Page Aim
Different third sector news streams focus on various sustainability and community work concerns. The S&P Report aims to take an overview, drawing upon the information covered in a range of these, while highlighting the importance of democratic participation in problem solving.
The quarterly updates will summarise news from a range of sources, including the United Nations Commission for Sustainable Development (and associated UNEP and UNED and Stakeholder Forum); from key national players, such as Urban Forum and the New Economics Foundation; from Government founded organisations such as the Sustainability Development Commission; and from wide support base campaigns like WWF, Campaign for Better Transport, Friends of the Earth , Soil Association and Jubilee Debt Campaign.
Page Contents
Communities
Environment
Education
Business and the Economy
Climate Change
Voluntary and Community Sector
Page Updates
Please could you add LINKS’ contact details to your mailing list. Send material for summary to: Sustainability LINKS, 3 Park Road, Bedworth, Warwickshire CV12 8LH. For specific news or contributions please use the email address info@sustainabilitylinks.org.uk
To enable this website help others keep informed of developments please could you also send us:
National organisations’ contact details, events information,
newsletters, etc, newspaper clippings (source and date please).
Articles for inclusion on the website and LINKSdisk (typed
hard copies, 1000 words maximum please).
Your letters and input into the various website pages.
Autumn 2009
Information sources used here include:
Campaign for Better Transport, Environmental Investigation Agency, Jubilee Debt Campaign, Local Works, New Economics Foundation, Optimum Population Trust, Plantlife International, Soil Association, Urban Forum.
Your support for these national organisations will enable them to support the work you do where you live. For contact details see the National Initiatives page.
Communities
Developing Your Comprehensive Community Engagement Strategy: a Practical Guide for LSPs
Urban Forum, NAVCA and IDeA, with support from the NEP. 2009.
CCESs are to help join up the various levels and processes of locality working, and do this by mapping, clarifying and explaining just how various LSP processes are engaging with local communities.
Because of their links with LAAs, LSPs are responsible for the production of these Engagement Strategies, but they will be of interest to a wide range of stakeholders including local infrastructure organisations, third sector groups and community networks.
Joining up the dots...
Global environmental, economic and social unsustainability - and the ever- growing impact of these upon localities - are the elephant in the LSP office, but the CCES can be used to explore ways to bring overview to input. See the Helpful Documents page.
Sustainable Communities Act 2007
Up until June 2009 100 councils have opted-in to the SCA. Local Works, who instigated, drafted and promoted the legislation, have been highlighting the need for supporters to again lobby MPs, requesting that they sign two EDMs.
The SCA requires the Government to publish details of all spending by all local public bodies in order for communities to decide if the money is being used in the best way to stimulate and maintain community revival. To date the Government has not been doing so, merely depending on existing breakdowns of local authority and primary health trust expenditures. The three main sponsors of the Act have tabled EDM 1064.
The Green Energy Bill proposes the local use of renewables and microgeneration, creates local green collar jobs and lowers fuel bills - while helping to reverse local decline and deliver sustainable communites.
Local Grants Forum
2009 publications of the Local Grants Forum include:
Sustaining Grants - Why Local Grant Aid is Vital
Why Grants are Important for a Healthy Local VCS
Using Public Law to Challenge Local Authorities
Grants Can Lead to Improvements in Services
Government Guidance on How to Use Grants
Less Red Tape
More information about these titles can be found on this site's Helpful Books page. Established in 2007, the Forum is a partnership of 15 national organisations campaigning to protect grants for the VCS. It publishes resources to help local communities of interest to pursuade councillors, and procurement and commissioning professionals that grants should still be made available to fund third sector activities. It says that, Using Forum materials, VCOs;
"...will be able to quote Government guidance which supports use of grants; challenge the myth that grants are no longer possible because of competition law and European regulations; and explain what grants can achieve for local communities that contracts cannot."
