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This paper provides the rationale for this approach, as well as setting out some of the guiding principles for analyzing the existing environmental strategies and developing concrete recommendations for making them more effective in achieving our overall goal of a healthy environment.
Pick any issue and ask yourself if Ontario has a strategy in place to solve it. Sure there are programs and special initiatives, but has anyone pieced it all together to say "this is Ontario’s strategy"? It’s not to say that nothing is being done to protect nature, conserve resources and prevent pollution. On the contrary there are many worthwhile initiatives across government, business, non-governmental organizations, and the public. It’s just that we’ve done a very poor job of communicating to each other what is being done. And if we don’t know what’s being done, how can we even begin to assess whether it is enough? Simply put, a strategy is a communications and planning tool. It is a concise way for Ontario’s government, business and environmental leaders to communicate to each other and the public the level of their commitment to solving the most pressing environmental problems. As a planning tool, a strategy should allow for widespread stakeholder participation in both drafting the strategy and reviewing its results. Strategies on different issues should follow a common structure in order to facilitate comparison and analysis. Strategies can be narrow in scope (e.g. a single issue), or they can cover many related issues (e.g. a green economy). A strategy can be written for a single organization (government, business, or non-governmental) or it can reflect an integrated response across all sectors. A strategy should contain several key elements:
Finally, to be effective, a strategy should be based on sound principles and a commitment to achieving results.
Why Does Ontario Need Environmental Strategies? It has now been at least several decades since the rise of the industrial world’s environmental conscience, and over a decade since the Brundtland report on sustainable development.2 Much has been said about the need for decisive action, and indeed many positive steps have been taken. Nevertheless, our environment, its natural resources and species, face mounting threats on numerous fronts. There exists, and will continue to exist for some time, a significant gap between our best efforts (the state of the art) and the requirements for ecological health and economic sustainability (as evidenced in state of the environment reports3). Unfortunately, we have been unable to reconcile the two. Faced with many complex and almost impossible environmental challenges, Ontario needs clear and effective environmental strategies to indicate the level of government, business, and public commitment to a healthy environment. They should be long-lasting and provide regular opportunities to review and strengthen our commitment, analyze our weaknesses, and support our strengths. If we view the next fifty years as a period of transition to ecological sustainability, then we can move to adopt this new approach to environmental management. The issues and challenges we face may be complex, but the process of building effective environmental strategies can be relatively simple:
A short History of Ontario’s Environmental Movement Before looking ahead to a new approach to environmental management, it is helpful to look back over the previous century and review the evolution of our current management style. The different periods in this evolution reflect changes in the issues, the level of public awareness and concern, and the prevailing management philosophy. The first six decades of the 20th century can be described as the age of conservation. The Ontario Federation of Anglers and Hunters was founded in 1928 and the Federation of Ontario Naturalists three years later in 1931. The province’s first major conference on the environment was held in 1942 at Guelph. Nine years later, the Conservation Council of Ontario was founded as a forum for provincial associations to discuss issues of common concern and to develop what the founding president, Frank Kortright, called "a Big Plan" for conservation in Ontario. "Conservation" is still as strong as ever, but in 1964 Rachel Carson’s "Silent Spring" gave rise to environmentalism as a related, but distinct movement. Pollution Probe was founded in 1969, and Greenpeace two years later in 1971. The Ontario government created the Ministry of Environment in 1972. The 1970’s and 80’s also saw the introduction of much of Ontario’s legislative framework. Key Acts include:
While the legislative framework is far from complete, the emphasis in recent years has swung towards voluntary initiatives. Several industry associations have signed Pollution Prevention Memoranda of Understanding with the federal and provincial governments, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is developing a series of environmental management standards (ISO 14000), and many major companies have adopted environmental stewardship policies as part of their management systems. Closely tied to the rise of voluntarism is the federal initiative to harmonize provincial and federal laws, and the general movement towards deregulation. Governments now seem to view environmental regulations as barriers to economic growth and deficit reduction, and they are looking to reduce the role they play in enforcing environmental standards. Understandably, the environmental community views deregulation as a step backward. While most environmentalists agree there is room for improvement in the existing legal framework, they argue that any changes should strengthen existing standards and fill in any gaps which may exist. Like it or not, this has been the evolution of environmental management in Ontario and most of the industrialized world. It is characterized by swings in the management pendulum, vigorous debate, and a few successes within an overall decline in resources and environmental quality. Left alone, environmental debate will continue to focus on individual events and initiatives within the relatively short four year time-frame of a government’s mandate. Long-range strategic planning offers an alternative direction. It will not be a panacea to the ongoing tensions between environmental protection and development, but it will help raise the common level of understanding and commitment to develop meaningful solutions. Environmental strategies will allow us to take a proactive approach
