Our Projects

One Earth is engaged in research, policy and action initiatives to transform the consumer lifestyle – and the industrial production system that supports it. You can read about our work below and in our One Earth news stories.

Regarding policy, we are actively involved in the UN process to develop a 10 year framework on sustainable consumption and production: we co-facilitated NGO involvement at the UN meeting in Stockholm. We’re also working at local and national levels, including with the City of Vancouver. On research, we are launching an extensive research program analyzing the effectiveness of sustainable consumption and production campaigns. We’ll use this scan to help us and our partners move forward effectively and with the urgency required – how do we actually reduce our ecological footprints, as individuals, cities and societies? It will also serve as inspiration for the kind of tools and storylines we can develop as a team to move towards societal transformation. Our three areas of work are as follows, described below:

1. Policy Engagement: Making governments accountable to their Rio commitments on SCP
2. Research for Change: Tracking progress towards sustainable consumption and production
3. Transformative Tools: Creating sustainable lifestyles, city and society future scenarios

You can read the latest news about One Earth's activities and team members here.

The five One Earth Directors and Associate have long-standing and varied experience in sustainability issues, from local to global levels and across research, policy and practice. We are particularly interested in sustainable consumption and production as a concept and as the crucial fulcrum for societal transformation. We have work experience with NGOs, international organizations, the business community, governments and institutions such as the European Union, the OECD and the United Nations. We have organized conferences, facilitated group discussions, developed policy, and participated in international negotiations. Our bios are online: Emmanuel Prinet, William (Bill) Rees, Tobi Reyes, Dagmar Timmer and Vanessa Timmer, as well as our Associate, Nicole-Anne Boyer. We have all been deeply involved in sustainable consumption and production issues, including the urban dimension, as set out here.

As the One Earth Initiative, we seek to both “ride the wave” of existing efforts as well as "create waves" through our own initiatives. We will contribute to many of the wonderful and imaginative initiatives and projects that are already taking place around the world to meet basic needs as well as reduce oversized Ecological Footprints, and also “create waves” by developing our own programs and activities where we have identified gaps, and where we see tremendous opportunities. The team members are working together as an advocacy NGO on sustainable consumption and production issues, and we are also open to consultancy opportunities.

1. Policy Engagement

Making governments accountable to their Rio commitments on SCP

One Earth sees policy advocacy as a key part of its work. We are involved at the local to international level to influence the movement towards sustainability.

No individual or country can be sustainable on its own. Changes to individuals’ lifestyles are very important, but they are helped or hindered by a broader system of policy incentives and barriers: transportation infrastructure, tax cuts, waste management policy, subsidies...Policy initiatives need to reflect the urgency of the issue as well as be managed in a coordinated fashion across ministries, levels of government and sectors. They also need to be done within a global framework, where equity considerations across developed and developing countries form the basis for action.

One Earth is supporting the policy efforts of international to local actors on sustainable production and consumption issues, including through the United Nations. More than 180 countries signed Rio to produce national strategies on SCP, yet very few have such a strategy 15 years later. This needs to change and the UN’s Marrakech Process has been set up to support this shift, with governments coming together to plan how they will tackle SCP. As part of the Marrakech Process, One Earth was invited by the UN Environment Programme to co-facilitate and engage NGO participation in the UN-led 3rd international expert meeting as part of the “10-Year Framework on Sustainable Consumption and Production.” At this meeting in Stockholm, June 26 to 29, 2007, the NGOs presented a 2-page Recommendations Paper (PDF - 25kb, or Word - 60kb) to the Steering Committee. In the months prior to and following Stockholm, NGOs developed 3 papers to complement this 2-pager:

- Context Paper (PDF - 38kb) which investigates a number of aspects of consumption and production and highlights the urgency of reversing negative ecological and social trends

- Recommendations Paper (PDF - 60kb) which sets out general NGO recommendations for the Marrakech process and NGO involvement

- Responses Paper (PDF - 61kb) with specific comments on the draft Framework of Programmes set out in Background Paper 1 prepared by the UN for Stockholm

In early 2009, One Earth commented publicly on the first draft of a document that will serve as input to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development on a 10-Year Framework of Programmes (10YFP) on sustainable consumption and production. The draft and comments from One Earth and others can be downloaded from the Marrakech Process website or the NGO Forum website. More information on the Marrakech Process.

One Earth's Emmanuel Prinet is part of the advisory group for the development of a Sustainable Consumption and Production Framework for Canada, coordinated by Five Winds International for the Government of Canada. In November 2008 a joint Canada-US regional meeting on Sustainable Consumption and Production was held in support of the UN Marrakech Process. The Canadian framework will build on the vision discussions from this regional meeting, identify key policy and program objectives, define the roles of government, industry and consumers in fulfilling these objectives, and identify the programs and performance measures needed to make and track progress.This builds on One Earth's involvement in the Marrakech Process. More information about the November meeting.