In CDF's Community Development Challenge series 'Strategies'
is a briefing for those trying to develop a community development
strategy for their area, or to promote community development at
strategic level. 'Democracy' demonstrates how community development
can help realise local governance and democracy objectives. www.cdf.org.uk
In 2007 the London Leaders project was set up across
communities in the capital. Its aim was to make the city sustainable.
The London Sustainable Development Commission presents a weekly
programme on Passion for the Planet, the digital radio station with
a green agenda that's on air in the south east of England, but can
also be heard online at www.passionfortheplanet.com. The broadcasts
regularly attract 120,000 listeners.
Compacts' Funding and Procurement Code of good practice
had to be clarified by Treasury guidance following VCS confusion
over conflicting Government and EU requirements. The guidance
identified the full extent of public agencies' funding responsibilies
to the VCS.
Environment
A round up of brief environmental news items that can affect us all and the decisions we make, no matter where we live.
Diet
The heavy use of antibiotics in intensive farming was
linked to a range of superbugs in a 2008 study published by the
Food Commission. Half of antibiotics used in British husbandry
are used as a result of rearing animals in intensive conditions
where salmonella, e-coli and other bugs develop an immunity to the
drugs. Every year in the UK 30,000 people are affected by
e-coli - and there are 4,200 fatalities. The European Food
Safety Authority has called for a Europe-wide review to tackle the
growing problem - in an earlier report it identified "the principal
foods carrying resistent bacteria are poultry meat, eggs, pork and
beef".
The Silent Seas Report was published by the Marine Conservation
Society at the end of last year. It identifies the problems
caused by overfishing and pollution. Previously unpublished
data shows that only 8of 47 fish species are in a healthy state.
Pollution sources include sewage toxic chemical and oil discharges,
radioactive waste, plastic litter and urban and agricultural run
off.
"Too many fish are taken from the seas, too much rubbish is thrown into the sea and too little is done to protect precious marine life and habitats."
Dr Simon Brockington, Head of Conservation, Marine Conservation Society.
Eat Green's Eco Diet
Launched in April 2009, this new campaign challenges the livestock industry's responsibility for more global greenhouse gas emissions than any other sector (18%, compared with the 13.5% from transport, the next highest). Eat Green is also highlighting two other dietary links with global unsustainability:
One of the main threats to local and global biodiversity is the
livestock industry's slash and burn deforestation practice. This
destroys habitats and entire populations of mammals, birds, amphibians,
reptiles, insects, plants, funghi, mosses and micro-organisms.
While species are becoming extinct at a rate of up to 1,000 times faster than they should, the human population is set to reach 9,000 million by 2050. The population stood at 5,100 million at the beginning of 1990.
The industry rears 55 million animals for consumption every year
- and this squanders precious resources such as crops, land, and
medications. Some, like drinking water, are becoming increasingly
precious.
1,200 million people live in water scarcity and 1,600 suffer from 'economic' water scarcity.
Too much salt can cause high blood pressure, strokes
and heart attacks. Half of all soups contain harful levels
of salt, such as many of those produced by Baxters, Knorr, Cross
& Blackwell, Pret a Manger - and even some organic brands. The
Governments FSA has said that by 2010 soups should contain no more
than 0.6g of salt per 100g. A CASH survey has found 48% of
soups contain above this amount; for example 28 out of 54 Heinz
varieties and 29 / 38 of Batchelors'. Curiously, Food Magazine
reported that the Seeds of Change organic brand had the highest
salt levels, with one variety containing 1.12g per 100g.
GM Crop Planting
It was this year that the Government announced GM crops would start to be planted at secret sites in the UK. Back in July 2006 it was also decided to raise the non-GM crop contamination threshold to 0.9%, which means that as long as any produce does not contain levels exceeding this it can still be considered organic.
In 2005 a Royal Commission recommended that five meter buffer zones should surround GM crops, acknowledging serious, but unproven, concerns that spraying levels could be linked to medical conditins including ME and Parkinson's Disease. The recommendation was not adopted by Defra.
"The Government's position is 'thoughtful and balanced' and there is 'adequate protection' for the public."
Professor Robert Smith, Government Advisory Committee on Pesticides.
