A new report, "Our Common Journey: A Transition Toward Sustainability," has been published by the Board on Sustainable Development of the National Research Council. The report documents large-scale social and environmental change and explores tools for "what if" analysis of possible future developments and their implications for sustainability. It also identifies the greatest threats to sustainability and outlines several priorities for action in five key areas aimed at using what is already known to achieve a successful transition to sustainability. Priorities for action include:

Population. Achieving a 10% reduction in the population of 9 billion now projected for 2050 is a desirable and attainable goal, the report says. Having nearly 1 billion fewer people on the planet would ease the transition toward sustainability. This can be done by meeting the widespread need for contraceptives globally, by helping women to postpone childbearing through education and job opportunities and to reduce family size overall, and by encouraging society to increase the care and education of smaller numbers of children.

Urban Systems. It should be possible to accommodate the projected massive growth of urban areas in a habitable, efficient, and environmentally friendly manner. Cities are faced with meeting the needs for housing, nurturing, educating and employing the 4 billion more people expected to be living in urban areas by 2050, while providing them with adequate water, sanitation, and clean air. These cities should be able to meet human needs and preserve the environment by building modern facilities and developing systems for delivering services more efficiently.

Agricultural production. An achievable goal is to reverse declining trends in agricultural production in Africa while sustaining historic trends elsewhere. The most critical near-term step is to reverse the decline in sub-Saharan Africa, the only region where population growth has outpaced growth in agricultural production. A collaborative effort involving governments, the scientific community, farmers, and non-government organizations will be needed in Africa. At the same time, meeting the challenge of feeding the burgeoning world population as a whole and reducing hunger while sustaining life-support systems will require dramatic overall advances in food production, distribution, and access over the next two generations. Sustainable increases in output per hectare of two to three times present levels will be required by 2050. Productivity must be increased on farmlands, reduced on fragile land areas, and restored to degraded terrain.

Energy and materials. Efficiency in energy and materials use, including reductions in the amount of carbon produced by unit of energy and the amount of energy used per unity of product, should be accelerated to at least double the current rate of improvement. Research and development should continue on the many efforts underway to lower household energy use, build low-polluting and energy-efficient automobiles, and reduce waste, as well as to minimize the consumption of energy and materials for industrial processes through reuse, recycling, and the substitution of services for products.

Living resources. Many ecosystems are being degraded by the demands and stresses of human use.The goal should be to work toward restoring and maintaining their function and integrity so that their services and human uses can be sustained over the long term. Greater understanding is needed of how biological systems work, how to stem the continued loss of habitats, and how ecosystems can be restored and managed at the local or regional scale. This will require knowledge of the socioeconomic aspects of over exploitation, the appropriate valuation of ecosystem services and sustainable management and harvesting techniques. Ecosystems still not degraded by human activities represent the last reserves of the Earth's biodiversity. For these systems the goal should be to protect and conserve biological diversity, both by dramatically reducing current rates of land conversion and by planning for conservation.

The report proposes a new research agenda for sustainability science, emphasizing integrated approaches to research and actions at the regional scale related to water, atmosphere and climate, and species and ecosystems. It stresses the need to develop both a thorough understanding of the most critical interactions at particular places where people live, work, and govern and an integrated strategy for planning and management. This will require evaluation of ongoing experiments in integrative research, a more focused effort on such research at all levels and dimensions, and new frameworks for improving collaborations among partners in industry, academia, foundations, and other national and international organizations.

Copies of the report are available from the National Academy Press (Tel:: 202-334-3313 or 1-800-624-6262).

Contact: Sherburne B.Abbott, Director, Board on Sustainable Development, National Research Council (Tel: 202-334-3511; fax: 202-334-2530; e-mail: sabbott@nas.edu)

As a follow-up to its earlier published report, "Towards a Sustainable Future: Addressing the Long-Term Effects of Motor Vehicle Transportation on Climate and Ecology," the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Research Council created a Task Force on Transportation and Sustainability. The Task Force, in cooperation with several related TRB committees, sponsored a four-part Symposium on Transportation and Sustainability at the Annual TRB Meeting in Washington, D.C. in January, 2000.

Part 1, "Warming Trends, Policy Outlook, and Transportation Perspectives," included presentations on Transportation and Sustainability, Global Warming: Year 2000 Benchmark, and the Policy Context of Sustainability. Part 2, "Transportation Elements of Sustainability," included presentations on Clean Energy Sources, Moving Toward the Vehicle of the Future, and Social and Equity Considerations of Transportation Sustainability.

