The Common Agenda grew out of a need to create a more consistent message and collaborative effort among South Carolina's conservation community in order to pass more conservation bills at the State House. The results have been remarkable.
During the fall 2005, in the first planning stages of the Common Agenda, Conservation Voters Education Fund visited eight towns across the state to gain a better understanding of the public's concerns about clean water, air and land in their own communities. From these discussions, the conservation community reached consensus to establish four broad themes under which future priorities would fall, to: "conserve our water, land, way of life, and energy."
Under these guiding principles, the conservation community passed four of seven major priorities during the 2006 Legislative Session: Conservation Bank funding, Heritage Trust Bonding, reform of the DHEC permitting process, and regulations for bridges to marsh islands.
During the 2007 Legislative Session the conservation community passed seven of nine major priorities, including Conservation Bank funding, defeat of the expansion of Barnwell Nuclear Waste Dump, Department of Transportation reform, river shacks removal, mercury regulations, local growth management ("Priority Investment Areas") and green buildings legislation.
By working through the Common Agenda process, in 2008 the community worked together to accomplish three of five priorities. These victories included the passage of several energy efficiency bills, public notice about polluted waters, and passage of Conservation Bank funding in a very tight budget year.
During the 2009-2010 Legislative Session, five of six major priorities were passed including energy efficiency financing, protecting natural resource agency funding, keeping the Conservation Bank alive, stopping the rollback of incinerator regulations, and most importantly- water withdrawal permitting.