Sustainable Development in the United States: An Experimental Set of Indicators

http://www.sdi.gov/

In its initial report to "Sustainable America," the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) recommended that the Federal Government, in collaboration with the private sector and non-governmental organizations, develop national indicators of progress toward sustainable development and regularly report on these indicators to the public. This report represents an initial response to that recommendation.

This report of the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Sustainable Development Indicators marks an important first step in examining the United States' progress along a path of sustainable development. It includes a framework for organizing indicators and an experimental set of 40 indicators that relate to various aspects of sustainability. Some of the individual indicators appear in other documents, but this report is unique in presenting such a diverse mix of U.S. economic, environmental, and social indicators in the context of sustainable development. Among the 40 indicators, 30 showed trends with a clear impact relevant to sustainable development and of these 17 recently moved in a favorable direction.

Information about current and long-term conditions and about the processes that affect those conditions is essential to evaluating our progress in pursuit of sustainable development.

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Ahwahnee Principles for Smart Economic Development

http://www.lgc.org/clc/pubinfo/edguide.htm

This guidebook on implementing smart economic development principles presents a comprehensive approach to economic development that embraces economic, social and environmental responsibility and recognizes the economic value of natural and human capital. This extended guide will help communities implement a set of 15 principles for building prosperous and livable places. The LGC developed this second set of Ahwahnee Principles with the help of economic and community development experts from around the country.

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Sustainable Development Extension Network (SDEN)

http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/sden/index.htm

http://www.excelgov.org/techcon/sden/sden2.htm

The Sustainable Development Extension Network (SDEN) Partnership seeks to strengthen the nationwide extension education networks to better provide citizens and decision-makers in local communities with the information, resources, and technical assistance they need to develop sustainable communities -- communities that are able to develop economically without compromising their environmental or cultural integrity.

The SDEN concept grew out of efforts to develop the National Environmental Technology Strategy (NETS). A separate strategy on education was developed to support NETS and the work of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. That strategy, "Education for Sustainability ­ A Blueprint for Action", recommended that the federal government establish the SDEN.

USDA, NOAA, Dept. of Commerce, Small Business Administration already have long-standing partnerships with states, Universities and professional groups to deliver practical education to a variety of economic groups and the general public. EPA and other agencies including NASA and FEMA work closely with various elements of these systems in order to accomplish their missions. The SDEN aims to build upon that work by creating an improved extension network that will allow communities to better access information about best practices in sustainable development. Conceptually, each community will be linked with a broker, who will connect clients with the educational, technical and financial resources and information necessary to implement their development plans

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SustainableDevelopment.org

http://www.sustainabledevelopment.org/

A project of the Together Foundation, SustainableDevelopment.org is a resource center for information about sustainable development. It utilizes the latest Intranet Web technology to provide a community-center atmosphere for the storing, searching and disseminating information on sustainable development. Includes a comprehensive library of links to other websites on sustainable development. Related programs include the Best Practices Local Leadership Program and the Global Urban Observatory (see below).

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Best Practices Local Leadership Program

http://www.sustainabledevelopment.org/blp/index.html

The Best Practices and Local Leadership Program (BLP) of the United Nations Centre for Human Settlements (Habitat), is a global network of capacity-building organizations dedicated to sharing and applying the lessons learned from innovative practices. Together with the Urban Indicators Program, the BLP forms the Global Urban Observatory, one of the principal means of monitoring and supporting the implementation of the Habitat Agenda and Agenda 21. The BLP works through a decentralized network of partners including government agencies, local authorities, civic organizations, professional associations, the private sector and training institutions. These institutions and organizations serve as regional and thematic resource centers to ensure geographic coverage and the coverage of the key sectoral and cross-cutting issues of the Habitat Agenda and of Agenda 21.

BLP objectives include:

• To build awareness of proven solutions, demonstrated experience and innovative strategies for policy and decision-making at all levels;
• To develop and disseminate effective learning tools and processes for implementing local and national plans of action and the Habitat Agenda;
• To promote the transfer knowledge, expertise and experience derived from Best Practices through peer-to-peer learning, transfers and co-operation.