In Part 3, "European Perspectives on Sustainable Transportation," topics covered were Sustainable City: Integrated Town Planning and Traffic Policy, Transit: the Case of Zurich and Other Examples of Best Practice in European Cities, Lessons Learned From a European Scanning Tour on Sustainable Transportation, and Sustainable Mobility: Overview of Innovations in European Cities. Part 4, "Special Topics," included Transportation Market Reforms for Sustainability, Sustainable Highway Development in a National Park, Toward a Measure of Transport Sustainability, and the Role of the Motor Vehicle Industry in a Sustainable Transportation System.

Overflow crowds at each of the four sessions attested to the strong interest in the subject matter. The TRB Task Force was encouraged to begin planning for a separate specialty conference on transportation and sustainability as a follow-up activity.

Contact: Albert Grant (tel: 301-340-8082; fax: 301-340-8431)

The National Capital Region Congestion and Mobility Task Force has published a report, "Working Together To Improve Mobility in the National CapitalRegion." The Task Force includes representatives of the Federal, State, and local governments in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

Air quality is a major concern in the National Capital Region. Growing travel and traffic congestion contribute to the region's air pollution emissions. Ground level ozone is the region's most serious air pollution problem. The region is classified as a serious non-attainment area under the Clean Air Act Amendment of 1990.
 

The Federal Government is the largest single employer in the National Capital Region. The Federal workforce in the region is approximately 340,000 persons or about 13 percent of the total area workforce. According to the report, the Federal Government is committed to implement a comprehensive and integrated transportation management strategy among Federal agencies to reduce the use of single-occupant vehicles by their employees commuting from home to work. The strategy includes the following elements:

• Develop and implement Transportation Management Plans (TMPs) to help reduce the congestion and air pollution resulting from commuting by Federal employees between their home and workplace by single-occupancy vehicles.
• Designate a responsible Agency Commuter Manager to develop, implement and report on the TMP for their respective agencies.
• Actively expand the availability of the benefit programs for transit and van-pools.
• In order to facilitate greater use of car-pools and van-pools, cooperate with the Commuter Connections program of the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board to develop an internal ride-matching system.
• Actively promote commuting of their employees and on-site contractors by bicycle or walking where possible.
• Implement programs which give preferential treatment to car-pools and van-pools.
• Establish or amend telecommuting procedures for their employees/contractors working in the region.
• Examine the feasibility of providing shuttle-bus services between mass transit stations and Federal work-sites where appropriate and allowable.

The Telework Resource Center was established by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board in 1996 as part of an expanded regional alternative commute program known as Commuter Connections. The program, which is administered by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, is designed to improve regional air quality by reducing single-occupant vehicle commuting. The Telework Resource Center staff works with individuals and organizations to help start or expand telework programs which enable employees to work at home or closer to home using information technology.

Since 1996, the Telework Resource Center has conducted two regional telephone household surveys to determine the change in the number of teleworkers in the Washington region. Survey results show that the number of teleworkers increased 65% between 1996 and 1998, from an estimated 151,000 in 1996 (7% of the workforce) to 250,000 in 1998 (12% of the workforce).

The Telework Resource Center hosts free telework seminars for employers and employees, conducts a spring and fall marketing campaign, and provides a free telework information kit and video upon request. The Telework Resource Center also works closely with the managers of the region's network of 17 telework centers located in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia to increase awareness of this network of facilities. The telework centers provide a good alternative for employees unable to work at home due to conflicting household activities, lack of equipment, or too isolated a working environment.

The Telework Resource Center also conducted a comprehensive 21-month Telework Demonstration Project helping eight area employers start or expand formal telework programs. Various aspects of this project are documented in a final project report which covers policy development, program implementation, program evaluation, and measurement and analysis. Employer benefits documented through this project included an increased ability to attract and retain skilled workers, increased productivity, and reduced office space costs.

Contact: For further information about teleworking, visit the Commuter Connections web site at www.commuterconnections.org or contact Harriet West, Manager, Telework Resource Center tel: 202-962-3286; e-mail: hwest@mwcog.org

Under the leadership of Dr. Jorge Vanegas, Associate Professor & Construction Program Coordinator in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Tech is developing the Pan-American Affordable Sustainable Housing Initiative (PASHI).

