Generating
Sustainable Economic Development
THE GLOBAL FUTURE OF GREEN CAPITALISM
Dr. Marc A. Weiss,
Chairman and CEO, and James Hurd Nixon, President,
Global Urban Development
People around the world are
embracing Green Capitalism because it is now possible to create a higher
standard of living for every person and community by shifting from
resource-wasting to resource-saving industrialism. In the 21st Century, people,
places, and organizations will literally “get richer by becoming greener” –
earning and saving more money by conserving and reusing resources more
efficiently.
Global Urban Development (GUD) is
designing and implementing Sustainable Economic Development Strategies to help
enable Green Capitalism to succeed worldwide. This model adapts sustainable
business concepts from experts including Paul Hawken, Amory and Hunter Lovins, Ray Anderson, Hazel Henderson, Peter Senge, Karl-Henrik Robert, Thomas Friedman, William
McDonough, Daniel Esty, Elliott Hoffman, Aron Cramer,
and the McKinsey Global Institute, as applied in various ways by companies such
as GE, IBM, Toyota, Interface, IKEA, DuPont, Disney, Wal-Mart, Google, Nike,
Stonyfield Farm, Seventh Generation, Siemens, Cisco, Philips, Applied
Materials, and Johnson Controls.
Sustainable Economic Development Strategies apply these concepts to
sub-national economies, including states, provinces, regions, districts,
counties, cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods.
Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies generate substantial economic and employment growth and sustainable
business and community development by demonstrating that innovation,
efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human
resources is the best way to increase jobs, incomes, productivity, and
competitiveness. In addition,
Sustainable Economic Development Strategies are the most cost-effective method
of promoting renewable energy and clean technologies, protecting the
environment, and preventing harmful impacts from climate change. A Sustainable Economic Development Strategy
has four key elements, which GUD refers to as the Four
Greens:
1) Green Savings—cutting
costs for businesses, families, communities, and governments by efficiently using
renewable resources and by reducing and reusing waste.
2) Green Opportunities—growing
jobs and incomes through business development and expanding markets for
resource efficiency, sustainability, and clean technologies.
3) Green Talent—investing
in fundamental assets such as education, research, technological innovation,
and modern entrepreneurial and workforce skills, because people are now the
world’s most vital green economic resource.
4) Green Places—establishing
sustainable transportation and infrastructure, and protecting and enhancing the
natural and built environment, to create more attractive, livable, healthy,
vibrant, prosperous, productive, and resource-efficient areas and communities.
Fortunately, there are success
stories in which business sustainability principles have guided economic
development. People in the State of California saved $56 billion on
energy costs between 1973 and 2006, primarily from policies requiring higher
energy efficiency standards for new buildings, new electrical appliances, and
new motor vehicles, combined with financial incentives for utility companies,
businesses, and households to conserve energy and use renewable
resources. Consumers reinvested much of this savings in the state's
economy, generating 1.5 million new full-time jobs with a total annual payroll
of $45 billion.
Similarly, people in metropolitan
Portland (Oregon/Washington) save more than $2 billion annually due to land-use
and transportation changes over the past three decades. By modestly
increasing population and building densities and developing light-rail transit,
together with mixed-use communities built to promote walking and bicycling,
Portlanders have substantially reduced vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse
gas emissions, while jobs, incomes, and investments have grown significantly
since 1980.
Throughout the world, from Singapore
to Stockholm, urban regions have improved their economies by becoming more
sustainable. Some of these places are profiled in the World Bank’s “Eco2
Cities” report. Curitiba, Brazil is a
leading example of a city with a successful four-decade economic development
strategy based on growing businesses, jobs, and incomes by improving urban
quality of life through innovative land-use and transportation planning and
related environmental and social initiatives.
One of Curitiba’s innovations, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), has become a
model for sustainable transportation and land-use planning in many cities and
regions worldwide.
During June 7-8, 2011 in Curitiba,
the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas held an international
conference, sponsored by the Brazil and U.S. Governments, on “Planning for
Sustainable Economic Development Across the
Americas.” GUD worked with the American
Planning Association, the City of Curitiba, and the U.S. State Department to
organize this historic meeting exploring the potential benefits of
state/provincial, regional, and local Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies from Argentina to Canada.