"The Government has refused to acknowledge the health risks inherent in the spraying of agricultural chemicals". This will "affect people who live, work, go to school or just spend considerable time in the countryside."
Georgina Downs, UK Pesticides Campaign.
Climate Change and Energy Use
Transition Towns Council Endorsement
Positive News, autumn 2008.
Somerset County Council has endorsed a motion to become the UK's first Transition Local Authority. This means the issues of limate change and peak oil are all set to guide Council forward planning, and that resources are likely to be made available for VCS Transition initiatives. Movement lobbying has now shifted to bring the county's district and town councils on board. The watershed SCC motion is included on this site's Model Resolutions page.
Last autumn the Royal Society launched a major study into whether
any geoengineering technologies could help reduce greenhouse gas
emissions. The research has been looking at proposals' relative
potential.
Biotech companies are filing patents in genes that help
crops resist the heat, drought and flood damage caused by climate
change. Nine firms have filed over 530 patents.
The Guardian ran a number of features on climate change
to coincide with last year's climate camp. George Monbiot
raised concerns over the new coal based technology, while Arthur
Scargill thought it preferable to nuclear power. Defra's climate
science advisor, Bob Watson said that the UK's greenhouse gas emissions
reduction target (60% by 2050) means the UK should prepare for a
4c rise in temperatures. Olive Tickell outlined his Kyoto
2 strategy, noting that the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol
had done little to reduce emissions.
Towards the end of last year the NASA scientist who first
drew attention to global warming spoke as a key witness in the crown
court case against Greenpeace campaigners who had daubed a slogan
on a Kingsnorth coal-fired plant chimney. Professor James
Hansen outlined the effects of global warming in support of the
Greenpeace assertion that under the Criminal Damage Act 1971 its
supporters have a 'lawful excuse' to cause the damage - as they
were seeking to prevent the greater damage that climate change will
bring.
"We are living in a science fiction nightmare in the US today... bringing children into a world where the air is too poisonous for them to breathe."
US environmental lawyer, Robert F Kennedy, referring to pollution caused by the nation's 1,100 coal burning power plants.
The Thames Estuary 2100 Report for the Environment Agency
estimates that the cost of protecting London and the south east
from flooding could exceed £20 billion.
Domestic Energy Waste Increases
Energy Saving Trust
While efforts are being made to urge people to reduce energy consumption many electrical products are being manufactured which actually require us all to use more electricity.
There are not only more appliances available for personal use - mobile phones, music systems, games consoles, camcorders, but some - such as flat screen plasma tvs and dab radios - use significantly more energy than traditional sets (in this example three and seven times respectively). We are also more wasteful in how we use these, eg switching on music systems to play cds, or a tv / pc to listen to radio. Also, unless tvs, dvd players and set top boxes are redisigned in the next ten years, we will be spending over £607 million simply to keep domestic gadgets on standby.
The Energy Saving Trust report highlighting the problem suggests that, rather than persuading us all to be more conscientious, efforts to promote energy efficiency create an erroneous impression that increased energy usage is ok as the technologies themselves are becoming less wasteful.
A study of satellite data has revealed that the destructiveness
of extreme weather has increased significantly over 30 years. The
findings, published in the journal Nature, also support - though
not prove - the theory that the seas become heat engines whereby
stored energy converts into hurricane force winds.
Waste and Recycling
Although widely believed to be the most important source
of Omega 3, fish oils often contain toxins from marine pollution,
such as dioxins and mercury. The essential fatty acid can
help fight coronary hearth disease, asthma, type 1 diabetes and
MS; it can also help prevent some cancers and osteoporosis. Omega
3 is available from a variety of plant sources, including flaxseed,
rapeseed, soya and walnuts.
Did you know?
One often overlooked source of marine pollution thousands is
the thousands of tonnes of fish routinely returned to the seas as
by-catch.
82% of fish species caught for the plate are on course for extinction.
International Council for the Exploration of Seas.
