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FINDING SUSTAINABLE PATHWAYS

OUR PROCESS

Our process helps Canada achieve sustainable development solutions that integrate environmental and economic considerations to ensure the lasting prosperity and well-being of our nation.

RESEARCH

We rigorously research and conduct high quality analysis on issues of sustainable development. Our thinking is original and thought provoking.

CONVENE

We convene opinion leaders and experts from across Canada around our table to share their knowledge and diverse perspectives. We stimulate debate and integrate polarities. We create a context for possibilities to emerge.

ADVISE

We generate ideas and provide realistic solutions to advise governments, Parliament and Canadians. We proceed with resolve and optimism to bring Canada’s economy and environment closer together.

Home / Governance / The Sustainability Project / Progress Through Process: Achieving Sustainable Development Together / Progress through Process – Sustainability Project Overview

Progress through Process – Sustainability Project Overview

The Sustainability Project

Overview

The NRTEE is joining forces with the Public Policy Forum (PPF) to explore how new, collaborative engagement processes can lead to better sustainable development policy in Canada. The NRTEE and the PPF believe that there may be a need for new forms of public and stakeholder engagement in the development and implementation of sustainable development policies and solutions. With this project, the NRTEE and PPF will explore the view that sustainability requires specially crafted and focused governance mechanisms and processes to navigate through difficult issues and to create a more integrated perspective within our governments and society on how to promote sustainability. The central idea of sustainable development is that economic prosperity and environmental protection can be compatible, and must be pursued in an integrated way.  This creates a profound governance challenge: sustainable development demands that the environment be included alongside society’s pursuit of economic and social goals, and that the needs of future generations are considered along with those of the present. At bottom, this governance challenge involves a need to reconcile competing interests and goals in the short-term, to secure long-term, sustainable development policies and plans.
Sustainable development: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” – Brundtland Commission
Twenty years ago, this insight – that sustainable development requires that differing interests be brought together to develop common ways forward – was the principle on which the NRTEE was founded. It is also the insight that has recently driven the Public Policy Forum (PPF) to explore the role of public engagement in governance for sustainable development and other issues. The NRTEE and PPF share two goals in this project:
  • Understand the potential for effective engagement mechanisms and processes to improve the governance of sustainable development in Canada;
  • Develop ideas, recommendation, and strategies for improved engagement practices of the NRTEE and similar organizations.
We will do so by convening a select group of sustainability experts and stakeholders, business and environment leaders, together with senior federal and provincial government representatives and public engagement professionals and the media, as well as NRTEE members, over a series of three focused roundtables to discuss, debate, and determine how sustainability governance can be improved.

Roundtable Sessions

  • Roundtable 2November 10, 2009 What are the alternatives to the traditional policy process?

    • Participants

    
    Roxanna Benoit Manager, Public Affairs Bureau, Alberta Executive Council Office Gerald Butts President and CEO WWF Canada Karen Clarke-Whistler Chief Environment Officer TD Bank Financial Group Mike Cleland President and CEO, Canadian Gas Association Dianne Cunningham NRTEE Member Francine Dorion NRTEE Member Karen Farbridge Mayor of Guelph, Ontario Michael Keenan Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy Canada Gord Lambert Vice President Sustainable Development Suncor Don Lenihan Facilitator, Public Policy Forum Dr. Stephen Lucas Assistant Deputy Minister, Minerals and Metals Sector Natural Resources Canada Greg Lyle Managing Director, Innovative Research Group Alfred MacLeod Assistant Deputy Minister Intergovernmental Policy Privy Council Office Hugh MacLeod Associate Deputy Minister, Climate Change Ontario Climate Change Secretariat Peter MacLeod Principal, MASS David McLaughlin President and CEO, NRTEE James Meadowcroft Canada Research Chair in Governance for Sustainable Development, Carleton University David J. Mitchell President and CEO Public Policy Forum Peter Robinson CEO, David Suzuki Foundation Christopher Waddell Carty Chair in Business and Financial Journalism Carleton University