PASHI has been conceived to directly respond to four challenges:

• Within an increasingly constrained availability of resources, there are pressing needs to develop new housing solutions, rehabilitate existing deteriorated housing, retrofit existing housing, recover damaged housing, remediate serious externalities associated with housing construction, and restore and preserve housing with historical or cultural significance.
• Given the magnitude and complexity of the demand for housing, there is a need to ensure the technical and management performance of the delivery processes for housing, and of the functional and physical performance of the technologies and materials used (including regulatory and legal compliance, contextual response and compatibility, cost, time, quality, safety and security, constructability, procurabiltiy, operability, maintainability, and reliability).
• Housing projects are framed within increasingly complex contexts (economic, political, social, and environmental), which demand the optimization of resource use, reduction of waste, enhancement of environmental compatibility, and increased satisfaction of intra- and inter-generational human needs and aspirations.
• The current approaches to basic and applied research and to education are not fully responsive to the challenges facing the Affordable Housing Community

The vision for PASHI is to provide a focused, multi-disciplinary, and self-sustaining institutional structure that acts as a forum for creating new and integrating research, education, and policy analysis directions for the Affordable Housing Community in the U.S. and the Americas. As a result of these efforts, PASHI will act: (1) as a catalyst for integrating the Affordable Housing Community and creating strategic global alliances and partnerships; (2) as a conduit for the exchange of information on Affordable Sustainable Housing; and (3) as a leader for the development and implementation of the next generation of Affordable Sustainable Housing Technologies.

The first responsibility of PASHI is to serve the housing community. Consequently, its mission is to: (1) ensure broad multiple-stakeholder representation from the Affordable Housing Community in its programs, events, products, and services, through strategic alliances, consortiums, and partnerships; (2) develop and operate an institutional structure that serves the Affordable Housing Community, instead of acting as a traditional research or education institution; (3) be considered an intellectual leader, respected advisor; (4) use advanced technologies for acquisition, processing, management, and dissemination of information so that PASHI's activities and knowledge storage is accessible to the widest possible audience.

The initial seed funding available for PASHI will be used to establish the programs, the management and financial structures, and the information infrastructure. PASHI will leverage this seed investment and attract additional resources to fund more senior personnel and student research assistants, and research and education program events and activities.

Contact: Jorge Vanegas, Georgia Tech (tel: 404-894-9881; fax: 404-894-5418; e-mail: jvanegas@ce.gatech.edu

To prepare students with the knowledge and the courage they will need to address environmental problems in whole-systems terms, the McGill School of Environment (MSE) opened in 1998 in Montreal, Quebec. McGill began by identifying problems it felt most urgent to address and then looked within, mobilizing its academic strengths. The MSE draws together world-class scholars and academics from eight McGill faculties - Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Arts, Science, Engineering, Management, Medicine, Law, and Religious Studies - to address four broad themes, each of which includes rigorous scientific, social, and ethical inquiry:

• Health in a Changing Environment. What do we know about the human health effects of environmental contamination? What do we know about the health effects on non-human animals, plants and microbes? Given the tentative nature of what we know, can we still construct effective environmental policy?
• Ecosystems, Biodiversity and the Conservation Community. What is the interdependence between human and natural communities and the flow of energy, water and nutrients through ecosystems? How does change in one of these cause change in the others? How can we maintain the quality of human communities without reducing the diversity of life or compromising ecosystem processes on which all life depends?
• Stewardship of Global Systems. How do we safeguard the global systems on which life depends? Which systems are most disturbed and what are the causes of these disturbances? How serious are these disturbances and can they be rectified? Who will & should pay? Are current institutional arrangements likely to produce the necessary action?
• Culture, Commerce and the Environment. How do societies, both consciously and unconsciously preserve and degrade their worlds? What is the impact of both individual and institutional economic behavior on the environment? What are the effects of changing attitudes and public policy on climate change, biodiversity and health?

Faculty members include internationally known researchers in climate change; natural and human resource management; environmental engineering; human, animal and plant health; environmental ethics; comparative environmental law; and others.

McGill's infrastructure includes a campus for applied agricultural and environmental studies, and field stations across Quebec, in the High Arctic and in Barbados. A field program has been established for the MSE in Central America and others are planned.