Global Urban Observatory

http://www.urbanobservatory.org/

At the City Summit in Istanbul in 1996, Member States of the United Nations committed themselves to implement the Habitat Agenda through policies and plans of action designed at each level in cooperation with all interested parties. All partners, including local authorities, the private sector and communities, are asked in the Habitat Agenda to monitor and evaluate their own performance in working toward sustainable urban development and adequate shelter for all.

The Global Urban Observatory (GUO) is a system of capacity-building programs and resources to help governments, local authorities and their partner groups to monitor progress in implementing the Habitat Agenda and to expand the base of knowledge for better urban policy. By creating a learning environment for more effective civic engagement and decision-making, the GUO helps governments, local authorities and civil society:

• Collect, manage, analyze, and apply urban indicators and indices
• Identify and adopt effective urban policies, plans and practices
• Evaluate the impact of policies, plans and practices on urban development
• Share information, knowledge and expertise using modern communication technology and infrastructure.

These objectives are being realized through a growing network of local, national and regional urban observatories and through partner institutions that provide training and other capacity building expertise. Offering guidelines, tools and technical assistance, the constituent programs of the GUO ­ the Urban Indicators Programme (UIP) and the Best Practices and Local Leadership Program (BLP) ­ encourage existing institutions to become capable urban observatories and to work with urban policy-makers and civil society to improve the quality of urban life.

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Institute for Sustainable Communities

http://www.iscvt.org/

The Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) is an independent, nonprofit organization that provides training, technical assistance, and financial support to communities. The mission of ISC is to promote environmental protection and economic and social well-being through integrated strategies at the local level. ISC projects emphasize participating actively in civic life, developing stronger democratic institutions, and engaging diverse interests in decision-making.

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Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development

http://iisd1.iisd.ca/measure/sciencepolicy.htm

The Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development has launched an international science and policy dialogue to improve existing sustainable development indices and indicators. This initiative will combine the best scientific insight with the practical needs of decision-makers, allowing indicator experts to design a new generation of user-friendly and robust indicators of sustainable development. The ultimate goal will be the launch of a global project to develop a set of reliable and useful indices that will change the way progress toward sustainable development is assessed and the way measures are applied in decision-making.

The Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development is a partnership of grant-making foundations active in advancing the goals of sustainable development. For more information, access

<http://www.xs4all.nl/~bfsd/>.

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Indicators and Information Systems for Sustainable Development

http://iisd1.iisd.ca/pdf/s_ind_2.pdf

By Donella Meadows, The Sustainability Institute.

Indicators and information systems for sustainable development grew out of a five-day workshop on sustainable development indicators attended by a small subset of the 200 members of the Balaton Group, an international network of scholars and activists who work on sustainable development in their own countries and regions. This report describes the critical importance of indicators of sustainable development and provides a framework for generating and integrating such indicators. Available for downloading in PDF format via the IISD website.

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Street Design Guidelines for Healthy Neighborhoods

http://www.lgc.org/clc/pubinfo/streets.htm

Learn more about improving your neighborhoods by improving your streets with Street Design Guidelines of Healthy Neighborhoods. This Guidebook identifies better ways to design new neighborhoods or retrofit existing ones to be more healthy, interactive, walkable, enjoyable and livable. It includes an analysis of conventional and healthy street practices, and offers 25 helpful street practices for healthy neighborhoods.

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Indicators for Sustainable Development: Theory, Methods, Applications

http://iisd1.iisd.ca/

By Hartmut Bossel

What do we mean by sustainable development and how do we know if we are unsustainable? How can we tell if we are making progress? In "Indicators for Sustainable Development", Dr. Bossel, an engineer and leading systems scientist, shows that we need indicators for sustainable development that provide reliable information about the natural, physical and social world in which we live, and on which our survival and quality of life depend. He illustrates that popular indicators like the gross domestic product are inadequate, as they inform us only about monetary flows and not about the state of the environment, the destruction of resources or the quality of life. The former professor of environmental systems analysis and director of the Center for Environmental Systems Research of the University of Kassel, Germany summarizes a systems approach for finding indicators of sustainable development, and applies this approach to finding indicator sets for communities, states, countries and the world. He shares the theoretical foundations, the implementation procedure and the practical experience, providing several complete lists of indicators of sustainable development for different regions.

