Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability Keck Center of The National Academies
500 Fifth Street NW, Room 100
Washington, DC
May 6-7, 2010
The most recent meeting of the Roundtable on Science and Technology for Sustainability took place on May 6-7, 2010. This meeting was the second in a series of discussions exploring linkages between topics critical to long term sustainability. The premise is that sustainability is a systems problem that cannot be achieved by separately optimizing its pieces. The meeting began with a discussion of water linkages at the nexus of energy, public health and urban development, food and sustainable livelihood, and biodiversity. Roundtable members were asked to consider the topic of water linkages and the value of providing the policy and regulatory recommendations on this topic. Roundtable members were provided with updates on recent STS publications including Enhancing the Effectiveness of Sustainability Partnerships (December 2009), Certifiably Sustainable?: The Role of Third-Party Certification Systems (Prepublication February 2010), Expanding Biofuel Production and the Transition to Advanced Biofuels (April 2010), and Federal R&D Forum on Urban Sustainability (workshop held September 2009, report forthcoming). Updates on current STS Program activities including A Sustainability Challenge: Food Security for All (Workshops planned in 2010), Sustainability Linkages in the Federal Government (Project in development), Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Lessons from U.S. Metropolitan Regions (Project in development), and Material Science Sustainability (Project in development) were also provided. Briefings were presented to Roundtable members on the Organizational Effectiveness Initiative, funded by the Packard Foundation.
Roundtable members discussed “Sustainability and the Pace of Technological Change” as a potential future area of focus for the Roundtable. Roundtable members also participated in breakout group discussions on the path for moving forward with various Roundtable activities including the public sector innovation discussions, higher education programs in sustainability, and opportunities for a future Roundtable initiative, tentatively titled Our Common Challenge.
Final Agenda (PDF 45KB)
Sustainability Linkages
Overview of Sustainability Linkages Approach
Tom Graedel, Yale University
Water and Energy: A Multi-Dimensional Resource Management Challenge
Michael Kavanaugh, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc.
Sustainable Water Infrastructure and Urban Development
Nancy Stoner, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Water, Food, and Sustainable Livelihoods
Steve Murawski, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Water and Biodiversity: Sustainability Science to Inform Resource Management
Carl Shapiro, U.S. Geological Survey
Current Activities
New Publications
Marina Moses, STS
Pathways to Urban Sustainability: Lessons from U.S. Metropolitan Regions
Denise Stephenson Hawk, The Stephenson Group, LLC
Sustainability and the Pace of Technological Change
Modeling Technological Change in Energy Production and Use
Richard Newell, Energy Information Administration
Growing Pains of Low-Carbon Technologies
Gert Jan Kramer, Shell Global Solutions International
Disclaimer: This website contains unedited verbatim presentations made by workshop participants and is not an official report of the National Academies. Opinions and statements included in this material are solely those of the individual authors. They have not been verified as accurate, nor do they necessarily represent the views of other workshop participants, the planning committee, or the National Academies.
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