Environmental Round Table Discussion

Instruction Sheet

Environmental Round Table Discussion

Instructions for Advance Preparation

Read the Environmental Round Table Background Information and your role description. Do not discuss your role with others in your Round Table. Please make notes about your role or any other information you find useful on a separate piece of paper. You will not be allowed to bring the Role Card into the discussion.

ENVIRONMENTAL ROUND TABLE BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In response to the increasing public awareness and commitment to environmental issues, the provincial government has recently established an Environmental Round Table as a way to facilitate dialogue about environmental issues between numerous interest groups. One purpose of the Round Table is to provide advice to various government politicians and agencies about how to preserve the environment while maintaining a profitable business and industrial base. The guiding principle of the Round Table is the concept of sustainable development, which was defined by The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Another important purpose of the Round Table is to provide a venue for constructive dialogue between interested and affected parties about critical environmental issues.

Membership in the Round Table is voluntary and includes a 2-year commitment on the part of individual members. In order to have a wide range of interests involved, representatives from industry, organized labor, environmental interest groups, and government agencies have been invited to participate. Generally, the response to the concept of creating a forum for dialogue on environmental issues has been positive. However, there were a number of environmental groups that declined to participate in the government sponsored Round Table. These groups tend to feel that such involvement would compromise their role as environmental activist/critic. In a recent newspaper article on the establishment of the Environmental Round Table, one leader of an environmental group (EnviroAction) was cited as saying that they declined to participate for the following reason:

We must not compromise our children's futures by cutting deals with polluters and regulators. Environmental justice cannot be sold or traded. Some environmental groups may feel comfortable to sit with polluters and talk about how to control or minimize pollution, but no one has the right to legalize pollution.

Despite this opposition, there is a general feeling that the Environmental Round Table is a potentially useful vehicle for promoting a collaborative approach to meeting the challenges of environmental issues in the province.

The first meeting of the Environmental Round Table will be attended by the following:

1. Chairperson, Environmental Round Table;

2. President and CEO, Forest Products International;

3. Vice-President, Chemco-Pacific Region;

4. President, Chamber of Commerce;

5. President, Federation of Labour;

6. President, GreenAction;

7. Environmental Mission;

8. President, Conservation Society;

9. Deputy Minister of the Environment; and

10. Deputy Minister of Industry, Trade and Commerce

11. Any other Observers present (if applicable)

The Role-Play

STEP 1: SET-UP

Meet with other members of your Round Table at the location designated by the instructor. Write your role name and organizational affiliations on table cards. Observers (if any) meet with instructor for briefing.

STEP 2: GROUP TASK

Develop the mission statement for the Environmental Round Table that can be released to the media at the conclusion of the session. If enough time remains, you can discuss what the primary goals and objectives of the Round Table will be for the first year of operation.

STEP 3: CLASS DISCUSSION / Debriefing

Collaboration has been defined as "a process through which parties who see different aspects of a problem can constructively explore their differences and search for solutions that go beyond their own limited vision of what is possible" (Gray, 1989, p. 5). To what degree was collaboration achieved in your Round Table experience?

1. What were the group process dynamics in each Round Table? What types of decision-making processes were used?

2. Did any conflicts occur between Round Table participants? If so, what were they and how were they addressed and/or resolved?

3. Who were the most (and least) influential participants in the Round Table discussion? What types of influence tactics were initiated? How effective were they?

4. Was it difficult to achieve consensus on the mission statement? What factors and actions facilitated (or hindered) reaching consensus?

Examine the mission statements produced by the different Environmental Round Tables.

1. How useful or workable is the mission statement? Is it better to be general or specific?

2. What motivated different parties to agree to some words and not to others? Are there multiple interpretations of words that are symbolically or politically loaded? For example, how did different participants interpret the term sustainable development?

3. How can the mission statement be translated into practice? Are there any parts of the statement that will create problems for the Environmental Round Table and its participants in the future?