Journal of Sustainability

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What is Sustainability?

editors | 13 December, 2008 16:41

by George Marinakis, george@JournalofSustainability.com

 

 

Organizations such as governments and offices treat sustainability like dieting. They sign up to the program. They set target emissions. They try to decrease consumption, switch from junk food (oil) to heath food (renewables), and increase exercise (bicycling). They monitor their “progress.” Then at some point, the diet ends. The end goal is a healthier you. Better yet, a healthier lifestyle.


In other words, sustainability is a project. An initiative, with a beginning and an end. With a schedule having milestones. While reaching those milestones, the government's way of operating is hopefully permanently transformed for the better.


Remember that a good diet is designed in accordance with nutritional and physiologic principles. You don't want to fast, because the body will think it is starving, and panic. Same with sustainability. You don't want to slim down too fast, or you'll cannibalize your muscles. That is why governments are not dramatically implementing sustainability-related measures.


For the U.S. federal government, sustainability is not just a matter for the Environmental Protection Agency or the Council on Environmental Quality. It's not just a matter for the Department of Energy, or for the Department of Transportation, or for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's all of the above.


The same goes for municipal governments. The City of Albuquerque's Sustainability website reads like a smørgåsbord---a low-fat smørgåsbord---of lifestyle changes. Wind energy. LED stoplights. Solar power. Green buildings. Clean buses. Healthy trees. Bikes. Clean water. Free parking. Alternative fuels. Where's the golden—I mean, green---thread that cohesively connects it all into a public policy? It's all linked by the attempt to decrease the City's Carbon Footprint, to decrease the City's water consumption, to improve the City's environmental quality, to implement something smarter than suburban sprawl. This is your government. This is your government on a diet.


* * *


A couple of years ago I interviewed for a high-level managerial job with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Towards the end of the interview, they asked me whether I heard of the NOAA Administrator's new Initiative to increase horizontal integration across the Agency, and how would I implement it. I replied that I had come across the Initiative in my interview preparations, and that I would delegate implementation of it to a Working Group comprising representatives from all organizations across the Agency. I didn't get the job.


In that interview I think would have been able to stack the odds in my favor had I known about the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy (2003), <http://www.dec.wa.gov.au/our-environment/sustainability/state-sustainability-strategy.html>. It's a textbook example for how to implement a public policy initiative. You could use it to implement anything. Just substitute throughout for the word “sustainability.” This sort of thing is probably taught in a Master's program in Public Administration. I never got anything like it in law school or graduate school. Here's an brief overview of the Strategy. If you're not familiar with the structure of Australian government, don't be put off. You can still grasp the gist of what they're doing.


The Strategy seeks---no surprise here---to integrate the now-common “triple bottom line” of sustainability, namely environmental protection, social advancement and economic prosperity. It attempts to do so through an Action Plan, which comprises six sections, corresponding to “main areas of action”: Government (sec. 1.0), Global (sec. 2.0), Natural Resources (sec. 3.0), Settlements (sec. 4.0), Communities (sec. 5.0), and Business (sec. 6.0). Within these sections, the Strategy claims that the action focuses on four areas: cooperative management (partnerships), public involvement, transparency, and verification processes. However, the mapping of the various sections and subsections onto these four areas is not made explicit.


The section of Governance (sec. 1.0) has several major features:

-it directs the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to “Establish a Sustainability Act” that establishes the principles of sustainability and that “supports” the development of guidelines or codes for agencies to implement these principles (sec. 1.5), to “Finalise a Sustainability Code of Conduct” (sec. 1.11), and to develop a “State Strategic Planning Framework” (sec. 1.9) which apparently is different from the current Strategy. It also tasks a a “Sustainability Policy Unit” (sec. 1.6) which apparently already exists (one would like to know more about this mysterious entity);

-it establishes a Sustainability Roundtable (sec. 1.7), which facilitates regional and community interactions with several Cabinet committees and creates partnerships for action (see also sec. 1.18 – 1.21), and which develops regional sustainability strategies, among other things;

-it requires agencies to create Sustainability Action Plans, and provides them with a Sustainability Resource Guide to assist them (sec. 1.13);

-it requires the Ministerial Steering Committee for the Review of Project Development Approvals System to undertake sustainability assessment on complex or strategic projects (sec. 1.1) using checklists, multi-criteria analysis and scorecards developed by the Department of Premier and Cabinet (sec. 1.4);

-it implements a Sustainability Purchasing Policy (sec. 1.14) that applies to consumable office supplies, computers, photocopies, vehicles and fuels, and the design and construction of government buildings (sec. 1.15);

- it creates a Standing Committee of the Western Australia Planning Commission (sec. 1.22);

-and a whole lot more.


The Act, the State Strategic Planning Framework (if it is different from the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy), and the Purchasing Policy are not available on the website. The Code of Conduct is available. It contains a “Checklist of Actions to Meet Commitments within the Sustainability Code of Practice for Government Agencies” and links to other checklists such as for annual reporting requirements, and purchasing.


* * *


The Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy (2003) is not without its problems:


-Figure 14 of the Strategy shows the Act leading to the creation of Sustainability Framework and Strategy. Are these different from the current Framework and Strategy?


