We need your help updating and refining Action Items from the PCSD reports in 1996 and 1999 in order to include them into the next Presidential Climate Action Plan.
Therefore we ask you to:
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| 1. Provide comments on how to refine each of the Action Items. Learn more >> |
2. Rate how relevant each Action Item still is. Learn more >> |
3. Rank Action Items within each category by priority. Learn more >> |
Simply start by clicking on one of the topic areas to the left, or read more detailed instructions. Thanks for your support!
Introduction
The National Energy Center for Sustainable Communities (NECSC), in partnership with The Johnson Foundation, is preparing to hold the fourth in a series of four leadership summits to review the nation's sustainable development goals in light of global warming, and to build a five-year action plan.
The first three summits focused on Energy and Climate, Natural Resource Stewardship and Building Sustainable Communities. The fouth will take the recommendations from the previous three summits as well as review the original PCSD recommendations to build an action plan.
Problem Statement
While many government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and companies have adopted goals and programs related to sustainability, the U.S. sustainability "movement" is fragmented and uncoordinated. The last comprehensive national dialogue on sustainable development - the deliberations of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) from 1993 to 1999 - produced 140 recommendations for action. They need to be updated and considered in the context of global warming - arguably the principal sustainability issue of our time. In addition, the nation's ability to monitor and assess its progress on sustainability is hampered by the fact that no consensus set of national sustainable development indicators exists.
Objectives
1. Advance U.S. sustainability and climate action by developing and implementing a concrete action plan for the next five years - the first such plan since 1999 that coordinates the efforts of the government, business, financial and NGO communities.
2. Reinvigorate the national discussion about what's needed to ensure the nation's long-term economic prosperity, environmental health and quality of life.
3. Build greater communication and collaboration among the many organizations attempting to advance energy security, natural resource stewardship and sustainable community development in the United States in a time of global climate change.
4. Identify a method to periodically assess the "state of the union" in regard to sustainability - for example, by developing national sustainability indicators that would allow national progress to be measured every 3-5 years.
The first three summits focused on Energy and Climate, Natural Resource Stewardship and Building Sustainable Communities. The fouth will take the recommendations from the previous three summits as well as review the original PCSD recommendations to build an action plan.
Problem Statement
While many government agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities and companies have adopted goals and programs related to sustainability, the U.S. sustainability "movement" is fragmented and uncoordinated. The last comprehensive national dialogue on sustainable development - the deliberations of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD) from 1993 to 1999 - produced 140 recommendations for action. They need to be updated and considered in the context of global warming - arguably the principal sustainability issue of our time. In addition, the nation's ability to monitor and assess its progress on sustainability is hampered by the fact that no consensus set of national sustainable development indicators exists.
Objectives
1. Advance U.S. sustainability and climate action by developing and implementing a concrete action plan for the next five years - the first such plan since 1999 that coordinates the efforts of the government, business, financial and NGO communities.
2. Reinvigorate the national discussion about what's needed to ensure the nation's long-term economic prosperity, environmental health and quality of life.
3. Build greater communication and collaboration among the many organizations attempting to advance energy security, natural resource stewardship and sustainable community development in the United States in a time of global climate change.
4. Identify a method to periodically assess the "state of the union" in regard to sustainability - for example, by developing national sustainability indicators that would allow national progress to be measured every 3-5 years.