Integrating Environment and Development in Decision Making for the Highest Good of All

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INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT IN DECISION MAKING

Prevailing systems for decision-making in many locations tend to separate economic, social and environmental people at the policy, planning and management levels. This influences the actions of all groups in society, including Governments, industry and individuals, and has important implications for the efficiency and sustainability of development. We would benefit from a fundamental commitment by people to enact an alteration of the institutional structures in order to enable more systematic consideration of the general public’s health and safety and the environment when decisions are made on economic, social, energy, agricultural, transportation, open sourcing, business and other practices, as well as health and safety implications in these areas for the environment and people.

OVERVIEW

Integrating environment and development at the policy, planning and management levels includes the following areas to be addressed:

• Policy decisions for the highest good of all
• Decision making process for the highest good of all
• Creating cooperative and ethical partnerships

POLICY DECISIONS FOR THE HIGHEST GOOD OF ALL

The overall objective is to improve or restructure the decision-making process so that consideration of socio-economic and environmental issues is fully integrated and a broader range of public participation is possible. More freedom must be given to ensure local adaptability in order to allow populations to develop their own priorities in accordance with their prevailing conditions, needs, national plans, policies and programs.

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• Working towards the integration of economic, social and environmental considerations in decision-making at all levels. To support community-based procedures to integrate environment and development methods in decision-making
• We have the opportunity to develop or improve mechanisms to facilitate the involvement of concerned individuals, groups and organizations in decision-making at all levels
• To give people a voice who find their views unrepresented by elected officials
• Developing a team or social network of informed and experienced people passion about these areas to work together and come up with solutions
• Ensuring access by the public to relevant information, facilitating the reception of public views and allowing for effective participation

DECISION MAKING PROCESS FOR THE HIGHEST GOOD OF ALL

People working together as a collective with a focused vision and unified goal can enhance capacity to deal with the issues of environment and development. An integrative decision making process built on consensus can achieve a solution based approach to economic, social and environmental issues in the pursuit of development that is economically efficient, socially equitable and responsible, and environmentally sound. This is achievable by providing cost-effective, sustainable solutions, applying integrated pollution prevention control, demonstrating technological innovation and, creating and exploring environmentally beneficial practices, as well as providing financial resources to meet sustainable development objectives. People and communities collectively can pioneer this transition rather than relying on outside forces and waiting.

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• To make environment, sustainability and finance mutually supportive of one another
• To incorporate environmental costs and risks in the decisions of producers and consumers, reversing the tendency to treat the environment as a “free good” and to pass these costs on to other parts of society, other locations, or future generations
• To move more fully towards integration of social and environmental costs into economic activities, so that prices will appropriately reflect the relative scarcity and total value of resources and contribute towards the prevention of environmental degradation
• To move fully forward to pursue integration of sustainable development in all areas, especially financial sectors

CREATING COOPERATION AND ETHICAL PARTNERSHIPS

Our future lies in our ability to work together to create systems to ensure our finite resources are being used in a renewable and self-sustaining fashion. It would be beneficial to commit to exploring a cooperative partnership with sustainable businesses and industries, as appropriate, thus providing a vision for the way forward.

Ideas for those interested in implementation

• Encouraging regional seminars and, possibly, the development of regional centers of expertise
• Human Resource Development in sustainability and sustainable technologies and methods at a global scale via open source sharing duplicable models and cost effective modular solutions and methods, primarily via internet connectivity technologies and national conference development seminars