Making Sustainable Decisions

In recent years, sustainability has become the watchword for many human, social, corporate and governmental endeavors.  In some formulations, there are three “pillars” and in others there are four.  Others refer to this concept as the “triple bottom line.”  Whichever version one subscribes to, however, IAP2 sees people and governments around the world struggling both to incorporate sustainability into their decisions and with how to involve stakeholders in participating in those decisions.

Sustainable decision making has long been an underlying principle of public participation. IAP2’s emphasis on inclusionary processes is predicated on the belief that better decisions are made when community and social implications of that decision are fully factored into the decision making process.  When the IAP2 Core Values were reviewed and revitalized in 2005, sustainable decision making was explicitly added as part of our values going forward.

The 2009 IAP2 conference will provide the opportunity to discuss the multiple facets of sustainability.  In a kind of double entendre, we want to explore the state of the art both in terms of how to make decisions that reflect sustainability principles, as well as, how to make decisions that are themselves “sustainable.”  We believe these two facets feed into each other, but as the world’s premier organization focused on public participation in public decisions, IAP2 believes that the sustainability of the decision itself is in need of closer examination.

 

 

IAP2 wants to expand the definition of sustainability to encompass all the characteristics that make decision making processes and the resulting decisions sustainable. Specifically, we are looking for presentations focused around the following themes:

• Sustainable decision making processes: what characteristics are necessary for a public participation process to be sustainable?
• Sustainable decisions: success stories as well as “failures” that answer the question “what types of public participation processes are likely to lead to enduring, implementable decisions?
• Decision making for sustainability: this theme will explore how public participation processes specifically contribute to increasing the sustainability of our projects and programs.

We believe that the timing is ripe for a conference that examines both sustainable decisions and sustainable decision making.  We look forward to seeing you in San Diego to explore and advance our understanding of how to make better, stronger, durable decisions that improve our quality of life and leave a better world in place for future generations.

CLICK HERE for the program!