Agenda for a Sustainable America

Expert Authors Lay Out Sustainability Action Plan for the New Administration in "Agenda for a Sustainable America"

(Washington) The word "sustainability" is quickly becoming a household word in the United States, and it is also part of the critical agenda facing the newly minted administration. And now, just days after the inauguration of the nation's 44th president, the Environmental Law Institute is pleased to announce the long-anticipated release of Agenda for a Sustainable America, a comprehensive assessment of U.S. progress toward sustainable development and a roadmap of necessary next steps toward achieving a sustainable America.

Public alarm over climate change has helped to make sustainable development a major public policy issue and a topic of growing importance in the daily lives of Americans. The development and implementation of a national strategy for sustainable development is an idea already taking firm hold in Washington. As Professor Dan Esty of Yale University, and a member of the Obama transition team, said "With chapters from a wide range of leading thinkers, Agenda for a Sustainable America blazes a trail toward environmental progress across a broad spectrum of critical issues. It is must reading for the new President — and for all of us."

Sustainable development holds enormous promise for improving the quality of life for Americans over the coming decades. Agenda for a Sustainable America describes what we need to do to make the promise a reality. It assesses trends in 28 separate areas of American life-including forestry; transportation; oceans and estuaries; religion; and state, local, and national governance. Packed with facts, figures, and the well-informed opinions of 41 experts, Agenda provides an illuminating "snapshot" of sustainability in the United States today. In every area, contributors reveal what sustainable development could mean, with suggestions that are specific, desirable, and achievable. Their expert recommendations point the way toward greater economic and social well-being, increased security, and environmental protection and restoration for current and future generations of Americans. And each of the contributors recommends three to five specific actions that we should take during the next five to ten years.

Together they build a convincing case for how sustainable development can improve our opportunities and our lives. It thus offers a comprehensive agenda that citizens, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and government leaders and policymakers can use to make decisions today and to plan for the future.

About the Editor:

John C. Dernbach is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Widener University Law School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He has written widely on sustainable development, climate change, and environmental law. He edited Stumbling Toward Sustainability (Environmental Law Institute 2002), which assessed U.S. sustainable development efforts in the first decade after the Earth Summit and made recommendations for the next five to ten years. He is also the author of A Practical Guide to Legal Writing and Legal Method (Aspen Publishers, 2007), which is now in its third edition and considered a classic in its field. Before taking his teaching position at Widener, he worked in a variety of positions at the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. He is a council member for the ABA Section on Environment, Energy, and Resources, and former chair of the ABA Committee on Climate Change, Sustainable Development, and Ecosystems.