GUD has worked with places including
San Antonio, San Jose/Silicon Valley, Southwest Florida, Metropolitan Portland,
Metropolitan Denver, and the State of Delaware, using our four-part framework
for Sustainable Economic Development Strategies to save money, create jobs,
raise incomes, grow businesses, and improve the environment. Recently GUD
completed a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy, funded by the U.S.
Department of Energy, for Sarasota County, Florida to become a “Center for
Innovation in Energy and Sustainability.”
In March 2011, Global Urban
Development published Sustainable
Economic Development Strategies, describing in detail the key elements of
the various strategies, and explaining how to design and implement such
approaches most effectively. This
document can be downloaded from our website at www.globalurban.org.
Click here to download a PDF of The
Global Future of Green Capitalism.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please
click here for GUD’s combined slide presentation on Metropolitan
Economic Strategy and Sustainable Economic Development.
The purpose of this global
policy initiative is to promote a worldwide conversation and movement for
generating and sustaining prosperity and quality of life for all, in urban
regions and rural areas on every continent. Sustainable Economic Development is
a new framework spearheaded by Global Urban Development, emphasizing
cooperation and teamwork across urban regions to improve economic, social, and
environmental health. The framework focuses on creating coordinated public,
private, and civic investment strategies that treat all people and communities
as assets to be included in the policymaking process, to contribute to the
productivity of society, and to benefit from the fruits of prosperity. Sustainable
Economic Development is a force for unity in that it emphasizes the common
interests of everyone across governmental jurisdictions, and the vital
importance of social equity, participatory governance, and environmental
sustainability as key building blocks of a competitive and innovative economy
at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
Sustainable Economic
Development emphasizes the importance of regional cooperation and
public-private-civic leadership. In addition, it highlights the importance of
social equity and inclusiveness, and environmental protection and sustainable
development, in strengthening the economic productivity, innovation, and
competitiveness that enables urban regions to thrive by investing in their
fundamental assets of people and place, and identifying and growing their
dynamic industry networks. Sustainable Economic Development brings together
leaders from government, business, professional institutions, community groups,
non-governmental organizations, and the communications media in urban regions
from nations all over the developed and developing world.
Sustainable Economic
Development enables urban regions to develop a cohesive identity based on a
sense of common purpose and cooperative teamwork, and to foster new global,
national, and local economic policies that recognize the dynamic contribution
of urban areas and the necessity of promoting economic and social equity and a
sustainable environment as essential building blocks of prosperity and quality
of life for all. Through various research and actions projects, national and
metropolitan leaders will be able more effectively to engage in public policy,
private investment, and community development for the mutual benefit of their
respective urban regions, for reducing poverty, and for generating sustainable
and equitable economic growth worldwide.
GUD’s program
committee on Generating Sustainable
Economic Development furthers the work of GUD in 2008 and 2009 in
collaboration with the Climate Prosperity Alliance (CPA), including the Global Climate Prosperity Agreement in
partnership with the United Nations, the Global Climate Prosperity Scoreboard
(now the Green Transition Scoreboard) in partnership with Ethical Markets
Media, the Global Coal Transition and Clean Technology Investment Initiative in
partnership with the Carbon War Room, and the Climate Prosperity Handbook in partnership with the International
Economic Development Council, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and Environmental
Defense Fund.
These initiatives helped encourage the agreement
by developed countries, operating through the UN Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), to establish the Green Climate Fund, which beginning
in 2020 will make available $100 billion annually to developing countries for
climate mitigation and adaptation. They
also played a role at Rio + 20 in encouraging more than $50 billion of private
sector investment commitments, another $30 billion from multilateral
development banks, plus billions more from national governments, for the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All program to promote
universal energy access, renewable energy production and distribution, and
energy conservation and efficiency improvements in developing countries by
2030.
