US PER Council Goals

US PER COUNCIL GOALS
adapted from the President's Council on Sustainable Development

Individual Responsibility

"No set of policies, no system of incentives, no amount of information can substitute for individual responsibility to counteract apathy. Information can provide a basis for action. Vision and ideas can influence perceptions and inspire change. New ways to make decisions can empower those who seek a role in shaping the future. However, our recommendations will be meaningless unless individuals acting as citizens, consumers, investors, managers, workers, and professionals decide that it it is important to them to make choices on the basis of a broader, longer view of their self-interest; to get involved in turning those choices into action; and , most importantly, to be held accountable for their actions". President's Council on Sustainable Development.

Sustainable Community Goals, Toward = Access

This common set of goals emerged from the vision of the President's Council on Sustainable Development. These goals express in concrete terms the elements of sustainability. Beneath the goals are suggested indicators that can be used to help measure progress toward achieving them. They are truly interdependent and flow from the understanding that it is essential to seek economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social equity together. The achievement of any one goal is not enough to ensure that future generations will have at least the same opportunities to live and prosper that this generation enjoys: all are needed.

GOAL 1: HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Ensure that every person enjoys =access to the benefits of clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment at home, at work, and at play.

CLEAN AIR

Decreased number of people living in areas that fail to meet air quality standards

DRINKING WATER

Decreased number of people whose drinking water fails to meet national safe drinking water standards.

TOXIC EXPOSURES

Reduced releases that contribute to human exposure to toxic materials.

DISEASES AND MORTALITY

Decrease in diseases and deaths from environmental exposures, including occupationally related illnesses.

GOAL 2: ECONOMIC PROSPERITY

Sustain a healthy community that grows sufficiently to create =access to meaningful jobs, reduced poverty, and provide the opportunity for high a quality of life for all in an increasingly competitive world.

ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE

Increases in per capita GDP and NDP.

EMPLOYMENT

Increases in the number, wage level, and quality of jobs (as measured, for example, by the percentage of jobs at or below minimum wage).

POVERTY

Decreased number of people living below the poverty line.

SAVINGS AND INVESTMENT RATES

Higher per capita savings and investment rates.

NATURAL RESOURCES AND ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING

Development and use of new economic measures or satellite accounts that reflect resource depletion and environmental costs.

PRODUCTIVITY

Increased per capita production per hour worked.

GOAL 3: EQUITY

Ensure that all neighbors are afforded justice and have the opportunity to achieve economic, environmental, and social well-being.

INCOME TRENDS

Increase in the average income of the bottom 20 percent compared with that of the top 20 percent of the population.

ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY

Development of measures of any disproportionment environmental burdens (such as exposure to air, water, and toxic pollution) borne by different economic and social groups.

SOCIAL EQUITY

Development of measures of =access to critical services (such as education, health care, and community services), and opportunities to participate in decisionmaking by different economic and social groups, such as the percentage of these populations attending college.

GOAL 4: CONSERVATION OF NATURE

Use, conserve, protect, and restore natural resources -- land, air, water, and biodiversity -- in ways that help ensure =access to long-term social, economic, and environmental benefits for ourselves and future generations.

HABITAT LOSS

Development of measures of threats to habitat loss and the extent of habitat conversion, suchas the rate of wetlands loss.

THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES

Decreased number of threatened and endangered species.

NUTRIENTS AND TOXICS

Decreased releases that contribute to the exposure of natural systems to toxics and excess nutrients.

EXOTIC SPECIES

Reduced ecological impacts caused by the introduction and spread of exotic species.

GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE

Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases and of compounds that damage the ozone layer.

GOAL 5: STEWARDSHIP

Create a widely held ethic of stewardship that strongly encourages individuals, institutions, and corporations to take full responsibility for the economic, environmental, and social consequences of their actions.

MATERIALS CONSUMPTION

Increased efficiency of materials us, suchas materials intensity measured per capita of per unit of output.