Contact: For further information, contact Peter G. Brown, Professor and Director, McGill School of Environment (tel: 514-398-2827; fax: 514-398-1643;) or Peter Barry, MSE Program Coordinator (tel: 514-398-4306; e-mail: info@mse.mcgill.ca; website: www.mcgill.ca/mse)

The World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO) General Assembly was held in Madrid, Spain, November 15-20, 1999. The U.S. delegation included Luther Graef, AAES Secretary-Treasurer; James Poirot, WFEO Vice President; Delon Hampton, ASCE President; members of the WFEO ComTech; and Bill Butcher, National Science Foundation representatives. Special guests from the U.S. were Dr. John Boright, Executive Director, Office of International Affairs of the National Research Council, and Dr. Mohamed El-Ashry, CEO and Chairman of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF).

A focus session brought together delegates to discuss ways in which WFEO could provide assistance to less developed nations. Suggested areas of assistance included engineering education, training, skill building, technology transfer and sharing. WFEO has assigned one of its vice presidents the task of developing strategies for assisting engineering efforts in developing countries.

At its annual meeting, ComTech received news that the NSF grant will enable the U.S. to continue as Secretariat for a second four-year term. Business items on the ComTech agenda included presentations on revisions to the WFEO Model Environmental Code of Ethics to include sustainability and on WFEO's response to the Earth Charter.

The WFEO General Assembly and Executive Council applauded the U.S. for its role in ComTech and accepted the U.S. as the Secretariat for a second term. Under the UNESCO Framework Agreement, WFEO will move ahead the development of a virtual engineering library. The Model Code of Ethics was amended to included Sustainable Development and the WFEO response to the Earth Charter was expressed in resolutions passed by consensus. Jose Medem of Spain was elected President of WFEO for a four-year term.

During the General Assembly, John Boright expressed his support for cooperation between the scientific and engineering communities and Mohamed El-Ashry said that he looks forward to joint projects between GEF and WFEO. He said that GEF is particularly interested in establishing a list of engineering experts for national projects.

Contact: Jane Alspach, Manager of International Programs, AAES, (tel: 202-296-2237; fax: 202-296-1151; e-mail: jalspach@aaes.org)

At its November meeting in Spain, the WFEO General Assembly adopted resolutions addressing the Earth Charter: (1) WFEO will support the continuing development and use of the principles having engineering implications in the modified Abbreviated Earth Charter, recognizing that the United Nations may modify it during the 2000-2002 review period; (2) WFEO will bring the full Earth Charter, as finalized by the United Nations, before the WFEO General Assembly in 2003, recognizing that actions by WFEO could include exceptions to certain principles; and (3) recognizing that the Earth Charter is being defined as the "Principles of Sustainable Development," WFEO supports incorporating language into engineering codes of ethics which indicates that engineers should follow the Principles of Sustainable Development and that these principles are as defined in the Earth Charter as modified according to the previous resolution.

The sixteen principles for sustainable development in the November 15, 1999 draft of the Charter are as follows, The boldfaced portions reflect engineering implications, as identified in the review by James Poirot, President of the WFEO ComTech::

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity;

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, love and compassion;

3. Build societies that are free, just, participatory, sustainable and peaceful;

4. Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

5. Protect and restore the integrity of Earth's ecological systems, with special concern for biological diversity and the natural processes that sustain life

6. Prevent harm as the best method of environmental protection, and when knowledge is limited, apply a precautionary approach.

7. Treat all living beings with respect and consideration, and protect them from cruelty and wanton destruction.

8. Advance worldwide the study of ecological systems and the dissemination and application of knowledge that enables communities to care for Earth.

9. Adopt patterns of production, consumption, and reproduction that safeguard Earth's regenerative capacities, human rights, and community well-being.

10. Ensure that economic activities, including world trade, support and promote human development in an equitable and sustainable manner.

11. Eradicate poverty, as an ethical, social, and environmental imperative.

12. Affirm and promote gender equity as a prerequisite to sustainable development.

13. Establish transparency and accountability in governance, and provide access to information, inclusive participation in decision-making, and access to justice.

14. Honor and defend the right of all persons, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of their dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being.

15. Integrate the knowledge, values, and skills needed for promoting sustainable development into universal education and life-long learning.

16. Create a culture of peace and cooperation.

There are now 68 sub-principles in the current draft. A number of them have been revised to reflect the comments of WFEO and the worldwide engineering community.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) sponsored an Expert Group Meeting on Assessment of Investment Projects for Sustainable Development in January, 2000 in Paris, France.