Thus far the project consists of GUD’s Sustainable Economic Development Practice, in which GUD will work with sub-national governments and local authorities worldwide – states, provinces, regions, districts, counties, cities, towns, villages, and neighborhoods – to strengthen their economies by improving their environments. By actively promoting innovation, efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human resources, places can increase jobs, raise incomes, grow businesses, and enhance their overall productivity and competitiveness. This approach serves as the basic framework for Sustainable Economic Development Strategies. James Nixon and Marc Weiss recently co-authored a two-page article, The Global Future of Green Capitalism, and a 32-page manual, published by GUD, entitled Sustainable Economic Development Strategies, explaining in detail how places can engage in such environmentally friendly initiatives to generate economic, business, employment, and community development.
GUD has worked with places including San Antonio,
San Jose/Silicon Valley, Southwest Florida, Metropolitan Portland, Metropolitan
Denver, and the State of Delaware, using our four-part framework for
Sustainable Economic Development Strategies to save money, create jobs, raise
incomes, grow businesses, and improve the environment. Recently GUD completed a
Sustainable Economic Development Strategy for Sarasota County, Florida. This initiative, funded by the U.S.
Department of Energy, is a strategic plan for Sarasota County to become a “Center for Innovation in Energy and
Sustainability.” During June 7-8, 2011 in Curitiba, Brazil,
the Brazil and U.S. Governments and the Energy and Climate Partnership of the
Americas held a conference on “Planning
for Sustainable Economic Development Across the
Americas.” GUD worked with the American Planning
Association, the City of Curitiba, and the U.S. State Department to organize
this historic international meeting exploring the potential benefits of
state/provincial, regional, and local Sustainable Economic Development
Strategies from Argentina to Canada. The GUD team advising, supporting, and
collaborating on Sustainable Economic Development include Rosa Alegria, Jobeda Ali, Edward
Blakely, Lawrence Bloom, Ian Bromley, John Cleveland, Aser
Cortines, Gene DePrez,
Sarah Dimson, Daniely Votto Fontoura,
Nicky Gavron,
Emilio Haddad, Peter Hall, Ken Heatherington, Paul Krutko, Jaime Lerner,
Rodrigo Loures, Richard Lindberg, Tony Manwaring, Andreia Marin Martins, Lisa Nisenson,
Laurie Kaye Nijaki, James Nixon, Marta Nunes da Costa, Emilia Queiroga, Elaine Yamashita
Rodriguez, Tom Roper, Joao Pedro Roth, Nathan Sandwick, Nancy Sedmak-Weiss, Al
Victors, Ramiro Wahrhaftig, Marc Weiss, David Wilmoth, Cynthia Wilson, and
Larry Zinn.
Please click here for the Climate Prosperity Alliance.
Generating
Sustainable Economic Development Committee
Co-Chairs:
Hazel Henderson, Jaime Lerner, and James Nixon
Grace Akumu
Rosa Alegria
Jobeda Ali
Habiba Al Marashi
Cemil Alyanak
Phil Angelides
Barbara Askins
Edward Asu
Rob Atkinson
Uri Avin
Mart Bailey
Lynne Barker
Andrea Bassi
Antonella Battaglini
Robert Baugh
Vinayak Bharne
Rob Bennett
Scott Bernstein
Sergio Besserman Vianna
Clement
Bezold
Olzod Bhum-Yalagch
Iman Bibars
Edward Blakely
Claire Blanchard
Cid Blanco Jr.
