Live Green/Work Green Conference – Panel 2: Sustainability in Government
Sustainability in Government Agencies
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY
Spending revenue wisely, maximizing the benefits to society
We want government to provide its services efficiently. However, governments operate within a tangle of legislative rules and mandates. Ideas that sound great on the floor of the legislature often cause problems in practice. For example, when a homeowner in Oregon installs a new furnace, the job is inspected twice. The electrical and gas pressure test are done before the system is turned over to the homeowner for use. But the homeowner may get a call several months later by another inspector required to look at furnaces and air conditioners prompted by paperwork turned in by the contractor. In these cases, the inspection is completely redundant. Right now, a supervisor is trying to find a way around this, but it takes initiative to overcome the stupidity of certain rules.
Agencies, acting within their own narrow frame of reference, often pass on costs and problems to other agencies, leading to sub-optimal results. For example, consider the problem of rainwater. Traditionally, buildings are constructed with gutters that dump huge quantities of water into the rainwater system. At the same time, roads funnel rainwater into the same pipes. As more and more impermeable surfaces expand on the landscape, wastewater treatment centers become overloaded. Treating all this water is expensive. Because we rarely use the rainwater, we also need large potable water systemsand reservoirs. The solution should not be bigger pipes, more dams, and larger wastewater treatment centers. Instead we need to rethink how we construct buildings, communities, and roads. In Portland, Oregon, some houses have been legally permitted to use rainwater in the home, including for drinking water. With the area’s legendary rainfall, these homes easily provide enough storage for most of the year. They simultaneously reduce the pulse of rainwater and reduce the need for drinking water supplies. Bioswales could collect street run-off. The technologies exist to solve this problem. It’s a matter of design. Agencies need to collaborate and understand their interdependencies.
Providing infrastructure and security.
Enrique Peñalosa, the former mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, said that solving traffic congestion by building more roads was like solving obesity by giving people larger belts. But this is exactly the strategy of many transportation departments. Already in many US cities 50 per cent or more of the urban landscape – streets and parking lots – is devoted to cars. The choices governments make determine the quality of neighborhoods’, the viability of public transportation, air quality and the fitness of citizens. By building roads, they create suburban sprawl, which is more expensive for government to serve with infrastructure.
When people think about security, they think about the military and first responders. Certainly these are critical pieces of our security system; however, the military, in particular, is responsible for a significant amount of pollution and human misery. The range of security issues is also expanding. In the US, the CIA has warned that certain environmental issues may destabilize the world. Global warming and fresh water are on the top of their list of such concerns. Social, economic, and cultural issues are feeding terrorism. Sustainability provides a framework for the Pentagon and first responders to anticipate future problems.
Protecting the commons.
Government is the guardian of all public resources, those things critical for life but which may not have been assigned a market value or owner. Without sufficient regulation, protection, and enforcement, we can experience a ‘tragedy of the commons’, the tendency to overexploit public resources. Sometimes governments make things worse rather than better. Take fisheries for example: when stocks of cod, which had been abundant for centuries off the coast of Canada, began to decline, the actions of government actually precipitated the collapse. To shore up the economies based on the cod, government subsidized the fishermen, keeping prices low and harvest high. Now the fishery is closed and few expect it ever to recover.
Creating a level playing field.
Government sets the stage for commerce, but often the stage is tilted, and not toward the audience. Government is rife with perverse incentives. As Paul Hawken, author of Natural Capitalism explains, ‘The US government subsidizes energy costs so that farmers can deplete aquifers to grow alfalfa to feed cows that make milk that is stored in warehouses as surplus cheese that does not feed the hungry.’ Conservative estimates calculate the total cost of subsidies as $2.6 trillion per year, approximately five times corporate profits. By some estimates, around 77 per cent of these are perverse, having serious, unintended negative side effects.
Protecting and helping people who need it. Here again, problems get passed from agency to agency. In the US, mental institutions have been closed to protect the rights of those inside, paradoxically resulting in many becoming homeless, shivering on the streets, and begging for food. Overwhelmed social service agencies lose track of at-risk children who end up in foster homes, correction facilities or on the police roster of missing persons. Even the progressive Oregon Health Plan, providing health insurance to the neediest Oregonians, lost funding during an economic downturn; but the savings may have been illusory because more people ended up in emergency rooms and jails after losing their access to essential prescriptions and health services. These costs were paid out of different budgets but may have cost the state even more.
Guiding us towards a better future.
Government is the only institution clearly tasked to attend to the long term. Community growth plans are drawn up for a period of 20 years. Energy policy sets the direction for half a century. Schools prepare students for their lifetimes. Too often, vested interests preserve the status quo; many communities, however, like those cited below, have set in place visionary goals that have affected the quality of life for generations.
RESOURCES
Roseland, Mark (1998) Toward Sustainable Communities. Gabriola Island: New Society Publishers. This book provides an excellent overview of all the different elements a community should consider, including transportation, waste, water, economic development and land use.
Eisler, Riane (2007) The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating Caring Economics. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. This book helps develop ideas associated with the often undervalued social sustainability.
If you want to know how your country compares to others, Yale University publishes an Environmental Sustainability Index, www.yale.edu/esi.
