Executive Order on government sustainability

by Jeffrey Barber

Published October 20, 2009 @ 09:49AM PT

First posted on www.citnet.org

Last week, on October 5, President Obama signed Executive Order 13584 on Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy and Economic Performance. Its purpose is "to establish an integrated strategy towards sustainability in the Federal government and to make reduction of greenhouse gas emissions a priority for Federal agencies." If we are to create a clean energy economy, the Order explains, "the Federal Government must lead by example."

If the country is to move towards sustainability, we indeed need the leadership of the government as well as leadership among citizens, businesses, educators, community leaders, religious groups, scientists and others who recognize the importance of this concept to the country's future. Unfortunately, the country is clearly divided in its vision of that future. The idea of "sustainability" is no longer new but still remains confusing for many if not most Americans. The term is often used in very different contexts and meanings, mostly focusing on the quality of endurance of a particular institution or activity, as in "financial sustainability." The idea of balancing social, environmental and economic priorities with long-term consideration of the needs of future generations is often lost in these other applications.

In other applications, sustainability is simply another term for environmental protection. This emphasis is sometimes qualified as "environmental sustainability." The problem with this term, which is one of United Nations' Millennium Development Goals, is that it reduces the meaning of sustainability to just one of its elements, ironically undermining the key principle of interdependence of the social, economic and environmental domains.

Much of President Obama's Executive Order does focus on environmental priorities. However, he understands the necessity of linking efforts to reduce GHG emissions, pollution and waste, improve water quality and energy efficiency with the economic priorities underlying the goal to "increase our Nation's prosperity." The Order makes a point to define "sustainability" and "sustainable," as "to create and maintain conditions, under which humans and nature can exist in productive harmony, that permit fulfilling the social, economic and other requirements of present and future generations."

Each federal agency is directed to establish a Strategic Sustainability Performance Plan, in which agencies are called on to prioritize their actions "based on a full accounting of both economic and social benefits and costs."

Each federal agency's Strategic Sustainablility Performance Plan is required to meet the following goals:

• establish and report on an agency-wide GHG reduction targets to meet by 2020;
• improve water use efficiency and management;
• promote pollution prevention and elimate waste;
• implement high performance sustainable Federal building design, construction, operation and management, maintenance, and deconstruction;
• advance sustainable acquisition to ensure 95 percent of new contract actions are energy-efficient, water-efficient, biobased, environmentally preferable, non-ozone depleting, constrain recycled content, or are non-toxic or less-toxic alternatives;
• promote electronic stewardship;
• sustain environmental management.

The scope of this federal sustainability strategy, to be overseen by the Council on Environmental Quality and Office of Management and the Budget, is strictly limited to "the internal management of the Federal Government" and thus does not cover many of the policy priorities which citizen groups and sustainability advocates are advocating to move America towards sustainability. It does not address Congress and the legislative actions needed to ensure the transition to a truly sustainable economy and future. At the same time that the Executive Order was released, many environmental groups and citizens were focused more on the positions the government is taking on the climate change discussions in Bangkok and coming up this December in Copenhagen, not to mention the debate on climate action taking place now in Congress.

Nevertheless, this action by President Obama to establish a federal sustainability strategy is indeed a case of leadership by example and deserves strong applause. Given this example, it sends an implicit message for each one of us to begin our own process of taking responsibility for our impacts on the planet. This move challenges us to in turn identify and follow our own set of ethical and socially responsible standards and rules of conduct regarding our impacts on others.

Meaningful progress towards sustainability calls for changes not only in the federal government and personal lifestyles but throughout all of society. Business and industry also needs to raise the mark for the rules and measures of progress guiding their decisions and behavior. The same for other institutions, as well as households and individuals. Unfortunately there are huge pockets of resistance to seriously undergoing the transition to a sustainable society and economy. The reasons for this resistance are many, with many books and studies analyzing the various arguments, concerns, values and behaviors involved. These need to each be addressed. Further, we need a national strategy for sustainability involving not only the federal government but all other sectors of society participating. In moving this ahead, we each need to set our own example.

Write to President Obama: for a Sustainable America

by Rob Wheeler

Published March 17, 2009 @ 03:20PM PT

Please help us urge the Obama Administration and Congress to lead the American people in developing and implementing a National Strategy for Sustainability. Click on Take Action (to the right below), make any changes you want to the letter you find there, login with your email address and send it. It will automatically go to President Obama, his Administration, and your Congressional Representatives. It’s that easy.

