History of the Roundtable

The Sustainable and Resilient Water Resources Roundtable (SRRR) was formed from the Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable, a valuable forum for collaboration among federal, state, local, corporate, non-profit and academic interests from 2002 until 2019. Founded to support water sustainability efforts of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and federal agencies, it was a subgroup of the federal Advisory Committee on Water Information.  

An early activity of the Roundtable was the development of a framework for water sustainability indicators.  After SWRR workshops in Sacramento and elsewhere in California, the California Water Plan incorporated the Roundtable framework to build its own set of water sustainability indicators.  

Over a thousand people joined meetings of the Roundtable held around the country.  SWRR hosted meetings on the Water-Energy nexus with the Western Governors’ Association, DOE’s NREL; and meetings on climate change impacts in collaboration with NASA Ames and Sustainable Silicon Valley.   Other meetings made deep dives into pressing issues and local concerns, such as fire and drought in the west, sea level rise and ground water management in Florida and Gulf states, watershed management in several regions, and water quality and availability issues.

For nearly two decades, SWRR highlighted the importance of integrating sectors in sustainability and facilitated dialogue and collaboration among experts in government agencies, tribal representatives, leading academic and research institutions, non-governmental organizations, corporations, and others. The Roundtable co-hosted meetings with federal agencies and laboratories, including the Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and NRCS; the Dept. of Defense and US Army Corps of Engineers; Interior’s US Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation; Commerce’s NOAA, DOE’s NREL and NETL Laboratories; NASA and EPA.

When ACWI was about to be dissolved 2019, David Berry, SWRR Director, created an independent not-for-profit corporation.  During that time, SWRR members began discussions with other organizations interested in taking a collaborative approach to the major environmental, equity, and economic challenges of our time to support resilient and sustainable strategies for the future. These expanded relationships enabled the Roundtable to move to a wider scope of work and a new name, the Sustainable and Resilient Resources Roundtable (SRRR).