Five
E's Unlimited assists regions in creating authentic choices
for future development through cross-disciplinary inquiry
and
consensus-building.
We work hand-in-hand with clients to facilitate understanding
of how one practice affects another and how one resource affects
another. We help clients to seek common-ground solutions to
their problems by articulating and clarifying crucial controversies
and identifying strategies to advance their sustainable development
objectives. We also encourage looking beyond solving problems
one at a time, to a position where clients envision the development
of communities, organizations, and systems that prevent problems
from occurring in the first place.
We work with communities
(geo-politically defined groups of people, corporations,
governments) within a watershed and/or coastal area
context in recognition of the fact that only systemic
approaches will protect entire ecosystems and their
services that humans rely upon. This approach further
recognizes the artificial nature of geopolitical boundaries
and how limiting they are to effective long term planning.
Instead, the watershed approach assures that all future
development of land and water resources is able to
sustain the well-being of plants, animals, habitat,
and humans in this generation and for future generations.
We integrate the
building blocks of sustainable development theory and
practice with our understanding of sustainability
science to facilitate processes of community
capacity-building and leadership development that
will empower all interested
stakeholders in taking charge of their own destiny
toward planning and implementing strategies they
believe will lead to community/regional sustainability.
We
help people living in the communities we serve become
successful change agents.
By linking science,
conservation, and socio-economic improvement programs
on a global basis, we are able to design, direct, and
assist projects in:
- Planning & Action
for Community Sustainability
- Sustainability Education & Public Awareness
- Group Facilitation & Conflict Resolution
- Urban Sustainability
- Adaptive Watershed Management
- Coastal Zone Sustainability
Typically,
our approach to a project is to immerse ourselves into the
communities that we serve by spending significant blocks
of time on-site. In this way, we learn the context for perceived
issues and familiarize ourselves with circumstances, get
to know the different stakeholders, and discover first hand
what will work and what won't. We attempt to become a thread
in the community tapestry, because we believe that without
a thorough understanding of the community, its history, needs
and desires, we would be unable to effectively and efficiently
meet a client’s needs and encourage buy-in and engagement
by all stakeholders. |