This two-day informal meeting examined the needs of the finance and investment community to better assess and validate environmental performance of technologies, products, projects and companies. Approximately 20 experts from the finance sector, industry, government and NGOs looked at different environmental performance assessment/validation measures and approaches, and brainstormed ways to meet the identified needs of the finance and investment community. Participants explored what further steps could be taken to help promote investments in sustainable development projects ("green investments")

Green investments include investments in environmentally sound technologies, projects and companies either directly or through sustainable investment products, such as green funds that explicitly take into account environmental and/or social aspects. Since the late 1980s, their number has increased significantly. At present, there are about 190 sustainable investment products worldwide.

Despite sustainable investment products/green investments becoming more widely established, potential investors may hesitate to invest in clean or green projects or technologies if they do not believe or are unable to validate claims made by technology developers or project proponents. Investor access to relevant information, for example, about renewable energy technologies and confidence in its veracity are also seen as important elements of the Clean Development Mechanism defined by the Kyoto Protocol.

Information about environmental performance that has been assessed and validated by independent third parties increases certainty and transparency, and can accelerate market acceptance of innovative technologies and projects. This can benefit project proponents, technology developers and providers, end users, regulators, and the finance sector.

Further steps in this direction could include common definitions of green technologies, projects and companies; guidelines for the verification of their environmental soundness; and minimum requirements for environmental performance assessment and evaluation.

Will Kirksey of the Civil Engineering Research Foundation (CERF), who attended the meeting, will report on its findings and conclusions at the February 18 Forum meeting in Washington.

Contact: Will Kirksey, CERF, (tel: 202-842-0555; fax: 202-789-5345; e-mail: wkirksey@cerf.org)

At the November, 1999 Forum meeting, Dr. Donald Conroy, president of the North American Coalition on Religion and Ecology (NACRE), noted the need for a new collaboration between engineering professionals and leaders in religion, education and related institutions, focusing on sustainable energy, principally researching, designing and installing photovoltaic systems, as part of an interdisciplinary campaign to address climate change and deal positively with new technological solutions that are sound ethically and ecologically.

The Solar Stewardship Initiative (SSI) is a collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NACRE to bring about more sustainable energy use by the 340,000 local congregations and other related institutions across the United States. NACRE, which is a non-profit organization, promotes the ethical and spiritual dimensions of the environment movement while not neglecting the science and technology. Following two years of research and pilots in South Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut, NACRE has launched a major program to promote the use of photovoltaic technology and solar thermal hot water arrays, which embody sustainable values. One example is the Sacramento Municipal Utilities solar energy project in which churches and other buildings are outfitted with solar arrays to generate peak energy for local use.

Under a grant from DOE, NACRE has completed a resource manual and other informational materials to introduce non-profit institutions to solar energy. "These SSI resources," Dr. Conroy noted, "stress the important role engineering professionals have in designing and sizing buildings, which can be much more efficient in their use of energy as well as for maximum use of new sustainable energy technologies, including photovoltaic, wind and biomass applications

Working with the Solar Energy Research and Education Foundation (SEREF) under a grant from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), NACRE developed the Climate Change Education (CCE) Program hand-book and presentation resources to assist educational, religious and other non-profit institutions. This CCE Program complements the SSI program materials and backs up the practical applications with important ethical, economic, and ecological reasons for switching to renewable energy.

NACRE has become a strategic partner with Earth Day Network 2000 to promote the Earth Day theme: "New Energy for a New Era." NACRE will target the faith-based communities on college and university campuses as well as local congregations, schools and hospitals to participate in joining the Earth Day activities. A special day-long celebration will take place on the Washington Mall on Saturday, April 22,2000, which is the 30th Anniversary of Earth Day. This will end with a two-hour Festival of Light and Solar Energy in which eight different religious traditions will share. NACRE and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) have encouraged communities and campuses across the U.S. and worldwide to consider renewable energy activities including local Festivals of Light and campus eco-team projects to install solar arrays.

