Sustainability for the Nation: Resource Connection and Governance Linkages

The Science and Technology for Sustainability Program’s Committee on Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government, part of the National Academies’ Division on Policy and Global Affairs (PGA) has released a report that calls on the United States to establish a National Sustainability Policy.  The report also suggests that additional steps be taken to encourage federal agencies to collaborate on sustainability challenges that demand the expertise of many agencies, such as improving disaster resilience and managing ecosystems.

 Currently, the U.S. government is generally not organized to deal with the complex, long-term nature of sustainability challenges, the report says. Statutes and government culture encourage agencies to focus on a single area--energy, water, or health, for example--with little attention to how areas affect one another. According to the report, this “stovepipe” or “silo” effect makes it difficult to address issues that cut across agency boundaries.