In 2005 Finland, Norway, and Uruguay were at the top; North Korea was at the bottom. Major US cities can see how they rank in the Sustain Lane ranking; San Francisco, California and Portland, Oregon were at the top of their list in 2005, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sustainlanecom-us-city-rankings-director-warren-karlenzig-to-be-expert-participant-in-worlds-largest-online-forum-habitat-jam-focus-is-on-urban-sustainability-55734802.html
The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was commissioned by the UN and involved thousands of scientists from around the globe. Their report (and an easy-to-read summary) identifies the biggest environment-related issues facing our planet. To access them, go to www.millenniumassessment.org.
See also the Millennium Goals, www.un.org/millenniumgoals. United Nations Environmental Programme (2002) Global Environment Outlook 3: Past, Present and Future Perspectives, UNEP and Earthscan. Hammond, Allen (1998) Which World: Scenarios for the 21st Century. Washington, DC: Island Press.
World Business Council on Sustainable Development (2002) ‘The Business Case for Sustainable Development’, www.wbcsd.org
Outlines the reasons why their 150 international companies think sustainability should be pursued.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1996) The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order.
Simon & Schuster. Provides an interesting theory of how power is shifting in the world and explores both social and environmental issues in that context. Jacobs, Jane (2000) The Nature of Economies. NY: The Modern Library.
Kinsley, Michael J. (1997) Economic Renewal Guide: A Collaborative Process for Sustainable Community Development. Snowmass, CO: Rocky Mountain Institute. The ‘Agency Sustainability Planning and Implementation Guide’ was designed to help Massachusetts state agencies develop internal sustainability plans and programmes but will also be of interest for other governments developing sustainability plans. It includes sections on waste reduction and recycling; mercury and PBTs (persistent bioaccumulative toxins) reduction; sustainable design and construction; and environmentally preferable purchasing. The report includes a one-page sheet of ‘Action Steps’, a list of 8-12 short-term actions that state facilities can take to reduce their environmental impacts, www.state.ma.us/envir/sustainable/pdf/ss_guide_web.pdf
Federal Government (US) web addresses:
http://www1.eere.energy.gov/sustainability/
www.gsa.gov/environmentalservices
State and local governments:
ICLEI: Local Governments for Sustainability, www.iclei.org.
Intergovernmental Committee on Urban and Regional Research (Canada).
International City Management Association.
International Institute for Sustainable Development (Canada).
Sustainable Communities Network (Washington, DC).
EcoCity Journal.
The Urban Ecologist.
Sustainable Measures has a number of useful resources including a searchable database of indicators and a Guide to Sustainable Community
Indicators, www.sustainablemeasures.com
European Campaign of Sustainable Cities and Towns, www.global-vision.org/city/aalborg.html
National League of Cities, www.nlc.org/home.
EKOS (2000) ‘Urban Sustainability: Leading Approaches, Tangible Results’. This report,
written for the City of Seattle by a consulting firm, contains profiles of the efforts of a variety of cities. It can be ordered from the EKOS website, www.ekosi.com.
Amarillo, Texas has a demonstration village. www.globalecovillage.com.
Curitiba, Brazil, www.solstice.crest.org/sustainable/curitiba
Madison, Wisconsin, www.sustaindane.org.
Oregon, www.sustainableoregon.net
Portland, Oregon, www.sustainableportland.org
Santa Monica, California, www.santa-monica.org/edp/scp
Seattle, Washington, www.sustainableseattle.org
Whistler, British Columbia, www.awarewhistler.org.
Let’s start by providing positive examples of ways in which governments have promoted a more sustainable future. Hopefully these examples will spark actions your administrations might take. If you are in the private sector, these stories may inspire policy changes to suggest to your representatives. You may even uncover strategies you can use inside your own organization.
Spend tax revenue wisely, maximizing the benefit to society
Taxpayers want the biggest benefits for their money, not inefficiencies, and red tape. Smart agencies have found ways to provide multiple benefits from the same tax revenue. These agencies not only attempt to be cost-effective, they also track their overall impact on the economy as their investments cycle through the community. Here are a few examples from the western US.
Conserving energy
Like many prison systems in the US, the Oregon Department of Corrections has been swamped with prisoners, following the three-strikes-and-you’re-out legislation. They struggle to house all these people without commensurate funding increases. Prematurely releasing prisoners for lack of space did not endear them to the public. They needed to find a way to get more services for the same amount of money.
One answer was to focus on energy efficiency. Many prisons have large boilers used for laundry, showers and sometimes also heating. They take municipal water in the 50 to 60°F range and heat it to 230° or so. In Oregon one prison discovered thermal solar systems (designed to heat water as opposed to generating electricity) were quite cost-effective. By letting the sun preheat the water during the summer months to close to 125°, they reduced their natural gas consumption by 10 to 20 per cent. They are working with an out-of-state manufacturer of one of the components to use prison labor to manufacture these simple systems. They realize that many other government buildings also use boilers, as does most of the industrial sector. By testing these units, the Department of Corrections may lay the foundation for a new industry in the state and simultaneously improve the efficiency and competitiveness of organizations there as well.
RESOURCES
Romm, Joseph (1999) Cool Companies. Washington, DC: Island Press.
US Environmental Protection Agency, www.epa.gov
Better Bricks green building site, www.betterbricks.com
Energy Star programme for energy-efficient equipment and appliances, www.energystar.gov
Urban Consortium Energy Task Force (1992) ‘Sustainable Energy: A Local Government
Planning Guide for a Sustainable Future’.