Thanks,   The Sustainable America Team  

Sustainable agriculture at the UN

by Jeffrey Barber

Published March 17, 2009 @ 01:55PM PT

Following up from Rob's blog on "farming sustainably" I'd like to share my experience last month in New York at the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), which is currently focusing on the topic of sustainable agriculture . Wading through the UN website you can easily get overcome by the familiar UN bureaucratic language. I was there for the week-long  "Intergovernmental Preparatory Meeting" which leads into the two week session May 4-15. Then delegations from various member governments will consider the results of the previous year's review of the problems and policies related to agriculture, land, drought and desertification, rural development and Africa. This year they will discuss "Policy Recommendations" on each of these.

Needless to say, it is all rather ambitious to think, in the face of the global food crisis that this session will provide the answers and solutions.  That assumes most of the world's governments, corporate lobbyists, academics and representatives of the range of public and private interests can manage to agree on the questions much less answers.

Perhaps that's a bit cynical, but we all know the difficulties of reaching agreement among such a diverse body, even when the stakes are so high. Yet occasionally we do see some breakthroughs, perhaps historically symbolized by the 1948 UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights.Here is a situation where the world's governments agree on certain principles and definitions (whether or not they abide by them!) which establishes a legal or at least moral bar for later treaties and laws.

For our Sustainability Campaign, there is the series of agreements and precedents defining "sustainable development," starting with the familiar Brundtland definition. But that is another discussion.

Whether or not the international community agrees on how to address the challenge of "sustainable agriculture" and the global food crisis, the upcoming CSD session offers us two important values: (1) a snapshot of the complex of viewpoints and interests engaged in the international debate, and (2) a physical space for those who care to come together and share their knowledge and ideas -- and possibly build partnerships for action.

Farming Sustainably in America

by Rob Wheeler

Published March 05, 2009 @ 10:46AM PT

If we want to create a sustainable America and world, adopting more sustainable agricultural programs and healthier eating habits would be a good place to start. Perhaps that is one reason why so many of you have given us suggestions for what should be included in our National Strategy for Sustainability focusing on these topics. As Jeffrey Barber mentioned in the blog post below, we’ve been reviewing the suggestions you’ve made and will be featuring and commenting on them in the weeks to come.

We’ll begin by covering such topics as how a White House Victory Garden could be used to promote the development and implementation of a National Strategy for Sustainability; eating a healthier diet can help us protect the natural environment, conserve valuable resources, and prevent global warming; federal sustainable agriculture programs could be strengthened; unsustainable subsidies could be replaced with sustainable incentives and policies; and home and community gardening encouraged through a National Strategy Plan; etc.

We face many agriculturally related challenges in the US that could be dealt with by implementing a Sustainability Strategy. For example, agriculture uses 70% of the water in the US, which is causing serious problems particularly in the Southwest. A recent study found that Lake Mead, which supplies water to 22 million people in the region, is likely to go bone dry by 2021. Similarly, a 2006 UN study found that raising livestock accounts for 18% of all greenhouse gas emissions and can lead significantly to water scarcity.

Factory farming is another problem. By 2002 there were 12,000 concentrated animal feeding operations in the US holding 890 million animals, thus averaging 75,000 animals each. A single farm, with 140,000 head of cattle, can produce 1.6 million tons of manure each year, more waste than is produced by Houston, Texas.  The EPA reports that factory farms produce three times as much animal waste as humans, the majority of which is spread on the ground untreated often carrying excess nutrients and farm chemicals that find their way into waterways, lakes, groundwater, soils and airways. This includes antibiotics and hormones, pesticides, and heavy metals. 

According to the Pew Trust, “the industrialization of American agriculture has transformed the character of agriculture and with it the face of rural America. The family-owned farm that once produced a diverse mix of crops and food animals is largely gone, replaced by ever-larger operations producing just one animal species, or growing just one crop, and many rural communities have fared poorly.”

Our federal government needs to do more to address this. Of $165 billion spent on farm programs in the US between 1995 and 2005 more than three-fourths went to commodity crop subsidies, benefiting just 10% of producers. More than 90% of these checks went to corn, wheat, rice, cotton, and soybean growers. Thus many sustainable agriculture advocates call to scale back subsidies and put more money into conservation, nutrition, and rural development instead. 

We’ll be covering such topics as these in the coming weeks with many suggestions for how we can overcome such challenges by developing a US Strategy for Sustainability. Meanwhile a couple of things that you can do is to look for grass-fed, free-range meats; cut down on meat consumption; and seek out local farmers that can assure you about the safety of their practices.

Your suggested actions

by Jeffrey Barber

Published February 21, 2009 @ 09:04PM PT

It is exciting to see the support from all of you for a National Sustainability Strategy. After so many years since the Earth Summit, this Campaign renews our hopes to finally move from paper and possibility to policy and practice.

As National Coordinator for the Citizens Network for Sustainable Development, I am especially thankful to Change.org and the Ideas for Change project helping bring this idea back into the mainstream discussion. 

