Green Economy Multi-stakeholder Dialogue
Ottawa, Canada - 2 February 2011
The North American Roundtable on Sustainable Production and Consumption hosted a workshop dialogue on the green economy on February 2, 2011, hosted by the Canadian Environmental Network at the Oxfam offices in Ottawa, Canada.
Participants in NARSPAC's Green Economy Multi-stakeholder Dialogue had just attended the 2-day North American Sustainable Consumption and Production Workshop on Green Buildings in Ottawa. The workshop was co-hosted by Jeffrey Barber, Executive Director, Integrative Strategies Forum and Philip Vergragt, Senior Associate, Tellus Institute, and was facilitated by Vanessa Timmer, Executive Director of the One Earth Initiative Society. This workshop was the first in what NARSPAC intends to be a series of similar dialogues in the future on the topic of the green economy in the lead-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio de Janeiro, June 2012).
Purpose and goals of the meeting:
The purpose of the workshop was to bring together Canadian and United States government, United Nations, academia and civil society representatives as active members of the sustainable consumption and production (SCP) community and create a shared understanding of what is commonly referred to as the green economy. Used widely and cited often as a necessary alternative to the existing mainstream economic approach, the concept of a green economy has proven to mean many things to many people. The goal of the workshop, then, was to begin a conversation that would assist the participants in developing not a consensus, but rather a common ground about the idea of a green economy. In short: the aim was to determine what can be agreed upon, what is disagreed upon, and what action can be taken both as a group and as individual leaders to make the green economy a reality.
The workshop explored three critical questions around the green economy:
Next Steps
At the end of the workshop, there was considerable enthusiasm and interest amongst participants to direct the positive energy coming out of the session into a series of tangible, active outcomes. Some suggestions were:
More Workshops: NARSPAC committed to hosting future workshops on the green economy, encouraging participants to spread the word in their networks about the value of these discussions.
Listserv Collaboration: a number of participants expressed interest in starting and utilizing a green economy working group e-mail listserv, wherein participants at the workshop could remain in contact and collaborate on spin-off initiatives.
Green Economy Newsletter: it was suggested that the group produce a series of writing projects stemming from ideas put forth by the participants, either in the form of a newsletter, a series of journals collections, or other various written products.
Participants in NARSPAC's Green Economy Multi-stakeholder Dialogue had just attended the 2-day North American Sustainable Consumption and Production Workshop on Green Buildings in Ottawa. The workshop was co-hosted by Jeffrey Barber, Executive Director, Integrative Strategies Forum and Philip Vergragt, Senior Associate, Tellus Institute, and was facilitated by Vanessa Timmer, Executive Director of the One Earth Initiative Society. This workshop was the first in what NARSPAC intends to be a series of similar dialogues in the future on the topic of the green economy in the lead-up to the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio de Janeiro, June 2012).
Purpose and goals of the meeting:
The purpose of the workshop was to bring together Canadian and United States government, United Nations, academia and civil society representatives as active members of the sustainable consumption and production (SCP) community and create a shared understanding of what is commonly referred to as the green economy. Used widely and cited often as a necessary alternative to the existing mainstream economic approach, the concept of a green economy has proven to mean many things to many people. The goal of the workshop, then, was to begin a conversation that would assist the participants in developing not a consensus, but rather a common ground about the idea of a green economy. In short: the aim was to determine what can be agreed upon, what is disagreed upon, and what action can be taken both as a group and as individual leaders to make the green economy a reality.
The workshop explored three critical questions around the green economy:
- Does a stable green economy require a major structural transformation
- If so what aspects of the economy need to be transformed, and how?
- What role should different stakeholders play?
Next Steps
At the end of the workshop, there was considerable enthusiasm and interest amongst participants to direct the positive energy coming out of the session into a series of tangible, active outcomes. Some suggestions were:
More Workshops: NARSPAC committed to hosting future workshops on the green economy, encouraging participants to spread the word in their networks about the value of these discussions.
Listserv Collaboration: a number of participants expressed interest in starting and utilizing a green economy working group e-mail listserv, wherein participants at the workshop could remain in contact and collaborate on spin-off initiatives.
Green Economy Newsletter: it was suggested that the group produce a series of writing projects stemming from ideas put forth by the participants, either in the form of a newsletter, a series of journals collections, or other various written products.