Peter Davis Wellington Aug 18, 2006 3:20 am

Hi all.

I am keen to know of examples of programmes developed and implemented within the public sector to embed a 'sustainability' consciousness in to managers and staff in Government agencies. Some time ago I wrote a fairly skeletal paper on Designing Sustainability in to Government which outlined various components that would contribute to embedding the concept of sustainability and sustainable development in to the practice of Government - as in a 'whole of Government' approach to sustainability. I did this a couple of years ago in the context of working for the Green Party which at the time was in a cooperative arrangement with a Labour Government when it seemed there might have been a window of opportunity which never eventuated. I have pasted the 'contents' of the paper below to help give those interested a better overview of the project. The paper was a desktop study and used examples from - Welsh Assembly, - UK - Canada - Belgium - Sweden - various US states - the EU - Australia and of course - New Zealand

One of the key elements for me was the need for a deliberate approach to entrenching the concept of sustainable development in to the culture of government departments, something I can only liken to programmes undertaken to ensure that the public sector is 'gender-conscious' or 'equal opportunity conscious' (or in NZ conscious of the relationship with the indigenous people through the Treaty of Waitangi). As I see it, getting departmental personnel imbued with the concept of sustainability would require an active training programme focussed on getting the concept of sustainable development understood. It isn't something that will happen by osmosis. One example I came across back then was that Industry Canada provides training courses on sustainable development for its policy and programme officers. In addition, employee awareness of sustainable development was improved through engaging in organisation activities during Environment Week, monitoring there own energy and waste uses, etc. What I am keen to know if are there other examples of programmes developed and implemented to get managers and staff in Government agencies Keen to hear back from you.

Pete Davis

Designing Sustainability in to Government

1 Sustainable development and Government
2 Advisory group outside Government
2.1 Sustainable Development Commission or Advisory Group
3 Sustainable Development at Cabinet level
4 Sustainable Development watchdogs
4.1 A NZ Parliamentary Commissioner for Sustainable Development
5 Getting sustainable development established at the Departmental level
5.1 Sustainable Development Strategies
5.2 Sustainability Impact reports or Triple Bottom Line accounting for Government legislative and fiscal program..
5.3 Ensuring sustainable development is integrated in to all legislative and fiscal initiatives.
5.4 Training to improve the capacity of Departments to manage and deliver policies and programmes so that they contribute to sustainable development.
5.5 Procurement policies...
5.6 Other Departmental operations
6 SOEs, CRIs and other Crown companies - Statements of Corporate Intent, TBL and Environmental and Social reporting...
7 Investing in sustainable development - Government financial assets
7.1 NZ Superannuation Fund
7.2 Other Government financial assets
8 TBL for Local Government LATES
9 Government - commercial interface....
9.1 TBL for Government contracts
9.2 Government and Corporate Social Responsibility
10 Measuring sustainable development
10.1 Modified national accounts
10.2 Genuine measures of progress