# Presentation: 161819

## Bringing Global Thinking to Local Sustainability Efforts: A Collaborative Project for the Boston Region

- James Goldstein
- jgold@tellus.org
- Tellus Institute
- Boston, MA
- U.S. EPA Collaborative Science and Technology Network for Sustainability Progress Review Workshop
- October 18, 2005

## Overview of Presentation

- Project Background
- Scope of Work
- Intended outcomes

## 1. Project Background

- Increasing global economic, social and environmental interconnectedness
- Uneven distribution of impacts and benefits
- Emergence of urgent large-scale problems: climate change, loss of biodiversity, decline of freshwater resources
- Clear need for preventative approaches and for linking local and global efforts

**Notes:**
Global markets, cultural interconnections
In interconnected world, impact of economic growth – both positive and negative – is deepened
Increased income inequality both globally and locally
 Urban metropolitan areas are particularly important – large fraction of population with increasing urbanization..., concentrated areas of resource consumption, mostly from outside the immediate region
 Need to link local plans, policies, and activities with global considerations of resource sustaianabiliity, assimilative capacity, and equity

## Slide 4

## Local and Global Links

- Since Earth Summit 1992, thousands of local initiatives begun (ICLEI and Agenda 21)
- Many local successes, but few/weak linkages to global issues
- Sustainable communities in an unsustainable world?
- How to strengthen local-global connectivity
- “Think locally, act globally”

**Notes:**
 Key global issues: climate change, poverty and equity
 Lack of global linkages ultimately limits effectiveness of local sustainability efforts
 Recognizing global linkages in local sustainability efforts introduces exogenous variables that impact or constrain local planning and decision-making
 It suggests turning around the old adage “Think globally, act locally” to ...

## Project Collaborators

- Tellus Institute
- Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC)
- The Boston Foundation Indicators Project
- MA State Sustainability Program
- Plus project Working Group of outside stakeholders

## 2. Scope of Work

- Review and coordinate with MetroFuture process
- Stakeholder consultation
- Data collection, review and synthesis
- Enhance PoleStar scenario building tool
- Develop scenarios: BAU, Policy Reform, Deep Change
- Identify policy and other implementation opportunities

## MetroFuture Planning Process

- Coordinated by MAPC, regional planning agency for 101 communities in Boston region (~ 3 mil pop)
- 3-phase process:
- Stakeholder visioning (complete)
- Data analysis and scenario development (ongoing)
- Implementation strategies (next)
- Tellus coordinating closely with MAPC
- Serve on MetroFuture technical advisory group
- MAPC participates in our project working group

## Stakeholder Consultation

- Build on input to MetroFuture process
- Analyzed 3,000 visioning statements for elements of sustainability
- Established 25 person Stakeholders Group
- Held Stakeholders meeting in June
- Developed project website and e-discussion group:  www.bostonscenarios.org

## Data Collection, Review & Synthesis

- Gather recent and current data (iterative)
-  	- demographics		- employment and income
- 	- economic activity	- income
- 	- industry			- land use
- 	- transportation		- water quantity and quality
- 	- air quality		- solid waste
- 	- energy production/use	- food and agriculture
- 	- health
- Rely on existing sources (MAPC, Indicators Project, state)
- Refine as appropriate as better data becomes available

- Decision support system for sustainability studies, local to global
- Developed by Tellus in early 1990s
- Not a rigid model, but an open framework to build integrated scenarios plus a database
- Allows user to identify driving forces, address critical uncertainties and explore alternative futures
- Current enhancements include: improved user interface, inclusion of high-level levers, better graphics

## The PoleStar System A Framework for Sustainability Assessment

## Organization

**Macro Drivers**

- Population, GDP

**Environmental**

**Pressures**

- Resource Use,

- Pollution

**Society**

- Resource Use Patterns,

- Income Distribution,

- etc. ...

**Organization**

## Develop Scenarios for Boston Region

- Iterative process with collaborators and stakeholders: first order scenarios complete and under review
- Three scenarios being developed:
**Business-As-Usual** (BAU): little change in production and consumption patterns; equity not addressed
**Policy Reform**: technological and policy measures emphasized to moderate ecological destruction and social inequality
**Deep Change**: changes in values lead to changes in lifestyles and institutions (along with technological innovations) to achieve sustainability with global responsibility

## Implementation Opportunities

- MetroFuture process
- MA State Sustainability Program
- MPO Regional Transportation Plan
- MA Climate Action Plan
- Boston Indicators Project
- Other NGO initiatives

## 3. Intended Outcomes

- Long-term goal is to support regional planning for sustainability by providing tools and methods that promotes preventative planning in an integrated systems framework
- Short term goals include:
- Apply the integrated systems approach in the Boston context using PoleStar to examine alternative scenarios
- Support planning & inform policy-making at local, regional and state levels to achieve a sustainable future for the region consistent with global responsibility
- Promote networking of various planning efforts in the Boston region – from local to regional, state and federal