Environmental Workshop Set for June 25-26
SILVER SPRING, MD – Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson and County Executive Isiah Leggett have launched a major new environmental program they expect will go far toward achieving a number of key countywide “green” goals.
A unique collaboration between the County Executive and Planning Board staffs, the Healthy and Sustainable Communities initiative will craft environmental policy goals and indicators that measure progress toward ideals such as clean air, clean water, a “green” economy and environmental justice.
While numerous environmental programs are at work in the county, the new initiative aims to fill a missing link: a set of goals and corresponding measures of progress to guide decision-making for top county officials. The goals and indicators will provide a comprehensive picture of the county’s sustainability efforts and help generate coordinated actions.
The process of crafting area-wide indicators will conclude this fall, per the County Council, which approved developing an environment scorecard as part of the 2007 Growth Policy. The initiative will take a great leap forward June 25-26, when the Planning Board and County Executive’s staff have planned a public workshop at the Universities at Shady Grove. At the workshop, participants will help define the goals and ways to chart progress – and begin to decide how to convert knowledge into action.
The workshop features keynote speaker Shelley Metzenbaum, director of the new Center for Public Management, University of Massachusetts-Boston. Metzenbaum, whose recent report about performance accountability is the most downloaded document published by the IBM Center for the Business of Government, provides training and consulting services to government agencies around the world. Other environmental experts will lead sessions on the workshop’s second day to develop goals and strategies to achieve those goals.
Planning staff has launched an interactive website to encourage policymakers, independent experts, county staff and representatives from business and nonprofit organizations to have their say on the environmental goals. The site, which went public last week, will be accessible before and after the workshop. Workshop participants and web browsers can comment on such environmental goals as:
• Climate Protection
• Clean Air
• Clean water
• Wildlife habitat and open space
• Smart communities
• Healthy people
• Green economy
• Environmental justice
WHO:
Montgomery County Planning Board and environmental planning staff
County Executive Isaiah Leggett and staff from Department of Environmental Protection
County Council President Mike Knapp
National experts
Other community leaders, stakeholders and activists
WHAT:
Healthy & Sustainable Communities Workshop
WHEN:
5:30-8 p.m. Wednesday, June 25
9 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday, June 26
WHERE:
The Universities at Shady Grove
9630 Gudelsky Way, Buildings I&II
Rockville, MD 20850