ENLIBRA: BALANCE AND STEWARDSHIP
A CONVERSATION WITH UTAH GOV. MIKE LEAVITT

What is Enlibra?

Enlibra is a Latin word: En, meaning “to move toward,” and Libra, meaning “balance.” It is a shared environmental doctrine, a philosophy that people relate to and subscribe to. We often say, “I’m a conservative. I’m a liberal.” We use other labels like, “I’m an environmentalist.” I hope an “Enlibran” will be someone who believes in the tenets of environmental stewardship and environmental balance. Balance between this generation and the next. Balance between conservation and development. Balance between urban and rural interests. The inspiration for this is Aristotle’s Golden Mean, the moral virtue between the two extremes. The place where morality finds its equilibrium. I hope Enlibra will become the place where our highest environmental aspirations and our most practical needs come together.

There is an appetite on the part of most people to believe in and attach themselves to an ethic that cares for the earth and demonstrates the stewardship that’s inherent in the human psyche. People want to believe in something that represents the opposite of greed. But until now there hasn’t been a place for those who want to associate themselves with a consistent set of balanced environmental principles while avoiding extreme viewpoints.

Can Enlibra really have an impact in the highly emotional and fractious arena of environmental debate?

Unless we increase the velocity of environmental progress, and reduce the cost, our nation’s economic competitiveness will suffer. We need to protect the environment, but we also need to provide food, clothing, jobs, highways, homes and airports for an expanding population. We have learned an enormous amount in last 35 years about how to achieve environmental improvement. But we’ve learned it in a very expensive way. We created big, top-down, prescriptive federal environmental agencies and a plethora of new laws in the 70s and 80s. After three decades of using this approach, we can say it worked—these laws have driven progress. But progress has been very slow and very expensive. The lengthy review processes, long delays, abundant litigation and the general adversarial climate has slowed environmental progress and increased its cost. We should now be able to apply what we’ve learned over several decades to double the environmental progress at half the cost. Unless we can reduce costs we can afford only so much progress. That doesn’t bode well for a growing society that will place more and more pressure on the natural world.

How were the Enlibra principles developed?

It’s important to understand that nobody invented these principles. These are principles tested by time and practical experience over many generations. We simply provided logic, context and organization to them. We reviewed many case studies where environmental progress has been made, and we looked for the common principles underlying these success stories.

We also looked at ways environmental disputes are typically resolved today. We found disagreements are too often defined in the context of oversimplified symbols. Disputes are discussed in terms of destruction, pillage, or being tree-huggers and anti-progress. Many times debate descends to name-calling because we are just not prepared to get into the complexities of issues. Or perhaps the posturing of public debate doesn’t allow a balanced approach for fear of appearing weak. Then we choose the crudest of tools—a lawsuit or a one-size-fits-all federal or state statute—and we do combat until one side has amassed enough raw political power to roll the other. Yes, environmental progress has been made using current methods. But at what cost? And at what pace?

For me this has been an almost spiritual quest, learning of our responsibility to the Earth—to preserve, beautify, cultivate and expand. Earth must be protected, but it’s also there to feed us. The limit of development is greed. We haven’t had a shared doctrine or a vocabulary that represents this philosophy. What has been missing is a standard against which to measure our shared beliefs and activities.

Is Enlibra a process, or is it a philosophy?

I don’t see Enlibra as a process. There are lots of processes. I see Enlibra as set of principles, a doctrine that can be applied to any logical process to increase velocity and expand the capacity to come to a productive conclusion. If you agree on principles, you have someplace to start. You can take almost any environmental success story and work backwards through all the politics and processes and you will see where resolution came after the two sides agreed on principles. What would have happened, how much faster could have resolution come, if they had started with a set of principles? We ought not to have to reinvent the principles every time we try to resolve a thorny problem. If we can start with Enlibra as a shared doctrine between combatants, we can progress more quickly and less expensively. If we could agree in advance that we prefer markets over mandates, for example, and we value results not processes, then resolution is within sight.

How do you see the Enlibra principles being used by various entities?

I see counties, states, cities, and the federal government adopting the doctrine of Enlibra as the underpinning of their environmental policies. I also see corporations adopting and following the Enlibra principles to guide them and help them be more sensitive to environmental issues. For these entities, Enlibra basically answers the question: “What is your environmental philosophy?” A corporation or government agency can respond: “We subscribe to the Enlibra principles.”

I hope that in time, schools and universities will teach the principles of Enlibra as a basic philosophy of environmental management. I hope that state legislators and members of Congress and regulators will say, “We’ve got to draft a piece of legislation or a regulation. Let’s use the principles of Enlibra as a place to start in measuring and developing our statute.” I would hope that when environmental disputes occur, the opposing parties can say, “We share a set of principles. Let’s sort out our dispute in that context.”

Enlibra is for those who choose problem-solving instead of politics, litigation and obstructionism. It’s not a political ideology, but is an environmental philosophy aimed at problem-solving. It is clearly meant to represent balance. It is a symbol that people who favor balance can rally around. It provides a symbol and lexicon for those not represented by the extremes.

How will the Enlibra doctrine spread and become a real factor and force in environmental management and dispute resolution?

Our effort will include an Awareness Phase, an Adoption Phase, and an Application Phase. We will mount a communications campaign with op-ed columns and media interviews to raise awareness of Enlibra. We intend to hold Enlibra conferences and recognize those who practice Enlibra principles by presenting annual Enlibra awards. A key action item is developing what we call the Enlibra Toolkit. The Toolkit will provide implementation tools showing how each principle can be used on a practical basis in real-life situations. It will provide a discussion of why each principle is important, and a guide to resource material. The Toolkit will also provide case studies to illustrate each principle in action, showing how they have been used in the past. We expect the Toolkit will be very popular with federal, state, and local agencies, in addition to corporations.

Training courses will be available for those who wish to become certified Enlibra practitioners. University and college courses will be developed, some of them available via distance learning. We anticipate the formal adoption of Enlibra principles by agencies and decisionmakers. Already, organizations like the Western Governors Association and the National Governors Association have adopted the Enlibra principles.

As the Enlibra doctrine spreads and is more widely accepted we expect to develop a certification process like Total Quality Management or ISO 9000. After an agency, corporation or other entity adopts the principles of Enlibra, commits itself to operate the organization accordingly, and can demonstrate commitment and success, they can apply for Enlibra certification. Once we have state, federal, and local governments, plus corporations and environmental groups all agreeing to the principles of Enlibra, we have a real head start on making environmental progress with less cost, litigation and delay.