On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans took to the streets to demand a healthier environment. As a result, the US government created a suite of domestic institutions and regulatory measures and laid the foundation for the institutions and legislation for global environmental governance. At the Center for Governance and Sustainability, we study the past to inform the future and connect thinkers and doers across generations, professions, and geographies.
Across 2019's Earth Day headlines ran the themes of evidence-based decision making, environmental action, and increasing our appreciation for the one and only earth. Established in 2011, the Center for Governance and Sustainability, similarly "engages in rigorous and applied scholarship on real-world policy challenges related to the environment, development, and sustainability, advances inspirational education, and promotes honest dialogue among a diversity of stakeholders". Our affiliation with the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies empowers us to be policy-centered agents of change within a wider ecosystem of environmental governance.
At Boston's only public research university, we benefit from a variety of perspectives and experiences, including the April 22, 2019 speech by Senator Markey on the Green New Deal. As a first-generation college student with working-class parents, and as someone who had never been to DC prior to appointment, Senator Markey brings a unique lens and commitment to ensuring a future for the planet and the generations after us. The Senator's address emphasized the importance of optimism, green solutions, and partnerships -- characteristics that also propel the Center forward. Earth Day presents a special day to reflect on the everyday environmental realities at local, national, and international levels, and to recommit ourselves to the study and practice of environmental governance and sustainability.
