February 2011 "2010 California Regional Progress Report"

WELL Network is pleased to endorse the 2010 California Regional Progress Report, a framework for measuring our state’s advances toward a sustainable future. The report addresses critical questions about California’s growth in the 21st century and should prove a valuable resource for organizations in the public sector and all of us committed to the responsible stewardship of our natural resources, economic vitality, mobility, and well-being.

The report also presents 20 integrated, quality-of-life indicators and showcases best practices from around the state, making it a valuable tool for a visionary green planning approach to governing.  Reflecting the collective learning and efforts of over 40 state, regional, non-profit and academic organizations, the new document builds on the 2007 Progress Report and is sponsored by Caltrans and the Strategic Growth Council.

WELL Network is a project partner and supporter, and Executive Director Peggy Lauer served on the Project Advisory Team, led by the planning firm Applied Development Economics.     

The Report is available at: http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/orip/Collaborative%20Planning/California_Regional_Progress_Report.html

October 2009 "Re-Imagining California, A Sustainable Future for the Golden State"
The report includes recommendations of leading business and nonprofit executives, policymakers, scientists, academics, and program managers that took part in the Fort Baker Leadership Summits at the Institute for the Golden Gate in Sausalito, California. The three summits, convened by WELL Network in spring 2009, focused a range of thinking on how California can set a course to provide a strong economy and healthy environment for an increasingly diverse population. As a result of the summits, a gap analysis was commissioned as a tool for understanding the fragmented and overlapping policies that currently stand in the way of a sustainable future.

A gap analysis by Dominican University of California's Environmental Finance Center compares California's and international regulations, plans, and programs that take a long-term, comprehensive approach to sustainability. The gap analysis focuses on six examples of comprehensive legislation in California--AB32, SB375, CEQA, the Green Chemistry Initiative, the Blueprint Planning Program, and the State Water Plan, and provides an overview of each program: what it addresses, what it omits and where it is redundant. The initial analysis demonstrates that a number of elements critical to sustainability are largely absent from current laws, including a systemic approach, long term health protection, energy supply, funding mechanisms, natural resource improvement, and the Precautionary Principle. In addition, there are numerous, though not identical redundancies in the current legislation, including resource use and protection, energy conservation, and air quality.

The goal is to build support for the recommendations and have the state's policy and opinion leaders adopt a long-term, integrated Sustainability Agenda for California. Read more.

October 2008  "A California Green Plan: Making the Case for Business"
The report, prepared by Dominican University's School of Business and Leadership and funded by the Fred Gellert Family Foundation, finds that California lacks a cohesive integrated approach to managing the environment. Agencies, regulations, and budgets often overlap and conflict. This complexity and lack of coordination is hurting businesses and the state's economy. The report examines "laboratory" countries of The Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. It examines their business and government strategies, and offers best practices. View and download the report. View press release.

Septerber 2008  "Shaping our Legacy: Reproductive Health and the Environment"
A report from the UCSF-CHE Summit on Environmental Challenges to Reproductive Health and Fertility.

Shaping Our Legacy  (http://www.prhe.ucsf.edu/prhe/pubs/shapingourlegacy.html) provides a nontechnical summary of the latest science on how exposure to chemicals may impair reproductive health. It also outlines what we can do to create environments that are healthier for fertility and reproduction.

March 2006,"Taking it to the States: A Call for Action on Chemicals Policy, a Green Plan Approach."
The report, published by WELL Network, focuses on California and New York¹s potential leadership in policy to advance green chemistry. The report was previewed at the  California Chemicals Policy symposium in March, 2006, attended by more than 120 NGO, government, labor, academic, and business leaders. Download PDF.