A New Consensus for Prosperity, Opportunity, and
a Healthy Environment for the Future
Introduction to a Report from the President’s Council on Sustainable DevelopmentFollowing from the United Nations Earth Summit which, in 1992 requested that nations develop national action strategies for sustainable development, President Clinton established the President’s Council on Sustainable Development in June, 1993. The following goals were published by the Council in 1996.
GOALS
The Council recognized that in order to meet the needs of the present while ensuring that future generations have the same opportunities, the United States must change by moving from conflict to collaboration and adopting stewardship and individual responsibility as tenets by which to live.
The following goals express the shared aspirations of the Council. They are truly interdependent and flow from the Council’s understanding that it is essential to seek economic prosperity, environmental protection, and social equity together.
1. Health and Environment — Ensure that every person enjoys the benefits of clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment at home, at work, and at play.
2. Economic Prosperity — Sustain a healthy U.S. economy that grows sufficiently to create meaningful jobs, reduce poverty, and provide the opportunity for a high quality of life for all in an increasingly competitive world.
3. Equity — Ensure that all Americans are afforded justice and have the opportunity to achieve economic, environmental, and social well being.
4. Conservation of Nature — Use, conserve, protect, and restore natural resources – land, air, water, and biodiversity – in ways that help ensure long-term social, economic and environmental benefits for ourselves and future generations.
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.
6. Sustainable Communities — Encourage people to work together to create healthy communities where natural and historic resources are preserved, 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.
7. Civic Engagement — Create full opportunity for citizens, business, and communities to participate in and influence the natural resource, environmental, and economic decisions that affect them.
8. Population — Move toward stabilization of the U.S. population.
9. 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 sustainability.
10. Education –Ensure that all Americans have equal 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.