Sustainable Green Logistic Service
Sustainability in Government Agencies
Government has a huge role to play in sustainability. Administrations use a large amount of resources and employ a lot of people, but more importantly they are also responsible for protecting the ‘commons’: air-sheds, watersheds, fisheries and huge tracts of publicly owned land.
Through infrastructure and incentives, they set the stage upon which the rest of civilization acts. Their decisions determine to a large extent the live ability of our communities and the environmental impacts of our lifestyles. For example, China has been heralded as having dramatic economic growth, but the World Bank recently estimated that they are losing 8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in environmental costs.
Governments must see their communities as a whole system and make decisions that simultaneously improve the health of the community, the economy, and the environment. Often, the necessary vision and courage are not in evidence. And even when the vision is there, it can be hard for government to make significant changes. Bombarded by competing interests, public servants often retreat to safe, tried-and-tested, but unsustainable practices. In the US much of the public no longer respects or values the role of government, yet they still want good roads, great schools and better security, exactly the services government provides.
The US is caught in a Catch-22 situation: people need more leadership from government but government waits for pressure from its constituents, many of whom have a vested interest in the status quo. We highlight those who have taken risks and made at times unpopular decisions to drive us toward a more sustainable world. We need more heroes like these!
According to Susan Anderson at Portland, Oregon’s Office of Sustainable Development, partnerships are key. Government plays a host of roles – modeling, facilitating, educating, regulating – but can only go so far on their own. The most successful efforts integrate government, non-profit organizations, and business.
The situation is better in the European Union, where there is a greater respect for the role of government. The United Kingdom and Sweden both have a cabinet-level ministry for sustainability. These bodies are responsible for both analysis and implementation. They are charged with ensuring policy coherence across a number of objectives, including development aid, governance, international objectives, trade policy, global public health, and environmental policy. Because of the whole-systems view that sustainability provides, this is a brilliant role for them to assume.
