Sustainable development for local communities

Introduction

The aim of this short document is to help local communities, especially parishes, work towards achieving sustainable development. There are three elements to plan for:

-         Research to establish any previous or current local action and develop new initiatives

-         Forming local action groups to guide the process, including research and maintain its relevance to the needs of the area

-         Choosing the changes that will establish new ideas, initiatives and practices that will make future development sustainable

 

Research

The aim is to identify organisations, informal groups, businesses and individuals within the parish who are likely to be interested in implementing sustainable development and to avoid duplicating work that has already been done.

 

1.      A start should be made by contacting the District/Borough LA21 Officer and the Parish or Town Council to find out what has already happened, for example there may have been ‘Visioning’ exercises, or a Village Forum or a local LA 21 Group, or Environmental Group, or Countryside Group, or other relevant initiatives, including a commitment to produce a 'Parish Plan'. The people involved could form the basis for an action group or at least provide support to speed the process of further research

2.      A second step could be to find out whether the area contains active groups or members of national or local societies that have sustainable development as a principal concern, such as:

-         Staffordshire Wildlife Trust, RSPB, Woodland Trust, WWF

-         Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Global Action Plan

-         Eco-Schools, Eco-Congregations

3.      Local community buildings, such as a Village Hall, Church Hall, School or Village Post Office often serve as a place where groups meet or advertise their activities. The people running them may be prepared to participate in action groups

 

Action Groups

The aim is to gather together enough people capable of helping the process of research and influencing local events to start action both in community premises and at home. Depending on the extent of past local activity, it may be possible to form several action groups that could be responsible for different activities, including organising local meetings to encourage wider interest. If a formal survey of local public opinion is considered necessary, it is best to work within the context of existing initiatives, for example it might be possible to add a suitable question to work being done to prepare a funded Parish Plan, along the lines of:

-         Are you aware of national and local commitment to achieve sustainable development?

-         Are you a member of a national or local environment group?

-         Do you manage local premises in which you would like to practice sustainable development?

 

Changes

The aim is to stimulate a new way of thinking that will meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. Action should lead to four outcomes, against which progress can be measured:

 

1.      Waste currently going to landfill should be reduced and, where possible, eliminated because the country is running out of suitable sites and natural systems cannot cope with some of the products that we currently deposit

2.      Energy currently produced by burning fossil fuels (such as oil, gas and coal), which contribute to climate change, should be replaced by energy from renewable sources (such as solar, wind and wave power or burning crops grown for energy purposes, known as biomass)

3.      Transport involving vehicles powered by fossil fuels (principally oil) contributes to the causes of climate change and, because renewable alternatives are at an early stage of development, needs to be reduced and eliminated, where possible

4.      The diversity of other life in the locality and across the world should be maintained and supported because humans rely on the 'web of life' for our survival

 

Ideas to guide progress include:

At Home & in Community Buildings

  1. Reducing the amount of waste by composting organic waste (such as vegetable residues) or recycling using the facilities provided by the local authority or other neighbourhood services (to collect glass bottles, tins, plastic and paper) and avoiding the disposal of anything that might harm other life
  2. Assessing whether anything surplus to requirements can be useful to someone else (either as a gift or as a sale item)
  3. Using recyclable products, such as renewable energy and recycled paper
  4. Examining all purchasing decisions to see if they are really necessary or if existing assets can be used more efficiently to eliminate the need for additional consumption and harmful wastes

 

Within business and commercial activities

  1. Seeing if materials from existing waste streams can either be recovered and returned to the production process/service activities (this includes reusing waste energy) or sold for profit or donated for goodwill purposes
  2. Extending the life of capital equipment by repair and refurbishment either within its current use or, where this would impair overall efficiency, by sale or donation to an appropriate charity or cause
  3. Purchasing recyclable inputs and renewable energy
  4. Designing more efficient and less harmful products and services

(Paper produced on behalf of the Staffordshire Rural Sustainability Project, with contributions from members of the steering group: Ian Mitchell (chair), Karen Davies, Brian Heathcote and Paul Newman)

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