Blog
61 Blog posts found
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Could SONGS offer a sightline to solving our nuclear waste dilemma?
In its recently published book, Resolving Energy and Land Conflicts, CBI tackled one of the toughest and perhaps most intractable land use and energy dilemmas: where should we put the nuclear waste that is building up through decades of generation from our fleet of nuclear power plants? There is no licensed permanent repository for nuclear waste in the U.S., but a settlement agreement in California to relocate fuel from the decommissioned San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) may offer important lessons on how to find temporary or permanent locations to store nuclear waste. In this blog post, CBI Senior Mediator Catherine Morris draws on CBI's land use and energy siting expertise to propose a roadmap for successful collaboration to address this challenge.
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We are All in it Together: Collaborative Governance Advancing Water Management
Challenges around water management in the American West are deepening, as weather becomes more variable and, at times, severe. CBI has been working on water issues with communities in the West for a decade and has found “collaborative governance” to be a very helpful approach to bringing people together to address management of critical water resources. Collaborative water governance assumes that managing water is most effective when everyone is in support of the decision-making process and has a voice in critical issues that affect their lives and livelihoods. In this blog post, CBI West Director Gina Bartlett and CBI Senior Mediator Tania Carlone discuss the benefits and challenges of collaborative water governance in the American West.
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Reflections on a Collaborative Documentary Experiment
In early 2019, in collaboration with the Colombian Center for Responsible Business, CBI envisioned and co-produced a documentary film as a medium to give voice to the experience and concerns of community stakeholders living in the coal-mining region of Cesar, Colombia. In this blog post, CBI Senior Mediator Merrick Hoben reflects on his filmmaking experience.
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Nurturing Collaboration in Colorado’s Water Community: What Have We Learned?
Building on the development of Basin Roundtables for each of the state’s river basins, Colorado's 2015 water plan set a goal of developing stream or integrated water management plans for many of the state's rivers. Now in full swing, these efforts are attempting to meet a range of stakeholder needs by seeking consensus-based solutions such as operational changes, infrastructure improvements, and restoration alternatives. CBI Senior Mediator Ryan Golten and CBI Senior Consultant Dan Birch reflect on the challenge not just of technically integrated planning, but of the human dimension of collaboratively managing water.
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Cities Building a Culture of Climate Action
Many municipalities are developing sustainability plans aimed at building local resilience to climate change impacts. The success of these initiatives is highly dependent on effective community engagement – and many leaders are realizing that they need to invest in networks and facilitate conversations to help build a culture of understanding and action. In this post, CBI Senior Mediator Ona Ferguson outlines questions that municipal leaders can employ to determine the most effective community engagement approach for their region.
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Volunteer Committees: Set Them Up for Success!
Some of CBI's most rewarding projects have been with local committees that engage members of the community to make important decisions that affect that community or region. As CBI Senior Mediator Carri Hulet reflected on some of these facilitations, a number of insights and learnings surfaced about how to set up, support, and reward these volunteer bodies. Here are four suggestions for choosing the right people, setting the right expectations, and providing the right support right off the bat.
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Energy Siting Can Be Incendiary
As energy extraction and production technology has advanced, a whole host of issues around siting arose across stakeholders. CBI outlines seven key lessons from mitigating these types of conflicts and announces a new book.
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Serious Gaming in South Carolina
In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence, role play simulations serve as a powerful tool to help South Carolina communities address the impacts of climate change.
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Adapting to Rising Waters along the Hudson: Lessons from Piermont, NY
A small riverfront community in New York confronts the challenges of sea level rise head-on through work with CBI.
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Community Engagement in Federal Site Remediation
Community advisory groups (CAGs) can play an important role in engaging the community to manage long-term cleanup sites. However, it's vital to set them up for success.
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Companies, Communities & Responsible Engagement: What Palm Oil and Salmon Tell Us About Constructive Change in Latin America
Merrick Hoben and David Plumb explain three process observations from their work with palm oil and salmon in Latin America.
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Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The Pitfalls of Cognitive Bias
Cognitive biases can provide shortcuts to decision-making, but in complex and contentious processes, they often get in the way of making the best agreements.