to promoting environmental health. They will lead to a better
understanding of the requirements for ecological sustainability and,
hopefully, environmentally-sensitive policy and development decisions. Precedents Although simple in design, the framework presented here could not have been pieced together without the benefit of several years of work and public debate over environmental principles and values. Therefore, credit is due to the many multi-stakeholder exercises and reports both in Ontario and globally that have helped to develop and strengthen the consensus on environmental priorities. Internationally, the call for environmental strategies first gained prominence with the World Conservation Strategy (1980). Next, the World Commission on Environment and Development (the Brundtland Commission) popularized the term "sustainable development" in its 1987 report, Our Common Future (see Table 1). In Ontario, the Conservation Council of Ontario (CCO), the Ontario Environment Network (OEN), the Ontario Round Table on Environment and Economy (ORTEE), and the Premiers Council on Health, Well-Being, and Social Justice were instrumental in raising the debate about environmental sustainability within our provincial borders (see Table 1). Unfortunately, however, both the Premiers’ Council and ORTEE have been disbanded and provincial funding for the CCO and OEN has been discontinued. One other publication of note is Environment on Trial, first published in 1973 by the Canadian Environmental Law Research Foundation (now the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy). Environment on Trial is a detailed compilation of all the laws and regulatory instruments related to natural areas protection, pollution prevention, and planning. It is currently in its third edition (1993). The terminology and principles used in this paper have their precedents in the emerging consensus of public debate. Some, like "the 3Rs", are now widely used. Others, like "pollution prevention" and "constant improvement" are common terms among environmental professionals. Precisely what they mean and how they are to be applied is still the subject of much debate, but they are also useful terms for analyzing Ontario’s environmental strategies.
Environmental issues have long been subject to rhetoric, lobbying, and conflicts of interest. This should come as no surprise, for they touch at the very fabric of our wealth and lifestyle. There are many problems, the answers for which will not be easy. That said, it’s time we prepared ourselves for the next century of environmentalism. We have the benefit of over 25 years of intensive environmental management — long enough to test a number of different approaches, but hardly long enough to change the course of economic and social development. We now need to adopt a more systematic approach to developing long-term solutions. Green Ontario outlines a logical approach to an environmental management system for Ontario, one which encompasses all major issues of concern and incorporates the roles and responsibilities of government, industry, non-governmental organizations, and the public. Included in this approach are several important assumptions:
Whereas the Green Ontario website will document Ontario's existing environmental strategies, it is the task of the Conservation Council and other organizations to analyze the existing strategies and related activities. This analysis should be based on sound environmental principles and a commitment to practical and effective solutions.
The approach outlined in the two previous sections can be applied to any region or jurisdiction. A logical starting point is to work within a region that is significant in size and the issues it faces, but that also has the resources and organizational infrastructure to address the issues. Ontario is such a region. With a population that is estimated will reach 12 million by the year 2001, the province is home to many national and international corporations. It has over 700 municipalities and 500 environmental organizations, both large and small. At the provincial level, Ontario has many organizations and networks that support the province’s municipalities, businesses, unions, professions, environmental groups, religions and cultures. Each of these organizations can become a crucial part of an integrated environmental strategies by developing the environmental commitment of their membership. Clearly, the approach outlined in this paper is larger in scope than any one organization can manage. In fact, by definition, a good strategy involves the active involvement of many organizations, each contributing according to their resources and skills. The challenge, then, is for each organization to define how it can best contribute to our common goal of a healthy environment and a sustainable future for Ontario.
Footnotes 1 This paper is adapted from the original framework paper, published March 1999 by Chris Winter and the Ontario Centre for Sustainability. 2 The World Commission on Environment and Development, Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chair, Our Common Future, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987). 3 see for example, Environment Canada, The State of Canada’s Environment (1992) (Ottawa: Minister of Supply and Services, 1992).
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Our strategy
has to acknowledge the interaction and tensions between all three
sectors. Were we to look at each sector in isolation, our strategy would
be very clear, but also not too practical. In the extreme case, the
environment would be very healthy if it didn't have to deal with all of
us people. So too would the economy be successful (at least in the short
run) if we chopped down every last tree and netted every last fish.