An EU law obliging Britain and other member countries
to stop waste increasing beyond present levels has been rejected
by governments across Europe, although Germany and Belgium have
already stabilised their municipal waste. On average everyone
in Britain produces half a tonne of waste every year - almost the
same as for all of Europe.
Why's home composting important...
...don't items break down in landfill just the same? No. Composting needs air. In landful compostible materials are squashed beneath other rubbish, and without air their decomposition produces methane, a stronger greenhouse gas than CO2.
Ethical Consumption
Global Environment Outlook 4
United Nations Environment Programme
The most recent Global Environmental Outlook highlights the continued degredation of the planet since the publication of 'Our Common Future', 1987's Brundtland Report. Since then almost all indexes of the planet's health show inexorable biospheric decline. This, the fourth review, draws upon the expertise of 400 contributors; it identifies the three worst environmental problems as population growth, climate change and mass extinction.
"The bill we hand on to our children may prove impossible to pay."
Achim Steiner, Executive Director, UNEP.
The review, which took five years to compile, gives full details of current concerns:
While 'Our Common Future' proposed that growth could address
global poverty issues, economic expansion has instead increased
personal wealth in the developed world.
The amount of freshwater available per person has continued to
decline, almost halving in some areas.
Rates of extinction are now 100 times faster than occurs naturally
- a quarter of all mammal species and a third of all amphibian species
are currently threatened.
Some fish numbers have become severely depleted, while others
have collapsed.
The extent and intensity of agriculture has increased, with consequent
impacts on soil erosion, water usage, nutrient depletion and pollution.
Energy consumption levels have continued to rise - with a corresponding
rise in C02 concentrations.
Rainforest Destruction
Environmental Investigation Agency. www.eia-international.org
The Red List of Endangered species shows that apes and monkeys are being driven to extinction at an unprecedented rate. In south east Asia 70% of primates are threatened by rainforest destruction, driven by developed countries' demand for garden furniture made from ancient forest timbers.
As if this weren't a serious enough threat, species' numbers are further declining because of the consequent ease of forest access and growth in the bush meat trade. Some of the threatened species are orang-utans, Malayan sun bears, Asian elephants, clawed leopards and tigers.
"What is happening in south east Asia is terrifying. To have a group of animals under such a high level of threat is, quite frankly, unlike anything we have recorded among any other group of species to date."
Red List publisers, the International Union for Conservation of Naure, August 2008.
EIA research has identified Vietnam as the hub of the East Asian illegal timber trade. The growth of the wood processing industry depends upon the clearance of the region's remaining forests. From the mid '90s Vietnam has conserved its own remaining forest areas, while increasing its furniture exports tenfold since 2000. EIA lobbying is focused on the USA and EU governments, urging that they legislate to combat the import of illegal timber products.
"The UK is the fourth largest consumer market of imported tropical timber, yet only a fraction of it can be said with any degree of certainty to have been legally secured.'
Barry Gardiner MP, PM's Special Envoy for Forests.
A body of legal opinion is proposing wild laws to speak
for animals, plants and the biosphere. Under these laws the
rights of, say, polar bears, could be used to obtain injunctions
against activities that deny their right to exist as part of the
Arctic ecosystem.
The National Trust has warned that our continued use
and destruction of peat bogs is a "timebomb" as it means
the loss of valuable carbon sinks and the release of significant
quantities of already stored CO2.
Would you prefer to buying ethically or from local growers
or manufacturers? Plans for businesses to make available details
of their products' supply chains were to be required by legislation,
but one of the 655 Government amendments to the recent Bill was
a response to CBI lobbying to remove the provision.
Sustainable Transport
The Government's air transport consultation and public
responses to it have left the country with three major expansion
schemes - expansion of Heathrow and Stansted (where a public inquiry
is necessary) and the building of a bigger runway at Birminham International.
Campaign for Better Transport is calling upon the Government
to withdraw support for airport expansion, to follow Treasury proposals
to replace Air Passenger Duty with individual aircraft charging
(which would include weight and distance factors) and to tax domestic
flight fuels, ringfencing revenues for rail service improvements.