Over past weeks we read and discussed many of the "suggested actions" which you sent on how to effectively move from idea to policy. Your suggestions cover a wide range of actions and initiatives across the spectrum of environmental, social and economic priorities. So, where shall we begin?

Some of you focused on sustainable energy, moving away from fossil fuels towards a responsible system based on renewables. Some focused on waste and recycling systems.   

Others highlight the need for safe and nutritious food, for local food systems and sufficiency, decreasing the demand for pesticides, fertilizers, and transport-intensive produce.  Others emphasise protection of watersheds and other ecosystems. Some raise the problem of the consumer culture and the need to change the consumption and production patterns at the root of many of these problems and concerns.

In addition to mapping these ideas and priorities in a coherent vision and proposal, there is the work of assessing the prospects within government to welcome and commit to this quest.  The idea of "sustainable development" can be found in speeches, reports and programs throughout different parts of our government. However, these are starting points in the task to develop a far-reaching vision and strategy for our country's future.  

In the coming weeks we will explore these ideas and priorities and examine the prospects for sustainability within the White House and various departments and committees of our government. We will also look to the many groups and efforts around the country currently practicing and promoting sustainability who we should reach out to as allies in this campaign. 

Love Mother Earth for Valentine's Day

by Robin Wheeler

Published February 14, 2009 @ 04:00AM PT

You could think “today is just one more day like any other” OR perhaps you could say “it is the first day of the rest of my life”.

We live on an incredible planet. She provides superbly for our every want and need. Can there be any place more beautiful or wonderful in all of the heavens -- if you look at all of the love and diversity shared by humanity or the marvels given to us by mother nature?

So it is strange to think about how we have abused her and how we are destroying so much of the capacity of our mother to care for us.

John Denver wrote the following (Watch the Videos at Left):

“I want with all of my heart to be able to go fishing with my grandkids; and I want to go show them coral reefs in the ocean.”

“I think that all people have that kind of feeling in their hearts; and how much would there be to regret if we destroyed that opportunity for ourselves.”

“Its something we all have to be mindful of as we make the decisions that have to do with our lives, and how we live our lives, and what we want out of our lives…”

So, on this day, Valentine’s Day, I am inviting you to make a commitment. That commitment is to ensure that we can leave our children, and our children’s children, with as many of the blessings that have been given to us as possible.

Again, John wrote,

“One of the ways to keep love alive is to stay in touch with the natural environment - the wild living places on Earth. Some of the places where love is most difficult to find are those places where the forests are gone, the birds no longer sing, the waters are poisoned and the skies are brown with the effects of human pollution. We must protect the remaining wild places, and restore others. Much of this good work is underway. I applaud and encourage those of you who are involved. All of these special wild places are a part of mother nature. Mother Earth is the place from which there comes a constant, unrelenting ability to nurture. She is the life force that sustains us all.”

If we can remember this, then surely we can succeed as well in protecting and restoring Mother Earth and in creating a sustainable world and America.   Happy Valentine’s Day!!

Steering our course

by Jeffrey Barber

Published February 12, 2009 @ 04:47PM PT

Next steps for the National Sustainability Strategy

For years we heard about the "rising tide that will lift all boats." As if all the wealth created from tax cuts and corporate deregulation would somehow "trickle down" to the rest of us here moored at the docks. For many this tide appears more like a destructive flood, like those that devastated New Orleans. In both cases, the Precautionary Principle and other good sense viewpoints were recklessly ignored. Trust the market, they assured us, as boats and livelihoods were turned over, drowning dreams and prospects for a decent life.

Which brings us to that big Ship of State there in the bay, taking on its new crew: What direction is Captain Obama going to steer the country in these coming years?

The Campaign for a National Sustainabilty Strategy claims that to steer the right course we need sustainability as our compass and a strategy to get us where we want to go. This does not require a mystical faith, as with the invisible hand of the market (which had so many fingers in the cookie jar.) Rather, we are calling for a practical approach "not based on short-term fixes but on a long-range vision." We want decisions not dominated by powerful corporate lobbyists but a guided by a framework balancing social, economic and environmental priorities and engaging those affected by these decisions, not simply those profiting most from them.

In contrast to Plato's trust in the philosopher king, President Obama expressed his belief that the steering of this ship of state is not only the business of presidents and politicians (and lobbyists) but of concerned and informed citizens. He continues to encourage us to actively participate in shaping the direction we take. The Sustainability Campaign's current letter-writing action is one immediate response to his call (and please take a few minutes to send the President and Congress yours!)

In turn, your suggested actions to the Sustainability Campaign on how to move from idea to policy is the foundation stone for deciding our next steps and priorities. In the coming weeks we will explore these suggested ideas and ways to put these into action.