Environment & economics. Partners in progress.

I rogress When 25 high-level representatives from industry and government , as well as environmental, labor, and civil rights organizations, first sat down together in Washington in the fall of 1993, the event might have been compared to the lion sitting down with the lamb. Often adversaries over the years, these diverse and critical sectors of American society had been assigned the joint challenge of helping to craft realistic U.S. policies that simultaneously encourage economic growth, create jobs, and protect the environment. These leaders are members of the President's Council on Sustainable Development (PCSD), established in June 1993 for a two-year term. Creation of the unprecedented group was inspired by the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development and the United Nation's follow-up naming of a Commission on Sustainable Development. The PCSD gradually took shape during talks between Vice President Albert Gore, World Resources Institute President Jonathan Lash, and Dow Chemical executive David T. Buzzelli. The members were selected through the Office of Environmental Policy to "determine the right mix," according to PCSD executive director, Molly Harriss Olson. Lash and Buzzelli now co-chair the council. "The council is trying to bring to the table people X from different agendas in the hope of very pro-actively creating solutions that work for each of the different interests," says Dianne Dillon-Ridgley, a council member and co-chair of the-" Citizens Network on Sustainable Development. "What we now realize is that if you start the process with all the vested interests, you don't have people later David T. Buzzelli W non who feel their interests were excluded. This is democracy. And I think the council really has the 21st century task of completing the agenda of democracy for the United States." The PCSD has been primarily charged with developing and recommending to the president a national sustainable development action strategy that would foster economic vitality and raise public awareness of and participation in the issues of sustainable development. The goal is to develop a unified vision for economic and environmental policies that are often seen as conflicting or designed to respond to particular situations rather than having broad application. The council must submit a final report with recommendations by October 1995. "I think that one of the real values of the PCSD is bringing people together to cross sector and disciplinary lines," says David Blockstein, a senior scientist with the Committee for a National …