More than 3,100 people gathered in Detroit May 2-5 for the first National Town Meeting For A Sustainable America. Attendees heard story after story about how hundreds of towns and cities such as Detroit, Atlanta, Seattle, Santa Monica, and Tucson are coming to grips with sprawl to clean up their air, preserve greenspace, improve public transportation, and regain a sense of community. The principal tool in these efforts is an emerging set of principles known as Smart Growth. Corporate leaders from Ford, General Motors, Dow Chemical, and others joined top environmentalists and Presidential Cabinet members to express commitments to the idea of sustainability and smart growth as the underlying strength of livable communities, and noted that collaboration was key to moving toward such communities. We have to create opportunities to meet and talk.
Collaboration is the only way.
There is no other way. Chief sponsor of the event was the President's Council on Sustainable Development, which ended its six-year exploration with a report that outlines a path to sustainability. Vice President Al Gore spoke to the enthusiastic conference and outlined 50 new federal programs to give tools to communities that help manage growth while developing their economies. Both the U.S. Senate and the House have smart growth subcommittees, and federal agencies are charged with cooperating with each other and developing tools and funding for communities wishing to get a handle on their growth. For instance, while it's obvious that the Environmental Protection Agency is the major promoter of Smart Growth and Sustainability, it may be a little surprising to imagine what the Department of Agriculture might be doing.