Sustainable America: A New Consensus
Highlights
Background
In June 1993, President Clinton appointed 25 leaders from business, government, environmental, civil rights and Native American organizations to the Council on Sustainable Development. Their charge:
to transform his vision of sustainable development into a concrete plan of action -- a plan to which they could all agree. As their formal guide and touchstone, the Council adopted the definition of sustainable development first enunciated by the United Nations Brundtland Commission in 1987,
which is "...to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
The President's Council created eight Task Forces comprised of more than 450 experts from around the country, which held more that 50 public meetings and hundreds of informal meetings around the country over a 24-month period. Each of the Council's 10 public meetings has drawn between 200 and 500 persons, and more than 5,000 persons have followed the Council's work through its newsletters, announcements and public comment surveys.
The Council also drew upon scores of efforts in communities nationwide that reflect "sustainability thinking." Sustainability thinking seeks prosperity -- not just economic growth -- in a way that draws together economic, social equity and environmental considerations, striving always to sustain the Earth's resources and its people.
The Final Report
Two and a half years of inquiry, observation and discussion produced unanimous agreement on:
A vision statement and fundamental beliefs on sustainability;
Changes in decisionmaking at all levels -- government, business and community; institutional and individual -- that must occur to achieve sustainable development;
Ten goals and indicators of sustainable development; and
Scores of wide-ranging recommendations and actions to implement them.
Taken as a whole, this program is intended to define sustainability and guide the nation toward achieving it. Recommendations and actions are directed toward government, industry, citizen groups
and individuals.
The Linchpin: A New Way of Thinking
At the heart of the Council's recommendations is the conviction that economic, environmental, and social equity issues are inextricably linked and must be considered together. To achieve sustainability, institutions and individuals must adopt this new way of thinking. Another core
belief is that to achieve sustainability, some things -- jobs, productivity, wages, capital and savings, profits, information, knowledge, and education -- must grow, and others -- pollution, waste and
poverty -- must not.
Government decisionmaking must provide direct and meaningful interaction among those affected. Accommodation by all levels of government and vast technological changes in information delivery
must occur to enable citizens and institutions to participate more fully. New methods of governance that are more collaborative, such as private-public partnerships, must be instituted. For example, in the area of environmental management, the Council's recommendation to create a new regulatory
system would require federal, state, and local governments to work with business and citizen groups
to develop strategies applicable to local areas. Moreover, the strategies would have to integrate economic, social, and environmental issues. Both individuals and institutions must take on greater responsibility, and embrace an ethic of environmental stewardship.
Sustainable Development Goals and Indicators of Progress
The Council has adopted 10 national goals for a sustainable future. They are interdependent and must
be achieved in unison, considering economic, environmental, and social equity issues:
the natural resource, environmental, and economic decisions that affect them;
8. Move toward stabilization of the U.S. population;
9. Lead in developing and carrying out sustainable development policies globally; and
10. Ensure access to formal education and lifelong learning that will prepare citizens for
meaningful work and a high quality of life, and give them an understanding of concepts
involved in sustainable development.
Baseline information and indicators must be created in order to measure the country's progress in achieving each sustainability goal. The Council contends the current indicators of economic health -for example, gross domestic product -- are incomplete because they fail to include many critical measures, such as natural resource depletion. The Council recommends that specific new indicators be established that, taken together, would more accurately measure the nation's prosperity.
Highlights of Policy Changes Needed to Achieve Sustainable Development
The Council recommends 154 specific actions to carry out 38 major recommendations in areas from economic and regulatory policy to natural resource management, education and international policy.
The following summary highlights several key recommendations.
Building a New Framework for a New Century
Increase the cost-effectiveness of the current environmental management system by creating
opportunities for attaining environmental goals at lower costs.
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Create a new, flexible and performance-based regulatory management system to achieve superior
results and cost savings through innovation.
Adopt a voluntary system of extended responsibility for products through their entire life cycle. Designers, suppliers, producers, users and disposers are encouraged to work together to exercise environmental stewardship from procurement of raw materials, through manufacture and
distribution, to use, disposal and re-use.
