ZEITGEIST: Sustainable America - Positive Trends

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Positive Trends Toward A Sustainable America by John Dernbach

America is approaching a tipping point on sustainability. We are increasingly recognizing that environmental problems limit economic opportunity, job creation and social well being, and even compromise our national security. While there continue to be holdouts who view greenhouse gas emissions, loss of biodiversity, toxic chemicals, sprawl, and other environmental problems as "merely environmental," their number and influence is shrinking.

We are near the point where it will be impossible to take meaningful action - whether it be in economic policy, education, foreign relations, environment, or even the war on terrorism - without this broader and deeper perspective on sustainability. It is also increasingly evident we can build a more robust economy, improve national security, and create good new jobs by protecting and restoring the environment.

This is not to say the United States is on the verge of actually becoming sustainable. Far from it. We are mostly moving in the wrong direction - toward greater consumption of energy, materials, land and other resources, together with more negative environmental impacts. But we are at least reaching a point where decision makers understand issues in a sustainability framework and understand why that perspective is both attractive and necessary.

The pace, scope, and intensity of sustainable development activity has increased in recent years. At the beginning of the decade, in virtually any area of American life, only a few people and organizations were exercising leadership for sustainability. Since then, the number of such people and organizations - in the public and private sector - has greatly increased.

Furthermore, their activities are increasing in confidence and sophistication; they are achieving positive and attractive results; and these results are encouraging others to imitate and improve on what they have accomplished. These people and organizations are also asking better questions - and providing better answers - on what it means to be truly sustainable.

The prominence of climate change - and the visibility of its effects on all other issues and sectors - has also grown. Climate change is becoming the public face of unsustainable development.

Progress on sustainability has been especially notable in six areas:

Municipalities have made tremendous strides, as the public recognizes that a good environment can enhance quality of life and bolster local economic competitiveness. For example, the Mayor's Climate Protection Agreement, in which mayors commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, has now been endorsed by more than 900 mayors from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Brownfields redevelopment - the remediation and reuse of properties contaminated by prior industrial activity - is a hallmark of sustainable land use. Over the past two decades, states have aggressively fostered brownfields redevelopment through a variety of voluntary cleanup programs.

Sustainability in kindergarten through to twelfth-grade (K-12) education has made remarkable progress. Increasingly educational institutions are assessing their progress towards sustainability and providing students with sustainability-enhancing knowledge, attitudes, and skills.

Colleges and universities across the United States are practicing sustainability across the entire range of their activities - including courses, research, outreach in surrounding communities, "campus greening," and mission.

Sustainable business practices have gone from being just a "movement" to the mainstream of the market. It is increasingly clear to business that the triple bottom line - economic, social, and environmental - provides many profitable opportunities.

A growing number of Americans of every religious faith affirm a global and ecumenical ethic of a just and sustainable earth community. They are affirming the spiritual and ethical importance of "caring for creation" and are attempting to reduce their ecological footprint.

To be sure, the United States has a very long way to go to be truly sustainable. Yet these trends provide a basis for hope as well as a foundation on which to build.

John C. Dernbach is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Widener University in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has written widely on sustainable development, climate change, and environmental law. He is also the editor of Agenda for a Sustainable America (ELI Press 2009). To learn more about this book, visit http://www.agendaforasustainableamerica.com/

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