Sustainability linkages in the federal government

The National Research Council's Committee on Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government will release a report in late spring 2013 that identifies the linkages among areas such as energy, water, health, agricultural production, and biodiversity that are critical to promoting and encouraging long term sustainability within the federal policy framework. The premise of the study is that achieving sustainability is a systems challenge that cannot be realized by separately optimizing pieces of the system. The committee's report will include analytical framework for decision making that can be used by U.S. policymakers and regulators to assess the consequences and tradeoff/synergies of policy issues involving a systems approach to long term sustainability and decisions on sustainability-oriented programs. The framework will include social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainability, highlighting certain dimensions that are sometimes left unaccounted for in cross media analyses. The report will also recommend priority areas for interagency cooperation on specific sustainability challenges; identify impediments to interdisciplinary, cross-media federal programs; and highlight scientific research gaps as they relate to these interdisciplinary, cross-media approaches to sustainability. The presentation will discuss the committee's findings, in particular, the proposed decision framework, highlighting those linkages as they relate to public health issues.