Water Resources Policy, Development & Sustainable Communities Service

Water is ubiquitous, serving as a common thread connecting all aspects of life. As the planet’s most precious natural resource, its quality and availability are core determinants of individual and community quality of life. However, water resource issues are typically regional, interjurisdictional, and dispersed. The challenges and actions needed to sustain our nation’s water resources are geographically such that both federal and local attention is required and an integration of planning and regional governance across programs, sectors, and jurisdictions seems inevitable.

While we lack a national water policy, we have a number of national programs that can be better integrated and complemented by a strong grassroots stewardship ethic borne out of an effort to raise public water awareness and civic engagement so as to transform water users into water stewards. As an interjurisdictional public good that must be appreciated and managed first as a public resource, protecting our water future will take stewardship from local, regional, state, and federal levels, in addition to greater individual responsibility.

Our group believes in sustainability: a belief that our quality of life and the prosperity of our communities depend on our wise stewardship of our natural capital. We believe that an inclusive leveraged or collaborative approach is critical for successful stewardship.

Like many others, we seek more effective collaborative models for success. Our niche is assisting with the creation and promotion of value-based collaborative relationship building that can be brought to scalable and replicable levels by the participating institutions. By identifying and connecting water achievers and demonstrating real results, we are uniquely equipped to facilitate effective collaboration and strategic alignment between public and private organizations committed to sustaining the quality and continued availability of our water resources.

• Assist community leaders and local institutions in having a voice and place at the table in regional and national conversations.
• Build brand awareness for institutions and communities, adding value and capacity to tackle key water, food, and energy-related issues and challenges.
• Maintain ongoing cooperation with federal and state program managers and stakeholders to foster awareness of programs and opportunities that are providing incentives for sustainable land use practices.
• Assist clients to recognize trends and change drivers that are reshaping the narrative on water, food, and energy.
• Assist collaborative bodies, commissions, and communities of practice to overcome institutional and cultural resistance to opportunities that promote efficiency, resource leveraging, and regionalization.
• Assist EPA in identifying successful regulatory approaches to mothballed sites that expedite cleanup and revitalization by coordinating and integrating state and federal processes.
• Consult state waste officials and EPA Regional personnel to explore alternatives for adopting coordinated cleanup approval approaches to mothballed brownfields.
• Advise in identifying candidate state programs to pilot the development of coordinated cleanup approaches.
• Design and organize forums to call attention to the challenges of site revitalization of mothballed properties.
• Advise all levels of government, NGOs, and industry on land use plan development and community master planning funding and outsourcing.
• Provide key project management to shepherd the Baltimore Eco-Industrial Park from concept to a facility groundbreaking.