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Draft Sustainability Reporting Guidelines now available

http://www.ceres.org/reporting/globalreporting.html

http://www.ceres.org/reporting/GRI8X11.PDF

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was launched in late 1997 by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES). GRI flows from a decade of CERES' leadership in fostering corporate environmental accountability through public disclosure. It seeks to build worldwide support for standardized corporate sustainability reporting. A draft version of the GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines is now available.

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Toward a Common Framework for Corporate Sustainability Reporting

http://www.ad.ic.ac.uk/cpd/unep.htm

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is scheduled to complete its work by December 1999, and will work to share the results of this effort through the year 2000. A major international symposium will take place March 4-5, 1999 at Imperial College in London, United Kingdom. The symposium will serve as a forum for introducing the product of the GRI -- the first international guideline for corporate sustainability -- and to set in motion the process of transitioning the GRI process and its products to a permanent institutional home capable of monitoring, refining, and promoting standardized environmental reporting over the long-term.

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Green Plan Leadership Program

http://www.rri.org/gplp/index.html

Launched late last year by the Resource Renewal Institute, the Green Plan Leadership Program is intended to advance green planning in the U.S. by targeting key leaders from government, business and non-governmental organizations, educating them about the attributes and implementation of green plans, and inspiring them to spearhead green plans in their communities. The program is dynamic, interactive and experiential, providing participants with the tools they need for successful green planning: in-depth knowledge, implementation strategies, current resources and a network of contacts.

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Menominee Forest-Based Sustainable Development Tradition

http://www.epa.gov/grtlakes/menominee/index.html

The Menominee People have long recognized the need for balance between environment, community and economy both in the short term and for future generations. Menominee culture and tradition teaches never to take more resources than are produced within natural cycles so that all life can be sustained. These traditional beliefs are the foundation of the management practices and principles of today's Menominee Tribal Enterprises (MTE) operations.

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Drinking Water Contaminant Source Index

http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/swp/intro4.html

In an effort to assist states and local communities in the identification of potential threats to their drinking water supplies, EPA is compiling a drinking water contaminant source index. EPA is making this available in draft form to provide the public with the chance to make additional recommendations. This index identifies the potential sources of the contaminants listed as national primary drinking water standards and secondary drinking water standards, as well as cryptosporidium and some of the contaminants on the national drinking water contaminant candidate list.

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Protecting Your Health & the Environment Through Innovative Approaches to Compliance

http://es.epa.gov/oeca/5yrfinal.pdf

This booklet from EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance describes some of the major initiatives EPA has undertaken to reinvent its compliance programs. (Publication # EPA300-K-99-001)

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Bibliography on Environmental Thought

http://www.epa.gov/reinvent/notebook/bibliog.htm

EPA's Office of Reinvention recently compiled a bibliography of books, reports and other publications pertaining to recent thinking in environmental policy and thought.

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Article Discusses Grantmakers' Focus on Sprawl

http://www.philanthropy.com/premium/articles/v11/i08/08000101.htm

The February 11, 1999, issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy features an article titled "Stemming the Tide of Sprawl," which discusses how grantmakers and charities are become increasingly interested in issues related to the environment, such as sprawl and the preservation of open space, and are funding projects that address these problems.

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The Multicultural Myth: Diversity depends on where you live

http://www.utne.com/lens98/society/diversity.html

Immigration is changing the complexion of the United States-or is it? Since the early 1980s, more than 13 million newcomers have settled here-a number roughly equal to the population of New England. And though it may appear that America's races are melting together, demographic data show big lumps floating in the national melting pot. Indeed, this new wave of immigration is creating two Americas: one that is young, urban, and multicultural, and another that is middle-aged to elderly, suburban to rural, and almost all white. Only 21 of the nation's 325 metropolitan areas are truly multicultural: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, Houston, Dallas, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and San Diego.