Expand market-driven pollution control programs, such as emissions trading.
Establish a national commission to review the effect of federal tax and subsidy policy on the goals of sustainable development and recommend changes.
Change tax policies -- without increasing the overall tax burden -- to encourage employment and economic opportunity, while discouraging environmentally damaging production and consumption decisions. Tax reform should not place a disproportionate burden on lower-income individuals and families.
Eliminate government subsidies that are inconsistent with economic, environmental, and social goals.
Case in Point:
Currently being tested by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Project XL is giving selected companies the regulatory flexibility they need to streamline their manufacturing processes to allow them to both reduce costs and produce superior results. This performance-based approach is a
direct offshoot of months of observation and learning by the Council.
Information and Education
Revamp how the federal government collects, organizes, and disseminates data on economic, environmental, and social conditions to improve its quality and accessibility.
Improve the collection, coordination, and dissemination of scientific and health information available via computers.
Promote widespread access to information through computers, by offering computer skills training, making information formats more consistent within and among government agencies, and
improving computer networks.
Develop better natural resource and quality-of-life baseline information and methods to measure the quality and quantity of renewable and non-renewable resources, such as forests, lakes, minerals
and fish, and develop indicators of progress toward sustainability goals.
Change the education system to teach students at all levels the interdependence of the environment, social equity, and the economy.
Revise business accounting practices to link products with their environmental costs.
Case In Point:
Oregon has identified 259 benchmarks to serve as indicators of the state's well-being. Core indicators measure fundamental factors, such as family stability, quality of life, the environment and the economy. Urgent indicators gauge critical issues facing the state, such as endangered wild salmon runs and rising teen pregnancy rates. The indicators are updated bi-annually by the Oregon Progress Board.
Strengthening Communities
Identify key issues, create a vision for the future, and set goals and measurable benchmarks. This strategic planning process by a diverse group should identify unique local advantages and set goals to utilize them.
Create federal incentives to spur communities to deal with issues that transcend jurisdictions. Activities could include pooling local property taxes to increase equity in public services, improving education, and reducing economic incentives for sprawl.
Encourage builders, architects, developers, contractors, and community groups to design and rehabilitate buildings to use energy and natural resources efficiently, enhance health and the environment, preserve history and natural settings, and contribute to a sense of community.
Design new communities and improve existing ones by using land efficiently, promoting mixed-use
and mixed-income development, retaining public open space, and providing diverse transportation options.
Manage the geographic growth of communities and create a plan for decreasing sprawl, conserving open space, respecting nature's carrying capacity, and protecting against natural hazards.
Revitalize "brownfield" sites (contaminated, abandoned, or underused land), making them more attractive for redevelopment by providing regulatory flexibility and incentives.
Case in Point:
Chattanooga, Tenn., was facing a host of problems in 1984 -- recession, environmental
degradation, governmental infighting and general urban decline. A series of "visioning" meetings brought ideas from its citizens that boosted the economy, provided new low-cost housing and benefited the environment.
Natural Resource Stewardship
Issue executive orders (at federal and state levels) for agencies to use voluntary, multi-stakeholder approaches to manage natural resources and resolve natural resource conflicts.
Protect water quality, biodiversity, and other natural resources in unison through cooperative efforts across entire ecosystems, such as watersheds.
Create incentives to promote stewardship among landowners, corporations, government, and resource users to pursue stewardship or protection of natural resources.
Require commercial users of natural resources to pay the full cost of resource depletion.
Achieve sustainable management of forests by the year 2000.
Restore habitat and eliminate overfishing to rebuild and sustain depleted wild stocks of fish in U.S. waters.
Case in Point:
The Nature Conservancy and Georgia-Pacific Corp. agreed in 1994 to implement a unique
partnership to manage 21,000 acres of wetlands along North Carolina's lower Roanoke River that
teem with animal life. Georgia Pacific owns the land, but a joint committee -- including representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Nature Conservancy and Georgia-
Pacific -- decides where and under what conditions timber harvesting can occur.
