Tellus Institute - For a Great Transition

The 1992 Earth Summit spawned sustainability initiatives in communities in dozens of countries throughout the world, opening a new chapter in "thinking globally, acting locally". Over the course of a decade, these initiatives have addressed a range of environmental issues and, to a far lesser extent, social issues. In so doing, they have catalyzed a healthy debate on community priorities, raised awareness of the challenge of sustainable development, and led to some tangible improvements.

Yet, this first wave of activity has tended to be limited in vision and scope in several ways. The initiatives typically fall short of a comprehensive and integrated perspective that places a full array of environmental, social, and economic factors -and their interactions- in a systemic framework. They rarely consider a full range of alternative visions of the future that look beyond current trends and behaviors, and the strategies and actions for reaching them. And they rarely consider local sustainability in the wider global context, failing to underscore the responsibility of localities to the broader global agenda.

Building on a decade of experience, the Sustainable Communities Program aims to help shape the next wave of local initiatives to bring a systemic and global framework to the center of community sustainability efforts.

Primary activities are:

  • Research - developing methods and tools for generating quantitative and narrative scenarios
  • Education - providing citizens, governments, and businesses with an integrated understanding of sustainability and the links between local and global efforts
  • Engagement - working directly with communities to envision alternative futures and formulate action plans (e.g., Boston regional futures project)

 

*New*Sustainable Communities and the Great Transition*New*
This paper considers recent initiatives to promote sustainable local communities and offers a vision of future sustainable urban environments. It is published as part of the GTI Paper Series, Frontiers of a Great Transition.

Program leader: James Goldstein
Contact: jgold@tellus.org