Public Engagement

The University of Minnesota Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships are a citizen-driven program of the University that strives to create a more vibrant relationship between the citizens and their University, address issues according to sustainable development principles, and promote active citizenship through local citizen participation in designing and implementing projects in the region. The following excerpt from an article in the West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnership Newsletter for 2006 describes a joint exercise that will attempt to look ahead to the state of the regions in 2050.

Looking towards the future, learning from the past

In 2050, what will our landscapes look like? Where will our food, fiber, and energy come from? What will our communities and neighborhood look like?

In the next few months, the Regional Partnerships will partner with the University's Ecosystem Science and Sustainability Initiative to conduct community-based scenario analysis exercises. Each regional board and its partners will serve as the community voice in grounding the scenario analysis in the realities faced in the various regions of the state.

The exercise will involve envisioning the future and then backcasting to see what steps are needed to arrive at our preferred future, providing the Regions with some ideas of how an investment or series of investments in our communities can help achieve our goals of sustainable development.

Involvement with the Sustainability Initiative has the potential to help orient our work to our preferred future in a thoughtful way, bring new University resources to our Regions (in terms of new faculty interest and funding) and improve the Sustainability Initiatives outcome because it includes citizen expertise.