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DAS Sustainability Program

Oregon Sustainability Board
The Oregon Sustainability Board (OSB) encourages activities that best sustain, protect and enhance the environment, economy and community for the present and future benefit of Oregonians.  The Governor appoints Board members who represent a variety of stakeholders within the state of Oregon. 
 
Sustainability board members visit eastern Oregon innovators in September 2011.

Members
Kate Brown, Chair, Governor's Representative, Secretary of State
John D. Miller, Co-chair, Wildwood/Mahonia
Susan Anderson, Director, City of Portland, Bureau of Planning and Development
Robin Morris Collin, Willamette University professor
John Ledger, Vice President, Associated Oregon Industries
Trey Senn, Executive Director, Klamath County Economic Dev. Association
Sara Vickerman, Director, West Coast Office, Defenders of Wildlife
Mark Webb, Chair of Grant County Commission
Maurice Rahming, President, O'Neill Electric
Alando Simpson, Vice President/General Manager, City of Roses Disposal and Recycling

History
In 2001, the legislature adopted the Oregon Sustainability Act (ORS 184.423), which established the state's overall sustainability policy.  Among other things, the legislation created the Oregon Sustainability Board and established legislative goals for state government around sustainability. In order to implement the act, Governor Kulongoski issued Executive Order 03-03 in June 2003 along with a letter of suggested agency actions, which directed the Sustainability Board to oversee the process for carrying out the Act.  The Executive Order specifically requests that the Board oversee development of sustainability plans by twenty state agencies.   
 
 
Meeting Information
Board minutes are published and posted once approved by the Board
 
 
 
2012 Meeting Schedule
January 20, 2012 Portland
​Agenda
​ ​​Minutes
 
March 16, 2012 Salem
Agenda
​Minutes
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May 18, 2012 Portland
Minutes
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October 4-5, 2012 Grand Ronde and Lincoln City

Agenda
​Minutes
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Board Publications

Report to the 2005 Legislative Assembly (pdf)  and Letter  

 

​Report to the 2009 Legislative Assembly (pdf) 

 

​Report to the 2011 Legislative Assembly (pdf)

 

​Report to the 2011 Legisaltive Assembly on SB 513 (pdf)

 

Board Projects
Sustainability AwardsThe Governor's Sustainability Awards Program is intended to promote and advance the inclusion of sustainable practices in government and the private sector. Sustainable practices are broadly defined as those that strive to optimize an organization's financial, environmental and social performance.
 
The winners of this year's Sustainability Awards:
Small business Category:
  • Northwoods Nursery/One Green World, which was founded in Molalla in 1979 by Jim Gilbert with sustainability at the core of its agricultural practices.
 
Large Business Category:
  • Burgerville, which is a quick-service restaurant company with 39 locations throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington, serving guest fresh, great-tasting food from a mission to "serve with love."
 
NGO/Government Category:
  • The Port of Portland, particularly for its incredible new headquarters building at PDX.
 
Corvallis Area Regional Awards:
  • Corvallis School District,
  • First Alternative Co-op,
  • Corvallis Sustanability Coalition.
 
    
   Award winners for 2010
Sustainable Oregon Schools Initiative (SOSI)
With the assistance of several volunteers, the Board undertook a special initiative aimed at improving sustainability practices within the K-12 school system.
 
For more information about the SOSI Oregon Sustainable Schools Awards (OSSA), please click on the following link:  http://www.sustainableschools.org/oregon-award-program.
 
Higher Education
The Sustainability Board supported the work of Academic Excellence and Economic Development Working Group (AEED) of the Oregon Board of Higher Education.   In 2004, the AEED concluded that sustainability and renewable energy showed promise as an area for investment.   Through collaborations with the Oregon Sustainability Board, Oregon University System and AEED the Oregon B.E.S.T. was created in 2008.  The mission of Oregon B.E.S.T. is to showcase innovative, sustainable technologies created in Oregon universities and market them to the world.   
 
Agriculture and Rural Communities
In September 2004, the Board established an Agricultural sub-committee to catalyze and advance strategies and projects that will help rural Oregon, especially agricultural communities and producers, to achieve more resiliency and profitability in the face of increasing global, regional and local economic, environmental and social changes and challenges.  The sub-committee identified three initial project areas: an effort to increase the efficiency of container truck operations in the rural sector; an effort to increase the amount of federal and foundation grants that flow to rural Oregonians; and an effort to maximize the development of renewable energy in rural Oregon and to develop urban/rural partnerships in the area of renewable energy.  These three projects are just getting under development in the first quarter of ’05.

Climate Change
The Board chair and one of its members were appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Group on Global Warming. The committee was appointed by the Governor to develop recommendations to him on possible actions the state might undertake to reduce the threats posed by global warming and climate change. The committee developed a strategy which, if adopted, is intended to complement the agenda of the West Coast Governors’ Initiative on Global Warming undertaken by the governors of California, Oregon and Washington. 
    
 
The Advisory Group invited Oregon citizens, businesses and organizations to offer their comments, additions and criticisms of the goals, approaches and actions assembled in the report. The Advisory Group received citizen input from three public meetings, letters and emails.
The report proposes three objectives to achieve Oregon Benchmark #76, which set the goal of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emission levels at or below 1990 levels by the year 2010:
  1. By 2010, arrest the growth of Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions (including, but not limited to CO2) and begin to reduce them, making measurable progress towards meeting the existing Benchmark of not exceeding 1990 levels.
  2. By 2020, achieve a 10 percent reduction below 1990 greenhouse gas levels.
  3. By 2050, achieve a “climate stabilization” emissions level at least 75 percent below 1990 levels.
At its January 2005 meeting, the Board reviewed the Advisory Group’s report and made recommendations to the Governor on its implementation.  The Board specifically did not endorse those parts of the report that proposed negative incentives.  
 
Budget Instructions
In 2005, to ensure that agency budgets are aligned with the agency sustainability plans, DAS instructed the 20 agencies subject to the Governor’s Executive Order on sustainability to include a “Sustainability Narrative” in their budget submissions describing the sustainability programs they have underway and their progress in achieving them.  In 2007, this requirement expanded to include all agencies.  In the 2009 budget development, agencies continue to complete these narratives.  This is now a permanent part of the process.