Lawrence Bloom
Uwe Brandes
Ian Bromley
Allison Brooks
Lester Brown
Nancy Brown
Rinaldo Brutoco
Sundar Burra
David Burwell
Cezar
Busatto
Tess Cacciatore
Peter Calthorpe
Tim Campbell
Nancy Carter
Ann Chan
Don Chen
Michael Chang
John Cleveland
J. Thomas Cochran
Andres Coca-Stefaniak
Victor Cohen
Helene Connor
Thais Corral
Aser Cortines
Lauren Moser Counts
Naomi Davis
Susan Davis
Gene DePrez
Dianne Dillon-Ridgley
Hank Dittmar
Malika Djebli
Michael Donovan
Ladislau Dowbor
Peter Droege
Will Duggan
Richard Eidlin
Reese Fayde
Seth Fearey
David Feehan
David Fenton
Bruce Ferguson
Marlene Fernandes
Morel Fourman
Robert Freling
Sharon Friel
Tsuyoshi Fujita
John Fullerton
Shari Garmise
Banning Garrett
James Garrison
Matthew Gassen
Nicky Gavron
Malick Gaye
John
Geesman
Laurie Geller
Gary Gereffi
David
Gershon
Ernesto Gil
Herbert Girardet
Parris Glendening
James Gollub
Theodore Gordon
Alex Grayson
Eduardo Guimaraes
Christer Gustafsson
Emilio Haddad
David Haenke
Richard David Hames
James Hanusa
Ken Heatherington
Rafal Hejne
Julie Henry
Lynn Hinkle
Elliott Hoffman
Walter Hook
Daniel Hoornweg
Paul Hughes
Davina Jackson
Bianca Jagger
Calestous Juma
Daniel Kammen
Allen Kearns
Robert Kehew
Randall Kempner
Michael Kennedy
Ashok
Khosla
C. S. Kiang
Sean Kidney
Eve Konstantine
Wilfried Kreisel
Paul Krutko
Keith Laughlin
Florian Lennert
Richard Lindberg
Rodrigo Loures
Steven
Lovink
L. Hunter Lovins
Richard Lumsden
Kalia Lydgate
Emil Malizia
Adalberto Maluf
Gideon Mandara
Tony Manwaring
David Martin
Andreia Marin Martins
Rachel Massaro
Busie Matsiko-Andan
Peter Matthies
Tom McCawley
Stephanie McClellan
Cynthia McEwen
Jane McRae
Dale Medearis
Miguel Mendonca
Cesar Menezes
Peter Merry
Jiang Mingjun
Ricardo Montezuma
Dan Montgomery
Elizabeth Moule
Laurie Kaye Nijaki
Lisa Nisenson
Henrik Nolmark
Marta Nunes da Costa
Geoffrey Nwaka
Lora O’Connor
Jeff Olson
Collin O’Mara
Mary Jane Ortega
Gerald Page
Kathryn Papp
Julia Parzen
Doug Payne
Neal Peirce
Nicolai Peitersen
Christina Carvalho Pinto
Alexander Plessl
Scott Polikov
Jonathan Potter
Deependra Prashad
Emilia Queiroga
Craig Raborn
Bill Radulovich
Paul Ray
Michael Replogle
Alex Ribeiro
Graham Richard
Jackie Roberts
Susan Rochford
Renato Romano
Tom Roper
Maria Rosario
Catherine Ross
Jocelyn Rugunda
Kendra Sandoval
Nathan Sandwick
David Satterthwaite
Allan Savory
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
Marybeth Schubert
Steve
Schueth
Nancy Sedmak-Weiss
Nola-Kate Seymoar
Asad Shah
Jigar Shah
Molly O'Meara Sheehan
Michael Shuman
D. Wayne Silby
Nick Silver
Adele Simmons
Ranjit Sivaprakasam
Jasper Sky
Jeffrey Soule
Radames Soto
John Spears
Jonathan Stern
Lucy Stevens
W. Cecil Steward
Oliver Stewart
Sean Sweeney
Richard Swett
Kaarin Taipale
Sein-Way Tan
Sophia Trapp
Martin Tull
Pablo Vaggione
Steve Viederman
Al Victors
Daniely Votto
Emily Wadhams
Ramiro Wahrhaftig
Mary Jo Waits
Kim Walesh
Al Washa
Michael Wegener
Betty Weiss
Jonathan Weiss
Edmundo Werna
Wayne Wescott
Dave Wetzel
Gina Whitehill-Baziuk
Rogelio Williams
Eva Willmann de Donlea
David Wilmoth
Darcy Stallings
Winslow
Susan Witt
Michelle Wyman
Nicholas You
Belinda Yuen
Joel Yudken
Robert Zdenek
Dimitri Zenghelis
Susan Zielinski
Larry Zinn