An Earth Day Religious Packet for interfaith and congregation use is being prepared on the NACRE theme of "Caring for Creation." Information on this and other educational and promotional resources will be available on a new Internet website, www.CaringForCreation.net, which will go into operation in early February 2000. On this website engineers will find a special section under the "Guild" heading. The Guild is now being formed as a professional networking space for developing professional ethical codes on sustainability and collaborating on environmental stewardship projects and activities. NACRE and its global network, the International Consortium on Religion and Ecology, will also launch a two-month (from Earth Day, April 22, through World Environment Day, June 5) campaign dealing with solar stewardship and environmental action.

Contact: Donald B. Conroy, NACRE, (tel: 202-462-2591; fax: 202-462-6534; e-mail: NACRE@Earthlink.net

The U.S. Forest Service will utilize criteria and indicators (C&I) of ecological, social, and economic sustainability as a major component of its comprehensive monitoring program, and is incorporating sustainability principles into its Strategic Plan. As a first step, the agency has committed to implementing the 7 criteria and 67 indicators developed through the Montreal Process on all National Forest System lands by 2003. The Montreal C&I are applicable at the national scale, but the land management decisions that affect sustainability take place on the ground in specific locations. The purpose of the Local Unit Criteria and Indicators Development (LUCID) is to develop and implement practical C&I of sustainable ecosystem management that are applicable at the forest management unit (FMU) scale.

The concepts of sustainable development and sustainable natural resource management are being extended beyond forests to other ecosystem types and resources, including rangelands and nonrenewable resources. Forest Service scientists are currently studying the applicability of the Montreal Process C&I to rangelands and grasslands. In addition, the sustainability paradigm is being extended to nonrenewable resources. A variety of cooperative research projects related to minerals in sustainable development have been undertaken in the past year. These include ongoing efforts to define the place of minerals in sustainable development, and to develop minerals indicators at the national and FMU scales.

Activities to date include a Sustainable Materials Roundtable to develop mineral indicators, a Task Force on FMU Scale Indicators, a range of research projects, and informational cooperation with the NATO Science Programs and other European colleagues.

Contact: Deborah Shields, US Forest Service, (tel: 970-295-5975; fax: 970-498-1660; e-mail: dshields@lamar.colostate.edu)

The Environmental Literacy Council is a non-profit organization established to help teachers in the difficult job of informing students about often complex interdisciplinary environmental issues. The Council brings together scientists, economists, educators, and other experts to inform and enrich teaching about the environment.

The Council builds on the work of its predecessor organization, the Independent Commission on Environmental Education and its report, Are We Building Environmental Literacy? The Commission conducted an in-depth study of environmental education materials, and found that these resources often fail to introduce students to scientific and economic concepts needed to understand environmental concerns.

The Commission identified a critical need to enlist knowledgeable experts in the task of improving these materials. To address this problem the Commission established the Environmental Literacy Council.

Environmental Literacy Council Projects include the following:

• Survey of Teachers. Discovering what teachers really need. To meet the needs of its audience, the Council, in cooperation with the North American Association for Environmental Education and the National Environmental Education and Training Foundation, is undertaking a survey of classroom teachers in order to better understand the role environmental education now plays in America's schools.
• Reviewing Education Materials. Helping teachers select the best available materials. Teachers are flooded with materials on the environmental from interest groups, corporations, and commercial publishers with no guidance to help them assess their quality. The Council will provide authoritative reviews of environmental education materials to help teachers select resources that are accurate and sound. These reviews will be published on the Council's web site and in a newsletter so that every teacher and curriculum supervision will have easy access to this information.
• Teachers Guide. Providing more support for teachers in the classroom. Teachers report that they often feel unprepared to introduce environmental science to their students. The Council has contracted with Kendall/Hunt to publish a teacher's guide that will help educators integrate study of the environment with the science curriculum. Developing the guide will be a collaborative effort among science teachers, curriculum specialists, and experts in ecology and environmental science.
• Interactive Web Site. Bringing the best available information to the classroom in realtime. Students and teachers increasingly turn to the Internet to make learning come alive. The Council's web site, www.enviroliteracy.org, provides a link between research scientists and the classroom.
• Teacher Education. Preparing teachers to teach about the environment. Teachers are the key to successful environmental education. Many teachers receive only minimal exposure to environmental science in college and find themselves ill-prepared to guide students in a study of environmental topics. The Council will provide challenging, week-long seminars combining serious study with interesting field work to engage teachers in the actual process of research and investigation.

