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E-Perspective: Economy

"Corporate leadership is critical if we are to achieve ambitious, and necessary, improvements in sustainable growth and clean energy. Yet these efforts alone cannot effectively solve the many pressing global and regional environmental, social, and economic challenges we face.

Meaningful partnerships are the key to a more sustainable future -- bringing communities together to share information, embrace new technologies, and demand action. That is why PG&E has partnered with the Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities for the last decade to identify and work collaboratively to build sustainable communities served by clean energy resources."
- Robert Harris, Vice President Environmental Affairs, Pacific Gas & Electric Company

The Challenge: Strengthening and Broadening Bay Area Economic Prosperity

The nine-county Bay Area is home to one of the most dynamic and vigorously growing economies in the nation. The region, which includes the large metropolitan areas of Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose and Silicon Valley, has become the high-tech hub of the world. Innovation and economic growth have benefited small businesses, mid-size companies, and major employers alike, generating jobs and providing vast opportunities to those who live and work here. Ironically, this economic progress also has created challenges to future success. Among the challenges are:

  • An insufficient supply of available housing for a rapidly growing workforce.
  • A lack of affordable housing.
  • Freeways and roads that cannot accommodate the growing number of commuters.
  • A workforce that lives increasingly far away from employment centers.
  • Inefficient public transportation.
  • Lost money, time and resources due to intensely disruptive traffic congestion and lengthy commutes.
These trends and conditions present difficult challenges that will eventually affect the overall economic strength and competitiveness of the Bay Area. Furthermore, economic, environmental, and social equity interests frequently spend time, energy, and significant cost opposing each other. The results often are delayed decisions, legal settlements or legislation that fail to adequately serve economic, environmental, or social justice goals.

Sustainable Development: How Does It Create Economic Prosperity?

The Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities addresses the region's economic challenges by integrating business goals with the goals of environmental, social equity, and government interest groups. The Bay Area Alliance is also committed, through a broad-based membership of regional leaders in government, environmental, social equity, and business, to bringing these interest groups to the table to reduce conflicts and confrontation by identifying shared goals and facilitating collaboration on effective actions to achieve them. Surprisingly to some, the goals of these interests are far more similar than they might appear.

For example, at the heart of many confrontations among the interest groups is the question of land use for housing. Consensus now exists among the interest groups represented in the Bay Area Alliance that housing should be provided within the region to match population and job growth. Consensus also exists that this housing must optimize existing infrastructure and resources in the urban core and develop in a more compact manner at the edge of the region to meet new growth. Reaching this common understanding among the Bay Area Alliance's interest groups about the importance of housing and the relationship to sustainable development is a significant step toward promoting joint action towards regional economic prosperity. The Bay Area Alliance supports the following proposals to address major challenges faced by the business community while also benefiting the environment and promoting social equity.

  • Investing in mixed-density and mixed-income development near transit services: Supports development, provides housing for a growing workforce, and reduces time-consuming commutes.
  • Amending general plans and zoning laws to permit fast tracking of affordable housing: Supports development of additional housing for a growing workforce.
  • Supporting business development in environmental and energy technologies, material recycling, and energy efficiency: Promotes business development and private industry while preserving the environment.
  • Investing in an efficient and coordinated transit system: Links employment centers to the workforce throughout the Bay Area, reduces traffic congestion, and decreases the time and productivity lost to lengthy, stressful commutes.
  • Supporting money-saving business practices such as energy efficiency and efficient recycling programs: Reduces business costs, uses resources more efficiently, and contributes to a healthier environment.
  • Revitalizing deteriorated urban areas: Provides opportunity for successful development, taps and trains underused talent in the existing population, and creates additional housing for a growing workforce.
  • Supporting increased private-public partnerships: Creates a more collaborative atmosphere in which business goals can be realized with increased efficiency.
These strategies and actions address some of the most difficult and threatening conditions affecting Bay Area business today, including traffic congestion and the lack of housing for a growing workforce. At the same time, these kinds of approaches respond to fundamental concerns among environmental and social equity stakeholders, creating a collaborative atmosphere that is conducive to meaningful change.

Participation By The Business Community

The Bay Area Alliance for Sustainable Communities is committed to sustaining economic prosperity in the Bay Area. Through the unique broad-based membership of regional leaders, the Bay Area Alliance has the potential to tackle challenges that threaten long-term economic prosperity and implement actions that will result in a more sustainable region. By working collaboratively, sustainable development will become a welcomed way of doing business and a shared way of life throughout the Bay Area. The active involvement and participation of business leaders is key to the success of the Bay Area Alliance. For more information about how to get involved, please contact Andrew Michael at the Bay Area Council at (415) 981-6600 email amichael@bayareacouncil.org or visit their web site.