-The Executive Summary states: “The State Sustainability Strategy is based on a Sustainability Framework of eleven sustainability principles, six visions for Western Australia and six goals for government.” It goes on to enumerate “the Western Australian Government’s six goals for sustainability”:


1. Ensure that the way we govern is driving the transition to a sustainable future

2. Play our part in solving the global challenges of sustainability

3. Value and protect our environment and ensure the sustainable

management and use of natural resources

4. Plan and provide settlements that reduce the ecological footprint and

enhance our quality of life

5. Support communities to fully participate in achieving a sustainable future

6. Assist business to benefit from and contribute to sustainability


However, the Executive Summary ends there. We have to go to the individual chapters to find out what the “six visions” are, or what the eleven principles are. Moreover, the Action Plan calls for the creation of an Act which is to contain principles (Strategy, sec. 1.5). Are these different from the eleven principles---the ones that were never revealed to us? And where will these come from? From experience? From a theoretical basis?


* * *


The Visions for Western Australia are given at the head of each chapter. Here they are:


For 1.0 Governance:

Western Australia’s system of governance is world famous for responding to

sustainability issues, implementing effective and financially responsible

programs, supporting transparent and inclusive processes and reflecting the

State’s globally significant responsibilities towards the land and its people.


For 2.0 Global:

Western Australia contributes to the solution of global sustainability issues

particularly population pressures and poverty, climate change, threats to

biodiversity, and oil vulnerability and in so doing creates significant local

opportunities for new jobs in the rapidly growing sustainability economy.


For 3.0 Natural Resource Management:

Western Australia’s vast landscape and seascape, intricate web of

biodiversity and other natural resources are conserved, managed and used

sustainably for the common good, and the community is involved in

management and planning processes that are transparent and visionary.


For 4.0 Settlements:

Western Australia’s settlements are among the most attractive places to live

in the world, constantly becoming more innovative and efficient in their

management of resources and wastes, while at the same time protecting

liveability, cultural heritage and a ‘sense of place’.


For 5.0 Community:

Western Australian communities in cities and in regions have a strong

sense of place, are inclusive of all citizens and have supportive networks

receptive to local needs, and through this can respond uniquely to the

sustainability agenda.


For 6.0 Business:

Western Australian businesses, large and small, are globally innovative and

receptive, leading to the resolution of sustainability issues at home and

abroad and achieving competitive advantage and prosperity.


* * *


As I mentioned above, the Action Plan (sec. 1.11) of the Western Australian State Sustainability Strategy (2003) directs the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to “Finalise a Sustainability Code of Conduct.” The Code was issued one year later (2004). In it we are finally told the eleven principles:


Principles of Sustainability

Foundation Principles

1. Long-term economic health

Sustainability recognises the needs of current and future generations for long-term economic

health, innovation, diversity and productivity of the earth.

2. Equity and human rights

Sustainability recognises that an environment needs to be created where all people can

express their full potential and lead productive lives and that significant gaps in sufficiency,

safety and opportunity endanger the earth.

3. Biodiversity and ecological integrity

Sustainability recognises that all life has intrinsic value and is interconnected, and that

biodiversity and ecological integrity are part of the irreplaceable life support systems upon

which the earth depends.

4. Settlement efficiency and quality of life

Sustainability recognises that settlements need to reduce their ecological footprint (i.e. less

material and energy demands and reduction in waste), while they simultaneously improve

their quality of life (health, housing, employment, community...)

5. Community, regions, sense of place and heritage

Sustainability recognises the significance and diversity of community and regions for the

management of the earth, and the critical importance of .sense of place. and heritage

(buildings, townscapes, landscapes and culture) in any plans for the future.

6. Net benefit from development

Sustainability means that all development, and particularly development involving extraction

of non-renewable resources, should strive to provide net environmental, social and

economic benefit for future generations.

7. Common good from planning

Sustainability recognises that planning for the common good requires equitable distribution

of public resources (like air, water and open space) so that ecosystem functions are

maintained and a shared resource is available to all.

Process Principles

8. Integration of the triple bottom line

Sustainability requires that economic, social and environmental factors be integrated by

simultaneous application of these principles, seeking mutually supportive benefits with

minimal trade-offs.

9. Accountability, transparency and engagement

Sustainability recognises that people should have access to information on sustainability

issues, that institutions should have triple bottom line accountability, that regular

sustainability audits of programs and policies should be conducted, and that public

engagement lies at the heart of all sustainability principles.

10. Precaution

Sustainability requires caution, avoiding poorly understood risks of serious or irreversible

damage to environmental, economic or social capital, designing for surprise and managing

for adaptation.

11. Hope, vision, symbolic and iterative change

Sustainability recognises that applying these principles as part of a broad strategic vision for

the earth can generate hope in the future, and thus it will involve symbolic change that is part

of many successive steps over generations.


* * *


There is much more to the Western Australian Sustainability Strategy than I have shown you here. This brief overview suffices for our purposes, which is to investigate the answer to the question “what is sustainability”? Now you have the basis approach: visions, principles, codes of conduct, checklists to guide organizational decisions, committees and roundtables and policy units.

 

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