Contact: Kathleen deBettencourt, Executive Director, (tel: 202-296-0390; fax: 202-822-0991; e-mail: debett@enviroliteracy.org

In a session on the topic of women and sustainable development at the National Town Meeting sponsored by the President's Council for Sustainable Development in Detroit in May, 1999, participants called for women to play a more important role in molding the sustainability agenda and to bring the women's perspective on sustainability into sharper focus.

The need for a women's voice in the sustainability movement has spawned the Women's Network for a Sustainable Future. The Network is currently teamed with the Washington, D.C.-based Global Environment and Technology Foundation (GETF), which has agreed to serve as the Women's Network's interim fiscal agent and to help support the Network through its sophisticated Internet capabilities and broad range of contacts.

The mission of the Women's Network is to provide thoughtful leadership in sustainable development, bringing together professional women from diverse sectors worldwide to involve them in sustainability efforts. Partnering with organizations from the private and public sectors, the Network will offer leadership development, training, research and outreach, making use of the Internet and other technologies to reach a broad audience internationally. Through such initiatives, the Network aims to benefit women everywhere by inspiring and supporting them to include sustainable practices throughout their public and private lives

Contact: To be put on a mailing list for the Women's Network, please send your coordinates (name, affiliation, address, email, telephone) to Ann Goodman at Goodman@aol.com.

In recognition of the diverse and profound connections between health and environmental issues, a new Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN) has been formed. HEFN supports communication and collaboration among a growing number of funders and funder groups with diverse areas of focus, including the environment, biotechnology, public health, population, community development, housing, reproductive health and reproductive rights, biodiversity, toxics, and trade, but share an interest in the environmental health dimensions of their work. Participation in HEFN is limited to funders, but its web site (under construction) is being designed to provide information to others as well. HEFN is a project of the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity.

Contact: For more information, check HEFN's web site at www.hefn.org , or contact Kathy Sessions, HEFN Consultant, at hefn@aol.com

Recent growth of the global economy and ongoing privatization have enormously increased the influence of private sector activities on the global environment. Investments in the energy sector in developing countries, for example, are now estimated to be $100 billion annually, much of it privately financed. The trend toward privatization of state-owned electric utilities means that decisions about the carbon intensity of power plants will be made on the basis of narrower economic criteria with both positive and negative environmental consequences. Business also affects, and is in turn influenced by biodiversity concerns in many ways, including policies on the use of lands and natural resources critical for habitat; rights to plans with potential application as medicinal drugs; and preservation and regulation of genetic resources for agriculture. Engaging the private sector in the promotion of global environmental objectives is essential.

Many Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects involve private sector enterprises as important sources of co-financing and as executing agents. One important reason for seeking to further engage the private sector is to obtain additional project resources consistent with the GEF's strategic focus on leverage. Ultimately, to be successful, GEF must help create conditions that promote private sector investment in projects that benefit the global environment without requiring external resources.

Over the past decade, net private sector flows to developing countries have grown rapidly to more than $250 billion in 1997, while development assistance has declined to about $50 billion. While private flows sharply declined in the past year in many countries due to uncertainties created by the Asia economic crisis, the basic trend is likely to continue. Private investments are therefore an increasingly important source of financing for development.

In many cases, the barrier to private sector investment is perceived risk rather than a clearly identifiable higher cost; thus it may be sufficient and more appropriate in some cases to provide a guarantee or some other alternative to a grant. This approach offers the potential to significantly expand the effective value of GEF resources.

Another important benefit from increasing private sector participation in GEF activities is the opportunity for technology transfer. Much existing environmental technology has been developed and is owned by private companies. Joint ventures and other forms of foreign direct investment have become significant sources for transferring state-of-the-art technology along with supporting skills and training to adapt technology to local needs and circumstances.

In recent years, many technologies of great environmental benefit have been transferred to developing countries through private-private or public-private transactions. For example, the efficiency of refrigerators, air conditioners, and other energy-intensive appliances made in China has steadily and substantially improved in recent years as these products h ave been redesigned with technology primarily obtained through joint ventures with firms from industrialized nations. In negotiations with automobile companies, China has been able to condition entry to its market upon both local manufacture and training, with the associated transfer of considerable technological knowledge. Similarly, a benefit of opening electricity markets, in many developing countries has been the transfer of cleaners technologies for power generation, often accompanied by some commitment to local manufacture.

Contact: For further information, contact Michael Sanio, GEF (tel: 202-458-0263; 202-522-3240; e-mail: msanio@worldbank.org)