• Lynne Cooper Director & Co-Founder of The Homeless Garden Project
• Diane Bridgeman, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist, Board Chair, Peace Child-Santa Cruz
• Tony Hill Director, Alliance for Improving Race Relations; Access UnLimited
• Scott Kennedy Santa Cruz City Council; Former Mayor
• Paul Lee Co-Founder, Homeless Garden Project; Pres., Ecotopia, Inc.
• Pattie Mills Editor and Publisher of The Connection Magazine
• Ann-Marie Mitroff Cooperative Technologies and Services International
• Olga de Santa Anna-O'Brien Educator, Bilingual Specialist, Science Mentor
• Nick Papadakis Executive Director, Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments
• Daniel Robin Director, Sustainable Quality Awards Program
• Celia Scott Santa Cruz City Council; Attorney
• Barbara Vogl, M.Ed. Change Management Systems (in memoriam)
• Steve Ross President, United Nations Assoc., Santa Cruz Chapter; Educator
• DIRECTOR Jeanne Nordland, M.Ed. Director of ACTION-SCC

September, 1997

Dear Friends,

The Santa Cruz County "Local Agenda 21" process started soon after the Earth Summit in 1992, with steering committee and coalition meetings. In October of 1993 and also 1994, on UN Day, ACTION-Santa Cruz County and the Santa Cruz Chapter of the United Nations Association collaborated on two local S.E.E.D.* Summits at Nylonnek Retreat Center in Soquel, each drawing about 125 people. Participants self-selected to twelve Special Focus Area Round Tables and began to envision a "sustainable" future. Round Table meetings followed, and our Action Plan began to take shape. During the entire process a consensus model was used, along with the Guiding Principles printed on the back of this letter. To date, more than 150 groups, organizations, businesses, agencies, and hundreds of individuals have collaborated on this document.

This June in New York City, Earth Summit II took place and there was a renewed interest to see this process completed. As editor, I took on the challenge of updating and verifying the report. This meant passing the chapters by the scrutiny of experts in each field and then, of course, another round of agreements from key Round Table participants ... no small feat.

What we have at last are the cumulative hopes, ideas, and expertise of the people whose names appear at the bottom of each chapter -- plus many others who contributed bits and pieces. Yet this is only a beginning! This is very much a work in progress -- an organic process that will be adjusted and refined as our understanding evolves.

Where do we go from here? That will depend on all of you who read this blueprint for a sustainable 21st century in our county. In March of 1993, the Board of Supervisors endorsed the Agenda 21 proposal and in January, 1994, officially approved the process and agreed to seriously consider the document as a policy guide. We will now submit this "Local Agenda 21" to the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors and to municipalities for approval to be a guide for policy recommendations. Perhaps a Local Commission for Sustainability will be formed to oversee and aid administration of this plan, addressing the needs common to all. The next steps are dependent on each organization, business, agency, institution, and person heeding the call to work collaboratively toward the goal of creating a 'sustainable community' -- making our individual and collective voices and actions felt from one end of this county to the other and beyond. Now is the time, and we are the generation that must heed this calling. Our future really is "in our hands."

Sustainably,

Jeanne Nordland,

Coordinator & Editor

(* S.E.E.D. = Social, Environmental, & Economic Development)

325 Crows Nest Drive Boulder Creek, CA, 95006

• Tel: 408-338-6013
• Email: actionsc@cruzio.com