WASTE REDUCTION

Increased source reduction, reuse, recovery, and recycling.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Reduced energy intensity (energy per unit output).

RENEWABLE RESOURSE USE

Decreased rate of harvest or use compared to rate of regeneration in fisheries, forests, soil, and groundwater.

GOAL 6: SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY

Encourage people to work together to create a healthy community where natural and historic resources are preserved, meaningful jobs are available, sprawl is contained, neighborhoods are secure, education is lifelong, transportation and health care are accessible, and all citizens have opportunities to improve the quality of their lives.

COMMUNITY ECONOMIC VIABILITY

Increased local per capita income and employment.

SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD

Decrease in violent crime rates.

PUBLIC PARKS

Increase in neighborhood green space, park space, and recreational areas.

INVESTMENT IN FUTURE GENERATIONS

Increase in the amount of public and private resources dedicated to children, including health care, maternal care, childhood development, and education and training.

TRANSPORTATION PATTERNS

Decrease in measures of traffic congestion; increase in the use of public and alternative transportation systems.

COMMUNITY ACCESS TO INFORMATION

Increase in library use and the percentage of schools and libraries with access to the Internet and National Information Infrastructure.

SHELTER

Decrease number of homeless people in the community.

METROPOLITIAN INCOME PATTERNS

Reduced disparity in per capita income between urban areas and their suburbs.

INFANT MORTALITY

Decrease in infant mortality rates by economic and social group.

GOAL 7: CIVIC ENGAGEMENT

Create full =access for citizens, businesses, and in all communities to participate in and influence the natural resource, environment, and economic decisions that affect them.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

Increase in the percentage of eligible voters who cast ballots in national, state, and local elections.

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Increase in citizen engagement and public trust, such as the willingness of people in a community to cooperate for their mutual benefit.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

Increase in community participation in such civic activities as professional and service organizations, parent-teacher associations, sporting leagues, and volunteer work.

COLLABORATIONS

Increased use of successful civic collaborations such as publid-private partnerships, community-based planning and goal-setting projects, and consensus-building efforts.

GOAL 8: INTERNATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Take a leadership role in the development and implementation of global sustainable development policies, standards of conduct, and trade and foreign policies that further the achievement of =access.

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

Increased level of U.S. international assistance for sustainable development, including official development assistance (federal money dedicated to international aid for developing nations).

ENVIRONMENTAL ASSISTANCE

Increase in the U.S. contribution to the Global Environmental Facility and other environmentally targeted aid.

ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS

Development and use of new measures for assessing progress toward sustainable development in countries receiving U.S. assistance.

ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY EXPORTS

Increased U.S. exports or transfers of cost-effective and environmentally sound technologies to developing countries.

RESEARCH LEADERSHIP

Increased levels of U.S. research on global environmental problems.

GOAL 9: EDUCATION

Ensure that all residents have =access to education and lifelong learning opportunities that will prepare them for meaningful work, a high quality of life, and an understanding of the concepts involved in sustainable development.

INFORMATION ACCESS

Increased number of locations with infrastructure in place that allows easy access to government information, public and private research, and community right-to-know documents.

CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT

Increased number of curricula, materials, and training opportunities that teach the principles of sustainable development.

NATIONAL STANDARDS

Increased number of schools that have adopted K-12 voluntary standards for learning about sustainable development similar to the standards developed under the National Goals 2000 initiative.

COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION

Increased number of schools with programs for lifelong learning through both formal and nonformal learning institutions.

NATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT

Improved skill performance of students as measured by standardized achievement tests.

GRADUATION RATES

Increased high school graduation rates and number of students going on to college.

DEFINITION: Sustainable Development: Remembering how your actions will affect not only the present generation, but to remember at all times seven generation, including the three which will follow this one and the three which came before. from a Native American Proverb

"...to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." The World Commission on Environmental Development (The Brundtland Commission) adopted by the President’s Council on Sustainable Development, the City of Seattle, the United States Post Enumeration Recovery Council and RBN 2014.

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