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Green Plans in Action: Conference
RRI provides the following analytical framework to assess the comprehensiveness of sustainability plans, including climate change plans. Notes on a plan under review can be made in the third column to decide whether the plan is a comprehensive resource sustainability plan. The framework was provided to guests at RRI's October 2008 forum on Green Plans and California's Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32).
TEN DEFINING FEATURES OF GREEN PLANNING
| 10 DEFINING FEATURES |
CLIMATE CHANGE PLANS |
| Long-term |
Represent a society's ongoing commitment to the goal of sustainable development |
|
Y/N |
| Comprehensive |
Management solutions that address the full array of priority issues, across media (e.g. air, water, land) and their impacts on the environment, economy, and society as a whole |
|
Y/N |
| Dynamic |
Capable of adapting to evolving problems, ideas, goals, and information without radical changes to their structure and function - within which an ongoing planning process can take place |
|
Y/N |
| Cooperative |
All facets of the community, all types of businesses, and all branches of government participate in a highly cooperative process of developing trust, identifying common values, and working toward a shared vision of the future |
|
Y/N |
| Integrated |
Enables a fusion of economic, environmental, and societal needs by accounting for the many complex interrelationships that together determine quality of life. |
|
Y/N |
| Informed |
Policy decisions guided by a reliable information base that aggregates environmental, economic and societal conditions in order to accurately depict significant trends (past, present & future) and devise a responsive set of new programs |
|
Y/N |
| Flexible |
(Combines) a commitment to realizing targeted environmental goals and objectives, and, providing participants with more freedom in developing the necessary technical and/or institutional improvements. The long-term nature of this arrangement creates a more stable and predictable regulatory environment that benefits all parties |
|
Y/N |
| Strategic |
Apply a strategic management approach, with a continuous process of setting goals, developing timelines, and monitoring and reporting on results |
|
Y/N |
| Purposeful |
Demand the level of focused, resolute, and results-oriented initiative necessary for the pursuit of sustainable development |
|
Y/N |
| Investment-intensive |
For effective implementation - require adequate funding from both government and industry, recognizing that the stakes of a sustainable future could not be higher and that success mandates a substantial long-term investment |
|
Y/N |
Source: Green Plans: Working Strategies for a Sustainable Future - A Primer (RRI 2001, p.9); Chart prepared by Tom Fookes, Architect of New Zealand's Resource Management Act of 1991; commissioner in NZ's Environment Court, and Associate Professor in the School of Architecture and Planning, Univ. of Auckland. Dr. Fookes is a long-time consultant to Resource Renewal Institute.
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