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NEW RFF BOOK ADDRESSES ISSUES KEY TO ENVIRONMENTAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

A new book published by Resources for the Future (RFF) provides teachers and students, the public policy community, and interested citizens with short and readable articles on a wide variety of environmental research and policy topics. The 390-page book, "The RFF Reader in Environmental and Resource Management", brings together the best and most-requested essays from the last dozen years of RFF's quarterly publication "Resources". Since its debut in May 1959, Resources has communicated environmental economics research through short, easy-to-understand, well-focused

articles written for a lay audience. The collection of writings is divided into ten sections: science and environmental policy; benefit-cost analysis; environmental regulation; environmental federalism; resource management; biodiversity; environmental justice; global climate change; sustainable development; and environmental problems in developing and transitional countries. To order a copy of The RFF Reader, contact John Hopkins University Press at 410 / 516-6955. (ISBN#0-915707-96-9; $22.95.)

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Study Shows Policies Drive Development Out of Atlanta: Highway construction on suburban land is a leading contributor to sprawling development

http://www.farmland.org/files/C4L/atlantaexec.htm

A study of tax, transportation and development policies, conducted by American Farmland Trust and the Georgia Conservancy, pinpoints several factors which favor suburban over urban development in the Atlanta area. Of the nine different policies and other factors studied, land cost - affected by highway construction - was by far the leading factor in driving development out of the city and into suburban areas.

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Free Educator Lesson Plans Bring Energy Efficiency to the Classroom

http://www.ase.org/educators

In time for Earth Day on April 22, the Alliance to Save Energy website offers elementary and middle school teachers free, multidisciplinary, hands-on lesson plans centered around energy efficiency and the environment. Teachers can view the lesson plans online and then download the ones they like in PDF format.

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Full Cost Accounting for Solid Waste Services

http://icma.org/news/news.cfm?newsID=35

ICMA has released a new publication, Local Government Special Report: Full Cost Accounting for Solid Waste Services. Full cost accounting (FCA) is a financial tool that provides a systematic approach to identifying and reporting the actual costs of solid waste management in local government. Researched and published in response to a call from local officials for greater access to information on full cost accounting for solid waste services, this report shares research on local government practitioners' knowledge of and experiences with FCA, serves as a resource to others who are considering using FCA, and provides practical information on such issues as the value of FCA in providing cost savings and making costs apparent to citizens and elected officials, as well as obstacles that may be encountered during implementation. The report also provides a means for officials to contact their peers directly and learn more about how to implement FCA in their jurisdictions. For more information, or to obtain a copy of the report, contact Barbara Yuhas at ICMA, 202/962-3539 or e-mail <byuhas@icma.org>.

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1999 Green Guide to Cars and Trucks

http://www.aceee.org/greenercars/index.htm

This consumer guide ranks cars and trucks according to environmental friendliness, allowing buyers to compare cars, vans, pickups, and sport utility vehicles by their environmental impacts, including air pollution, global warming, and fuel efficiency. (ISBN 0-918249-36-8, $8.95 + $5.00 S&H)

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The Growth Illusion: How Economic Growth Has Enriched the Few, Impoverished The Many, and Endangered The Planet

http://www.newsociety.com/new.html

By Richard Douthwaite

The idea that economic growth is necessary is deeply rooted in western culture and forms the basis of the economic strategies for developed and developing nations around the globe. A finalist in the GPA Book Award when first released in 1993, this fully updated and revised edition of Richard Douthwaite's critically acclaimed The Growth Illusion demonstrates why economic growth is a prescription for disaster and suggests how to redirect our capitalist system toward more positive ends.

Douthwaite examines the history of western economic growth from the birth of capitalism through the industrial revolution and the world wars, drawing a startling link between rising GNP and the erosion of the quality of our health, family and community life, and a sustainable future. This engaging and well-researched work looks at the end of the American dream and why national growth patterns are so difficult to break, and offers radical ideas to steer our economies on a new course.

The Growth Illusion has been substantially updated to reflect the fast-moving political, economic, and social changes that have occurred since the book was first released. The author has gone to considerable lengths to update the new edition, including revisiting how unfettered growth has affected each of the case study countries included in the first edition.

Richard Douthwaite is a columnist for The Irish Times, New Internationalist, and Earthwatch, and author of the influential book, "Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in an Unstable World".

