meeting, David synthesized the discussion, noting three aspects of the proposed project: 1) implementing an exchange of information, 2) identifying priorities, and 3) providing solutions to upper levels of government. On this third point, David added that thinking among those operating in upper levels can lag behind those at local and regional levels because of the distant vantage at the upper levels. One of our tasks should be to communicate local and regional realities and innovations to people in upper levels. David cited a study that found that assessments of policy effectiveness and effect constituted less than 10 percent of the information being relayed.
• Carlos said that the most innovative local strategies probably reside outside conventional channels.
• Matthias asked if we should integrate the goals, resolutions, and calls to action generated at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg last year.
• Regarding our proposed project, Bob hoped that we encourage reports and analyses of failures as well as successes. For example, some project fail because they operate at the wrong jurisdictional level.
• Mark used a metaphor to describe the focus of this project: Instead of looking at the pieces of an engine that operates successfully, we will look at its design and how all the pieces integrate. He added that this assumes being able to recognize successfully-operating engines.
• Bob proposed that the network we create be of practitioners who are moving sustainability from concept to policy to action to metrics to evaluation. David described the model used by the European Environment Agency: They incubate new initiatives by supporting promising groups with a bit of seed money and web-based resources to facilitate their communication. They now support about 28 such initiatives.
• Mary suggested that this proposed project be descriptive, not prescriptive. She cautioned us about distinguishing “best” in best practices. Bob acknowledged that qualitative assessments can go overboard, but asked, “What good is an effort without analysis?” Mary also would like private sector practitioners and examples to be part of our scope.
• Pernilla suggested that developing countries be included. Mark noted that this is necessary to justify UNEP involvement. When Monique rejoined the discussion she expressed firmly her view that this project focus first on developed countries; the interests of Botswana are so different from Belgium, for example, that if we try to integrate the interests of both right away, our endeavor likely will stall in short order.
• Bob surveyed participants about possible funding for this project; many responded favorably.

California Assembly member Patty Berg’s message to meeting participants:
"California’s sustainability challenge is enormous. Our population is growing by about 600,000 per year, and is forecast to grow from 35 million to 50 million by 2040. To address this, California has created its first select committee on sustainability which I chair. Our aim is to generate the most comprehensive environmental agenda the state has ever had. We will hold hearings throughout the state to help frame the issues. Best practices will be a critical piece of this work. We want to learn from and partner with other countries in this endeavor."

Resources cited during the meeting:

• www.eea.eu.int European Environment Agency – They also have compared sustainability frameworks and have identified 8 criteria for sustainable development
• www.umweltministerium.bayern.de - Ecologically compatible prosperity for generations – prepared August 2002 for WSSD in Johannesburg
• www.mswg.org Multi-state Working Group (US) – environmental management focus
• www.sustainer.org Sustainability framework: Daly’s Triangle – described by Donella Meadows in her report on sustainability indicators
• www.sustainablesonoma.org “Lighten Up! Report on the Sonoma County Ecological Footprint Project”
• www.skymetrics.us “Climate Protection: Standing Together for the Future, a report on the Sonoma County Greenhouse Gas Inventory Project”
• www.calepa.ca.gov - Descriptions of California sustainability initiatives
• www.defra.gov.uk/news/2003/030925a.htm New UK initiative – Harnessing the dynamic of economic progress to protect the environment
• EMS – Environmental Management System for business using private verifiers
• www.wri.org Millennium Ecosystem Assessment of World Resources Institute – valuing ecosystems
• 100 cities project in SF Bay Area led by Michele Perrault
• www.pik-potsdam.de/cp/europa/euro_9.htm Project Ulysses – Social science research project assessing quality of decision making about environmental issues.