No aviation fuels are currently taxed. www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns
Demand for rail travel is at a 50 year high, with around
a billion annual passenger journeys being made in the UK. The
volume of rail freight is also increasing. Unfortunately Government
policies are failing to keep up with existing demand let alone develop
rail's real potential.
Passenger Focus was established as the rail watchdog,
enabling train users to report any unsatisfactory operator responses
to complaints. Since April 2009 bus users have also been able
to contact the organisation. Until then bus companies had
been the only public service providers not accountable to independent
complaints scrutiny. www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns
CBT is asking people to email their MPs and the Government's
transport secretary about setting up a carbon reduction fund from
the existing £5 billion transport budget. The fund would
pump prime sustainable transport schemes. www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns
Travel mode of choice
Up to 2009, network upgrades on the London - Manchester corridor have resulted in rail's share of passengers rising by 20% to 60%.
The British tourist industry's dissatisfaction with unfair
tax breaks for short haul airlines has been taken to the House of
Commons. Travelodge representatives told an enquiry that the
financial policy is causing UK tourism to suffer. www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns
During 2008 the Government planned about 200 road schemes,
costing £13bn, including £5bn for widening sections
of the M1. This was more that it contributes to the entire
rail network in a year. www.bettertransport.org.uk/campaigns
Did you know that the National Rail Timetable, published
continuously since 1841, is now no longer available? The 3,000
plus page tome was revised every six months.
Cycling by Train is a leaflet giving the contact details
of all UK train service providers and any policies and facilities
they have for the benefit of cyclists. For details about how
to get a copy see www.brompton.co.uk
Overview
Communities in Northern Peru have been protesting against
their areas being used for oil exploration. Nearly two months
of peaceful actions errupted into violence at the beginning of June
2009 when clashes between police and demonstrators led to the death
of an unverifiable number of protestors - local people say over
a hundred, offical sources say five - and 20 police officers.
Environmentalists who campaigned for years against the
use of lead in petrol can take cold comfort from current research
at Boston, Maryland and Michegan Universities. A significant
factor in the UK lead ban in 2000 was the damage the metal can cause
children's brains. The latest studies have found that long
term exposure to lead, which accumulates in bone tissue, is a cause
of accelerated ageing - there is a significant correlation between
those people testing with higher doses and those with a deteriorating
abilty to think, learn, remember and express themselves. BBC
World, 7 June 2009.
It has been discovered that 369 British farms are still
being affected by fall-out from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.
The Ukrainian power station released radioactive clouds, which
travelled 2,000 km and across 20 countries, back in april 1986.
Education
The quarterly S&P Report updates will include information about developments in education, as well as other news of particular interest to young people.
Teach Your Granny to Text... and Other Ways to Change
the World, by Tanis Taylor, looks at some of the many ways that
simple everyday actions can be done in different ways - and illustrates
how cumulative changes in the way we do things canmake a huge
global difference. The guide was compiled with the help of
over 4,000 children. www.wearewhatwedo.org
Voice of the Children. Every UK primary school
was invited to ask pupils what they'd do to make the world a better
place. Some of the responses are drawn together in this collection
of prose, poetry, lyrics and pictures. www.leafaandstar.co.uk
90% of children think leaders should do whatever it takes to save the planet.
Is your school a Jubilee School? Jubilee Debt Campaign
provides schools with drop third world debt educational news, classroom
ideas and materials. www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
Legislation now requires all VCS training to be undertaken
by accredited trainers.
'Setting Up for Success', recently published by Community
Development Foundation, outlines how to establish and maintain a
voluntary or community organisation. publications@cdf.org.uk
The Centre for Alternative Technology is opening a Welsh
Assembly supported eco-education complex this autumn. It will
showcase a wide range of energy descent technologies as well as
guidance on the personal and social behavioural changes necessary.
www.cat.org.uk
www.generationgreen.co.uk is the British Gas website
for schools, with over 4,000 signed up. The site includes
information on topics ranging from bikes and wormeries, to wind
turbines and solar panels. It also includes a schools' carbon
footprint calculator, educational links, details of the Green Leaves
scheme and a games room.
