Earth Civics is a cooperative endeavor, aimed at empowering people, communities, and institutions, to find the path to sustainable human development, in harmony with Nature. We want people everywhere, in all circumstances, with all levels of influence, to be able to engage in open, cooperative civic engagement processes.
The Earth Civics Toolkit is designed to provide clarity, structure, and flexibility, for anyone wishing to organize such a meeting. We also recognize that ongoing processes tend to require networks of engaged individuals and institutions, so the Toolkit includes suggested coordination strategies for supporting such networks.
Earth is now experiencing more stress and disruption than at any time in the history of our species, and it is human industry that is the cause. In the United States, the nation is committed formally, by the Preamble to the Constitution, to the rights and wellbeing of future generations. We believe this standard is implicit in any and all legitimate law and policy.
As we noted on Earth Day 2026—ten years to the day from the signing of the Paris Agreement at United Nations Headquarters in New York—no one alive stops being affected by our collective relationship to the Earth’s life-sustaining systems; civic engagement to ensure that relationship is sustainble should not end either.
The gravity of the Triple Planetary Crisis is such that communities and institutions, including governments at local and national levels, should welcome and sustain robust civic processes. We are committed to bringing insights from stakeholders into international policy spaces, because they have a real effect on how we live locally and on our future prospects.
We recommend governments embrace the following standards, to ensure their policy processes are optimized to the current age of cascading risk:
- Hold open meetings where public views are welcomed and centered.
- Use insights from those meetings to craft participatory development plan processes.
- Prioritize health and wellbeing of residents, to ensure investments align with local needs and outcomes.
- Assign local or national agencies the task of identifying entry points for new skills and services.
- Treat engagement not as an extra but as the essential tool for getting the best results.
- Continue active, open, and ongoing civic engagement processes.
Toolkit for Local Stakeholder Meetings
The fully detailed Earth Civics Toolkit for Local Stakeholder Meetings includes the following sections:
- Standard Meeting Agenda
- Meeting Type Sample Agendas
- Materials for Managing the Working Session
- 20-Year Future Visioning Process
- Thematic Discussion Sample Agendas
- Outcome Report Guidance
- Resource Library
One of the most important insights to keep in mind if planning a local stakeholder engagement meeting is that you do not need major funding or a large audience. Policy-focused working sessions can work well with just a few people, depending on the circumstance.
If you are not familiar with such gatherings, it is worth attending a local municipal council meeting, to see how business is conducted and how much can be achieved with a relatively small number of people present. You may wish to work with your municipal government to arrange town hall-type events with a focus on local issues related to climate, health, and sustainability.