The Office of Sustainable Development is involved in efforts to rethink patterns of production and consumption, and to create the necessary markets, technologies, and institutional mechanisms to allow for the development of a more sustainable economy that reflects the a fuller accounting of the social benefits that derive from a clean, just and resiliant relationship within human society and with the natural world.
To this end, we are working actively within NOAA, the Department of Commerce, and in all of our outside partnerships to develop policies that support a long term vision of economic development which invests in people and places, values the concrete social benefits provided by natural systems, and seeks to restructure the system of incentives that shape market activities, as well as fostering the development of new technologies and production process that the reduce the pressures on natural systems posed by increasing human development.
These efforts include developing new analytical tools for policy makers and planners, and support for the development of aquaculture through partnerships with the private sector, scientific researchers, and the development of a strong and practical regulatory framework to guide this growing sector of the fisheries industry. At the same time we have offered assistance to coastal communities to relieve the short term economic pressures that are so often a barrier to promoting sustainability.