Population and Sustainability
Move toward stabilization of the U.S. population.
Create partnerships to enhance opportunities for women, with particular interest in curbing unintended pregnancy among teens and the disadvantaged.
Encourage the Commission on Immigration Reform to continue its work and support research to promote the implementation and fair enforcement of responsible immigration policies.
Case in Point:
One of the most successful pregnancy prevention programs in the country is Teens Teaching Teens. Started in Atlanta by the public schools and the Grady Health System, the program trains high
school juniors and seniors to encourage eighth graders to postpone sex. A study has shown that after participating in this peer counseling, students are less likely to be sexually active.
Demonstrating International Leadership
Lead globally in achieving sustainable development policies and adopt standards of conduct and
trade policies that further sustainable development.
Actively participate in cooperative international efforts to encourage democracy, support scientific research, and enhance economic development that protect health and the environment.
Case in Point:
The Council's report fulfills in part the commitment made in Agenda 21 by the United States at the United Nations 1992 Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The
commitment was to prepare a plan to confront and overcome the most pressing environmental,
health and social problems facing the planet.
The Council agreed to the following Vision Statement and set of core beliefs for achieving
sustainability, on which the conclusions and recommendations outlined above are based:
Vision Statement
Our vision is of a life-sustaining earth. We are committed to the achievement of a dignified, peaceful, and equitable existence. We believe a sustainable United States will have an economy that equitably provides opportunities for satisfying livelihoods and a safe, healthy, high quality of life for current and future generations. Our nation will protect its environment, its natural resource base, and the functions and viability of natural systems on which all life depends.
Core Beliefs
To achieve our vision of sustainable development, some things must grow -- jobs, productivity, wages, capital and savings, profits, information, knowledge, and education -- and others -- pollution, waste, and poverty -must not.
Change is inevitable and necessary for the sake of future generations and for ourselves. We can choose a course for change that will lead to the mutually reinforcing goals of economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity.
Steady progress in reducing disparities in education, opportunity, and environmental risk within society is essential to economic growth, environmental health, and social justice.
The United States made great progress in protecting the environment in the last 25 years, but can and must make still greater strides in the next 25 years. We can achieve that goal because market incentives and the power of consumers can lead to significant improvements in environmental performance at less cost.
Economic growth based on technological innovation, improved efficiency, and expanding global markets is essential for progress toward greater prosperity, equity, and environmental quality.
Environmental regulations have improved and must continue to improve the lives of all Americans. Basic standards of performance that are clear, fair, and consistently enforced remain necessary to protect that progress. The current regulatory system should be improved to deliver required results at lower costs. In addition, the system should provide enhanced flexibility in return for superior environmental performance.
Environmental progress will depend on individual, institutional, and corporate responsibility, commitment, and stewardship.
We need a new collaborative decision process that leads to better decisions; more rapid change; and more sensible use of human, natural, and financial resources in achieving our goals.
The nation must strengthen its communities and enhance their role in decisions about environment, equity, natural resources, and economic progress so that the individuals and institutions most immediately affected can join with others in the decision process.
Economic growth, environmental protection, and social equity are linked. We need to develop integrated policies to achieve these national goals.
The United States should have policies and programs that contribute to stabilizing global population; this objective is critical if we hope to have the resources needed to ensure a high quality of life for future generations.
Even in the face of scientific uncertainty, society should take reasonable actions to avert risks where the potential harm to human health or the environment is thought to be serious or irreparable.
Steady advances in science and technology are essential to help improve economic efficiency, protect and restore natural systems, and modify consumption patterns.
A growing economy and healthy environment are essential to national and global security.
A knowledgeable public, the free flow of information, and opportunities for review and redress are critically important to open, equitable, and effective decisionmaking.
Citizens must have access to high-quality and lifelong formal and nonformal education that enables them to understand the interdependence of economic prosperity, environmental quality, and social equity -- and
prepares them to take action that support all three.
The text of the Council's report and this Highlights piece are available on the Internet at the
following address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/PCSD.