(May 1999, 400 pp., New Society Publishers, $20.95, ISBN 0-86571-396-0)

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Tools to Aid Environmental Decision-Making

http://www.ncedr.org/tools/tools/tool1/book.htm

http://www.springer-ny.com/catalog/np/jun98np/0-387-98556-5.html

This book provides an overview of categories of tools used to gather, digest, and analyze the information needed to make environmental decisions. It describes functions of tools available to promote effective decision-making processes, identifies who does and can use decision-aiding tools, and suggests innovations in tool development.

Chapters include:

• Tools to Aid Environmental Decision Making: An Overview
• Identifying Environmental Values
• Characterization of the Environmental Setting
• Tools for Understanding the Socioeconomic and Political Setting in Environmental Decision Making
• Characterizing the Regulatory and Judicial Setting
• Integration of Information
• Forecasting for Environmental Decision Making
• Assessment, Refinement, and Narrowing of Options
• Post-Decision Assessment

(1998, 296 pp., SpringerVerlag, $34.95, ISBN 0-387-98556-5)

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Journey to Planet Earth

http://www.pbs.org/whatson/1999/winspring/releases/journeyearth.html

A bold new PBS miniseries that encourages viewers to adopt a fresh perspective on the delicate relationship between people and the world they inhabit. Narrated by Kelly McGillis, the three one-hour programs will air on Tuesdays, April 6-20, 1999, 10:00 p.m. ET (check local listings). The programs cut across the traditional disciplines of earth sciences, providing information about processes that govern the Earth's system as a whole and illustrating interactions between land, ocean and atmosphere. Shot on location throughout the world, the programs focus on river systems, sustainable farming and rapid urbanization.

The series studies the Earth from eye level, focusing on the important issues that affect global change. Through intimate portraits of communities and people on different continents, viewers see the magnificently diverse life that shapes the land, from grasslands to deserts, from tropical forests to modern urban centers. Each episode explores the economic, political and historical perspective of the increasing pressure from a burgeoning human population on planet Earth.

Programs include:

"Rivers of Destiny" (April 6) The first program, shot in Brazil, Vietnam, Israel, Jordan and the United States, looks at four major river systems around the world and the problems they face: the floods of the Mississippi; the habitat destruction of the Amazon; the politics of the Jordan; and the management of the Mekong. This episode also features local case studies, as well as interviews with renowned scientists and world leaders.

"Urban Explosion" (April 13) The second episode of JOURNEY TO PLANET EARTH travels to four great cities of the world: Mexico City, Istanbul, Shanghai and New York. The show explores a major dilemma of the 21st century: how to shelter and sustain the world's exploding population without destroying the delicate balance of the environment.

"Land of Plenty - Land of Want" (April 20) The final program examines the fundamental problems facing all farming communities around the world: how to feed the world's growing population without destroying natural resources. The film travels to the diverse farming locations of Zimbabwe, France, China and the United States.

Each program in the JOURNEY TO PLANET EARTH miniseries explores new ways for individuals around the world to help their communities cope with serious environmental threats. The programs are accompanied by an extensive educational outreach initiative. For more information on free educational resources, access <http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/science/planetearth/>.

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Breaking the Job Lock: Imagine a world where pursuing our passions pays the bills

http://www.utne.com/lens98/society/goodwork.html

Stuff: Can We Escape?

http://www.utne.com/lens98/society/stuff.html

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1999 Minnesota Sustainable Communities Network Conference

http://www.moea.state.mn.us/sc/conference.cfm

"Taking the Next Step Toward a Sustainable Future"

April 30, 1999, Minneapolis Convention Center

This conference will provide individuals interested in the emerging topic of sustainability with an excellent opportunity to select from a wide range of sessions on critical topics such as designing and constructing green buildings and housing, revitalizing rural and small communities, attracting and creating green businesses, designing sustainable communities, developing a sustainable agriculture and preserving the natural landscape, and much more.

Sessions will include presentations of community case studies, information on tools and resources, and interactive discussion and working sessions on areas of interest to individuals seeking to build a more sustainable future. There will also be special sessions in which attendees will help guide two Minnesota communities in their journeys toward sustainability.

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