 

2. Research for Change

Tracking progress towards sustainable consumption and production

One Earth is working with other partners to examine the effectiveness of past and ongoing sustainable consumption and production campaigns (see abstract here). The purpose of this research program is to assess the range of approaches to SCP campaigns, particularly by civil society actors, to determine the effectiveness of these strategies in achieving their goals, and to derive key lessons as to the conditions and strategies which make successful SCP campaigns more or less likely. The research program will take place over a number of years, in partnership with others. This research is conducted in response to calls for initiatives tracking progress towards SCP.

As one of our projects, One Earth is developing the key considerations and elements for a Canadian strategy on sustainable household consumption with partner, the Consumers Council of Canada.  Examining what sustainable household consumption means in a Canadian context is important insofar as the average Ecological Footprint of Canadians is significantly larger than what the Earth can sustain in the long term; indeed, were everyone around the world to adopt a typical Canadian lifestyle, four Earth-like planets would be necessary to support this way of living.  The challenge is great: to maintain--and even enhance--quality of life of all Canadian citizens, while reducing by some 80% their material and energy demands.  Household consumption is at the heart of these concerns, and should therefore be an integral part of any national sustainability plan in Canada.  This research project is funded through Industry Canada's Office of Consumer Affairs and will be completed in March 2009. For more information, contact Vanessa.

We are also involved in research that helps us come to terms with our global interconnections. We want to highlight the links between who we are, what we buy, where we live, what we make, what we trade, and how we live together. This is why we are particularly interested in the natural resources that sustain cities and create interdependencies amongst urban systems, the global environment and human well-being. Half of the world’s population now lives in cities, and these urban systems depend on an increasingly vast area for their resource and energy needs and for waste disposal. It would take approximately four additional Earths worth of resources to support the world’s population with consumption and production patterns equivalent to that of North Americans. And good Earths are hard to find!

Our research aims to make the case for an economy of sufficiency - a shift toward more thoughtful, less-materially-focused lifestyles and a more efficient production system.  We believe this is critical, not only for the wellbeing of future generations but also for ensuring equity amongst the world's people.  An economy of sufficiency will require an absolute reduction in the resources, waste and pollutants used and produced by industrial society. Shifting our lifestyles and the production systems that support them so that the human enterprise is in "steady-state" equilibrium with the ecosphere, represents a daunting and exciting challenge.  Our research, and the resulting
communications and decision-support materials and advocacy campaigns, will contribute to making this shift.

3. Transformative Tools

Creating sustainable lifestyles, city and society future scenarios

Drawing on the research conducted by its team members, One Earth will continue to launch social change tools that seek to advance the transition to sustainable consumption and production patterns. Ecological Footprint analysis was developed as a tool for highlighting natural resource use and its global impacts.

One such tool is a guide for reducing the ecological footprint of existing multi-family dwellings in Metro Vancouver, particularly as a result of economies of scale. In April 2009, One Earth launched the Eco-Strata Guide. The project is focused on the opportunities for advancing sustainability, particularly as a result of economies of scale. The practical guidebook (and website) assists strata councils, cooperatives, developers and management companies. Partners include the Condominium Home Owners’ Association (CHOA), the Lighthouse Sustainable Building Centre with funding from the Real Estate Foundation of BC. Download the guide (PDF, 3.8MB) and dialogue at www.eco-strata.com. For more information, contact Emmanuel Prinet.

One Earth believes in the transformative power of video. One Earth is a partner in Sustainability Productions, which provides high quality short films showing vignettes of sustainability in action. The seven videos in the series to date provide a hands-on perspective on initiatives that cities have taken to reduce their footprint while enhancing quality of life. One of the videos is about Bill Rees, and outlines the ecological footprint approach and what it means in terms of societal choices ahead.

In the near future, One Earth will collaborate with other partners to develop integrated vivid scenarios of sustainable lifestyles, cities and societies. These scenarios will take both written and multimedia form and will incorporate cutting edge ideas about what sustainable futures could be. Scenarios are not future predictions but outline possible and plausible descriptions of how the future may unfold. Scenarios can be used to raise awareness, stimulate innovation, map interconnections, and support decision-making. One Earth research efforts will review the effectiveness of past scenario initiatives in order to inform scenario development. The purpose of these scenarios is to consciously and actively create a new human story, to redesign the meaning of wellbeing and to redefine quality of life to incorporate equity within the ecological limits of the planet. We will describe positive and attractive futures that serve to pull social change towards sustainability.

Copyright © 2007 One Earth Initiative Society