Since its inception, the Consortium has continued to have at least one face-to-face meeting a year. In addition to sharing basic information about the research each member is undertaking, the network acts as a point of contact to each of the individual organizations as well as to the sustainable development expertise within their respective universities. This is an invaluable point of contact, given the interdisciplinary nature of the field. Expertise rests within many disparate disciplines and, consequently, some people are known only through personal contact within the organizations.
In March 1993,the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE) convened a meeting of the heads of post-secondary Institutes/Centres for sustainable development research across Canada. The purpose of the meeting was to determine if there was a need to develop a network around sustainable development research in Canada in order to avoid duplication and overlap and to explore the possibility of developing nodes of expertise in particular regions.
The NRTEE also believed that there should be greater dialogue between the Federal Government policy community and the research community. In addition, it hoped to build strategic alliances between businesses and the research community. These alliances would serve to proactively disseminate leading edge research to the private sector and to ensure that this research would be implemented at the front-end industrial processes and production rather than reactively at the back-end.
At the meeting, the members agreed to continue on as a network of post-secondary research institutes and teaching programs encompassing the areas of sustainable development, environmental policy, and sustainable development technology Canada.
The heads of the major environmental studies programs teaching at the graduate level and doing research were then invited to join the Consortium, as well as the Executive Director of the David Suzuki Foundation.
Their purpose is to work together as a Consortium in order to further the process of sustainable development through support for interdisciplinary research and application of that research to societal needs.
Promote collaboration between post-secondary sustainable development institutes and programs
Promote the necessity for sustainable development research within universities and the wider community and to increase funding for such research.
Foster links and greater collaboration with government, industry and non-government organizations.
Promote and disseminate the work of researchers currently working on sustainable development research.
From the Editorial Board for the Sustainable Development Series, a biannual publication designed to bring leading-edge sustainable development research to key decision-makers in government, industry and non-governmental organizations.
Additionally the overall goal of CCSDR is to promote interest in the greater understanding of sustainable development through the production of useful knowledge and the promotion of strategic alliances. Members, bring perspectives at the micro, meso and macro levels; their expertise and research is applied, interdisciplinary and normally involves some community outreach.
Practically the consortium offers an invaluable one-stop shopping window into the sustainable development research across Canada. There are a number of roles that CCSDR currently plays and others that could be further developed.
In its research and advisory roles, CCSDR and its individual members bring a diversity and depth of expertise to the domain. Either individually or collectively, members can provide critical analysis of sustainable development principles and processes, as well as offer advice on how to take the principles and put them into practice.
In its advisory capacity, the Consortium has now been asked twice by the Federal Government to consult on various issues, and could play an increasing collective role in the development of departmental sustainable development strategies, given the requirement that these plans are to be prepared as transparently as possible.
In their training and education role, the Consortium represents some of the best expertise in sustainable development research across the country and works in both a complementary and collective mode offering expert seminars, workshops and training sessions to both the private and public sectors.
In addition, several members have extensive experience in facilitation and organization of multi-stakeholder processes. The Consortium, however, does not play an advocacy role, in order to maintain its independence from any vested interests, and to ensure its credibility for delivering expert advice.
With respect to representations, members have agreed that at a minimum they are representing their respective Centers/Institutes, and in some cases, may be representing their respective universities as well.
The Consortium was a major player in a Networks Conference of Excellence (NCE) application on bridging intellectual and social capital in Canadian Communities. It actively participated in defining the nature of the research as well as the management and organization structure for the network in the following areas: planning, transportation and energy, natural resource management, diversification, governance, and civic engagement.
The Consortium also wants to continue to lend greater clarity around the meaning of sustainable development, by defining its conditions, its fields and its objectives. In the future, collaboration research projects may be undertaken as gaps are identified.
As well, the Consortium will be publishing an Electronic Journal of Sustainable Development. The journal will take the work of young scholars at the master and doctoral level from all disciplines on sustainable development and will publish concise and clear abstracts that then allow the user to determine if they want the entire manuscript.
Finally CCSDR intends to meet with research granting councils to argue for the inclusion of sustainable development as a strategic area for funding.
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