Sustainable Economic Development Strategies

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SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

James Hurd Nixon, President, and Dr. Marc A. Weiss, Chairman and CEO,Global Urban Development

During the past decade, Global Urban Development (GUD) has created a systematic approach toSustainable Economic Development Strategies. The key GUD insight is the recognition that aneffective response to the global environmental/climate crisis can be the greatest economicopportunity of the 21

st

Century. (See Appendix A for a description of Global Urban Development.)In this paper:

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Part One presents the concept of Sustainable Economic Development and the ways that GlobalUrban Development assists places in developing Sustainable Economic Development Strategies.

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Part Two discusses the Core Objectives and the Key Dimensions of the Sustainable EconomicDevelopment Framework and how they are applied to undertake a comprehensive assessmentof a place’s economy and its sustainability potential and to work with that place to design auniquely appropriate Sustainable Economic Development Strategy.

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Part Three offers three examples of places in the U.S.—San Jose/Silicon Valley, San Antonio,and the State of Delaware—that Global Urban Development’s Principals have assisted indesigning and implementing Sustainable Economic Development Strategies.

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Five Appendices provide more detail on Global Urban Development and Sustainable EconomicDevelopment Strategies.

PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTSTRATEGIESI. Sustainability 3.0

Global Urban Development (GUD) has formulated a framework for Sustainable EconomicDevelopment Strategies to assist communities, cities, counties, regions, states, provinces, and nations(places) to accelerate progress toward a sustainable economy.From the GUD perspective, there are three basic forms of Sustainability:

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Sustainability 1.0—Environmental Protection.

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Sustainability 2.0—Climate Action.

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Sustainability 3.0—Sustainable Economic Development.(See Appendix B for a brief discussion of the three basic forms of sustainability.)Sustainability 3.0—Sustainable Economic Development—combines two seemingly disparate ideasinto a powerful new concept, connecting the environment/climate crisis with the opportunity forlarge-scale economic prosperity—asserting that the imperative to address the environment/climatecrisis offers the greatest economic opportunity of the 21

st

Century.

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Sustainable Economic Development Strategies generate substantial economic and employmentgrowth and sustainable business and community development by demonstrating that innovation,efficiency, and conservation in the use and reuse of all natural and human resources is the bestway to increase jobs, incomes, productivity, and competitiveness.In addition, Sustainable Economic Development Strategies are the most cost-effective method ofpromoting renewable energy and clean technologies, protecting the environment, and preventingharmful impacts from climate change.By implementing Sustainable Economic Development Strategies based on technological innovationand resource efficiency, places can grow their economies, improve their standards of living, andexpand businesses, jobs, and incomes.

II. Creating a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy

The transition to a carbon-constrained world will drive profound changes in every business, non-governmental organization, and household as well as every city, county, region, state, and nation.The question is whether the transition will be dominated by a potentially chaotic response toemergencies or a more orderly process of careful design, implementation, and evaluation.The premise behind the creation of a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy is that a moreorderly response to this inevitable transformation can be proactively organized and managed, andthat this will lead to significant and widespread economic benefits.Each place is unique. A Sustainable Economic Development Strategy cannot be mechanicallyimposed. Rather it must grow out of the special conditions and the dynamic trajectory of each place.Sustainable Economic Development Strategies are guided by a local/regional Leadership Structureand a Consultation Team collaborating in partnership through a series of five distinct phases of work.

Leadership Structure:

Typically, the leadership structure for a Sustainable Economic DevelopmentStrategy includes three elements:1.

A Leadership Group, which is usually a pre-existing local/regional organization that hascommitted to lead the effort.2.

A Decision-Making Council, made up of the key leaders from a variety of differentorganizations, who are guiding the creation and implementation of the Sustainable EconomicDevelopment Strategy.3.

A broader Stakeholder Advisory Group, composed of the full range of public, private, andcivic stakeholders supporting the Sustainable Economic Development Strategy, who areadvising the process.

Consultation Team:

Global Urban Development organizes Sustainable Economic DevelopmentConsultation Teams to assist in the Sustainable Economic Development Strategy formation andimplementation process. Sustainable Economic Development Consultation Teams are headed by oneor more generalists with extensive professional experience in Sustainable Economic Development.The generalists are responsible for maintaining the client relationships and coordinating theConsultation Teams. Specialists are added to the Teams, as needed, to address the specific

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dimensions of the Sustainable Economic Development Strategy that are custom-designed for eachparticular place and situation.With Sustainable Economic Development Strategy consultations outside of the U.S., ConsultationTeams include both global and local Sustainable Economic Development experts.

Phases of Work:

There are five phases of work involved in the development and implementation of aSustainable Economic Development Strategy:1.

An Initial Consultation to establish the goals and objectives and the work plan for the process.2.

A Strategic Assessment and Opportunity Analysis of the area-wide economy, to identify itscurrent direction, its strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and challenges forSustainable Economic Development.3.

Design of a Sustainable Economic Development Strategy that builds on the momentum thatalready exists, establishes a specific focus, and weaves together a set of Initiatives and Actionsto create a clear, coherent, easily understood, dynamic strategy, with a strong business model.4.

Formulation of an Implementation Plan—including a system for monitoring progress—thataddresses who is responsible for each Initiative and Action, the timeline and milestones, the costs,the sources of potential revenues, and the processes for mid-course corrections.5.

Initiation and, subsequently, full implementation of the Sustainable Economic DevelopmentStrategy and Implementation Plan.

PART TWO: THE SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT STRATEGICFRAMEWORKIII. The 4 Core Objectives of Sustainable Economic Development

Global Urban Development has evolved the Sustainable Economic Development StrategicFramework to provide a comprehensive methodology for assisting in the design and implementationof Sustainable Economic Development Strategies focused on four core objectives, which GUD refersto as the

Four Greens

:1.

Green Savings

— encouraging businesses, families, communities, and governments to cut costsand save money by efficiently using renewable resources and by reducing and reusing waste,with the goal of all businesses becoming Green Businesses.2.

Green Opportunities

— growing Cleantech companies, jobs, and incomes through businessdevelopment and expansion of the markets for products and services that conserve resources andprevent pollution.3.

Green Talent

— investing in the fundamental assets of education, research, technologicalinnovation, and modern entrepreneurial and workforce skills, because people are now theworld’s most vital green economic resource.4.

Green Places

— promoting Eco-Smart Development that features low-impact, mixed-use,resource-efficient design and utilizes multi-modal transportation, sustainable infrastructure, andgreen energy to protect and enhance the natural and built environment, leading to communitiesand regions that are more attractive, livable, healthy, vibrant, prosperous, and productive.

Green Savings

addresses the demand side of markets for green products and services, while

GreenOpportunities

deals with the supply side of green markets.

Green Talent

focuses on the human