WELL Network produced "Being WELL," an 8-minute film that includes interviews with WELL members and leading international spokespeople for environmental health and green planning. Click here to watch the streaming video.

Green plans are comprehensive, integrated national, state, and local programs that solve environmental problems in systematic, rather than piecemeal ways. Unlike conventional approaches, green plans treat the environment as it really exists— as a single, interconnected system.

The California Green Plan: Connecting Vision to Action

The California Green Plan: Connecting Vision to Action
Frequently Asked Questions

In our Green Planning campaign, WELL Network has taken a lead in the following initiatives:

In 2009 WELL Network convened the Fort Baker Leadership Summits (FBLS), bringing together forty business executives, policymakers, scientists, academics, and foundation and nonprofit leaders to explore how to overcome the fragmented policymaking and planning that stand in the way of a sustainable future for California. The summits led to a series of recommendations published as a report, "Re-Imagining California, A Sustainable Future for the Golden State," intended to inspire and guide California's policy- and opinion makers to adopt a Sustainability Agenda, based on principles of economic prosperity, environmental health, and broad public participation in decisions affecting the lives and future of all Californians. As a result of the summits, Dominican University's California Environmental Finance Center is working on a gap analysis comparing select legislation, plans, and programs that address sustainability.

The Fort Baker Leadership Group (FBLG) produced a vision and guiding principles as the basis for the discussions, which can also serve a model to guide California's elected leaders. The FBLG generated many ideas, which were then distilled into specific recommendations intended for state leaders to build upon and implement.

The Summit recommendations are:

• Establish an alliance to develop and advance a Sustainability Agenda for California.
• Develop and implement a Sustainability Agenda in each of the nine regions of California.
• Implement a statewide communications campaign to build common values among Californians for a sustainable future.

The Resource Renewal Institute's Green Plans in Action website describes integrated, environmental policies successfully used in The Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Mexico City. The site also provides a summary states and regions in the U.S. that have adopted green planning principles to address climate change. http://www.rri.org/greenplans_states.html

The FBLG also addressed the question: What will it look like if we succeed?

• Californians will take personal responsibility for the environment and the future.
• There is a higher level of political engagement.
• There is greater "green" economic activity.
• Economic, environmental and equity indicators improve.
• Environmental health and social fairness are valued equally with "economy."
• Sustainability is a "binding force" among Californians.
  

WELL Network's Green Plan Campaign activities:

	WELL Network produced "Being WELL," an 8-minute film that includes interviews with WELL members and leading international spokespeople for environmental health and green planning. Click here to watch the streaming video.
	WELL Network hosted a panel on the opening day of the UN World Environment Day in San Francisco featuring Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown; Rachel Richman, chief of staff for California Assembly member Wilma Chan; Jaime Lerner, former mayor of Curitiba and governor of the state of Parana, Brazil; and Bianca Oudshoff, a senior analyst with The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs. The discussion included an overview of the Dutch green plan, EU chemical policy, and the need for a comprehensive chemical policy for California.
	WELL Network hosted a policy tour of The Netherlands for our members, members of Rachel's Network, and Resource Renewal Institute to learn first hand about The Netherlands' 25-year green plan.
	WELL Network hosted a presentation by Dr. Tom Fookes, commissioner of the New Zealand Environment Court; an architect of New Zealand's green plan (Resource Management Act); and professor emeritus in Planning at the University of Auckland. WELL Network hosted a presentation by Dr. Heddy Riss, project manager for the California-EU Regulatory Cooperation Project at the Institute of Governmental Studies, UC Berkeley. The project's goal is to create a California-EU Task Force to explore the relationship between the regulatory policies of California and the EU, focusing on health, safety, and the environment.

"We have a chance to build the framework for reducing emissions and global warming across the board in California with the people's and industry's support of relevant legislation and an integrated approach that can change the destructive course we are on and lead the nation. I am grateful that the women of California and Well Network are supporting these efforts above all, while consistently advocating for the environmental health of our children and communities." California Assemblymember Fran Pavley

Among the activities WELL has participated in to address global warming are:

	WELL Network sponsored a presentation by California Assembly member Fran Pavley, author of the historic greenhouse emissions legislation for California. She became a lead sponsor of AB 32, the Climate Solutions Act of 2007.
	WELL Network hosted a presentation by Dr. Devra Wang, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council who spoke on the successful collaboration of business, NGOs, and government to pass the Climate Change Solutions Act, signed into law in 2007 by Governor Schwarzenegger.