On May 14, 2019, approximately 30 Iowa DNR stakeholders took a deep-dive into the future. They spent five and a half hours examining important emerging trends and crafting a range of possible future scenarios for the future of sustainable materials management reaching out to 2030.

The Future Think-Tank launched the Iowa DNR’s visioning initiative focusing on:

• A review of global trends and the impact of these trends on sustainable materials management
• Formulation of the different plausible scenario spaces and development of detailed narratives and descriptions of each scenario
• Examination of the impact and consequences of each scenario on various aspects of sustainable materials management in Iowa Identification of the preferred future and critical action steps to achieve the preferred future
• The Think-Tank explored how sustainable materials management would change over time, depending on how a number of major themes played out.

The scenarios from the Think-Tank were then presented at focus group sessions held on August 7-8.