Business & the Economy
A Nation in Debt
The Mail questioned the official figures for public debt, its feature revealing the extent of hidden liabilities.
|
Total debt |
Amount per household |
|
|
£645 bn |
£26, 030 |
Official Public Debt. |
|
£1,071 bn |
£43,898 |
Public sector pensions liability - no money has been set aside. |
|
£500 bn |
£20,169 |
Bank bail out. |
|
£100 bn |
£4,098 |
PFI debts - the Government has committed future taxpayers to refund builders over a 20 year period. |
|
£30 bn |
£1,230 |
Bradford & Bingley liabilities. |
|
£20 |
£820 |
Network Rail liabilities from 2002. |
It's difficult to calculate a true total commitment as the figure would have to include state debt interest repayments and the implementation of those present economic policies which depend upon further public borrowing. However, apart from Government debt, the nation has also amassed extensive business and individual debts:
|
£2,300 bn |
£94,300 |
Corporate debt. |
|
£1,457 bn |
£28,733 |
Personal debt - on average Britons have been borrowing twice as much as other Europeans. |
Like communities worldwide, businesses are gearing up
for next year's football world cup in South Africa. Meanwhile
the Government there is striving to conceall the poverty in which
millions of citizens live, evicting the shack communities situated
on the outskirts of tournament cities. War on Want is fundraising
to ensure that this is highlighted and that people being relocated
should be offered new and viable settlements. www.waronwant.org.uk
In January 2008, Omitira in Namibia became the first
place to implement basic income, and a recent review has shown that
the scheme has encouraged small scale economic enterprise. Other
statistics recorded over the period suggest that it has also brought
various health benefits to the town's residents. Positive
News, summer 2009.
Co-op Bank customers get the chance to vote for the national
VCOs that will benefit from bank donations. For more information
contact Customers who Care, Co-operative Bank plc, Head Office,
PO Box 101, 1 Balloon Street, Manchester M60 4EP. 0800 994
311. www.cooperativebank.co.uk
The World Bank estimates that illegal logging costs developing
countries around $15bn a year. EIA is working through the
UN's Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice for eco-crime
to be treated as seriously as arms and drugs trafficking.
Urban Forum has expressed some reservation about the
nature of economic growth over the past four decades, both because
it has led to an increased wealth divide and fuelled climate change.
It has endorsed Sustainabitly South West's suggestion that
Regional Development Agencies should be reconfigured as Sustainable
Development Agencies.
Virgin, Stagecoach, Scottish Energy and five other major
British companies have published a report warning that the oil crunch
will come within just five years. Writing in the Guardian
one of the report authors sets out the stark maths; people are using
3.5 million barrels of oil a day of the trillion barrels of known
reserves. The report also dashed industry's hope that reserves
could be supplemented and supplanted from oil derived from tar sand
as the necessary processing creates huge greenhouse gas emissions.
Climate Change and Energy
This feature is being redeveloped.
Voluntary and Community Sector
Friends of the Earth
2008 saw the end of Friends Of the Earth's last five-year plan, with many of its aims being successfully realised. During the period the organisation;
Worked with other groups to achieve the passing of the Climate
Change Act in 2007.
Influenced EU transport policy and recycling targets.
Established UKWIN (UK Without Incineration Network) to take forward
its waste and recycling aims.
Published research on the inclusion of aviation in the EU Emissions
Trading Scheme and on how to maximise the economic benefits of higher
environmental standards.
Co-produced a film documenting the impacts of palm oil companies
in Indonesia.
Campaigned for a more democratic planning system.
The organisation's Rights and Justice team has had several court
successes including the prevention of plans to destruct 7,000 community
forest trees and the defeat of BAA's injunction preventing
people travelling to the Heathrow climate camp.
Persuaded a number of Regional Assemblies to draw up Cllimate
Change Action Plans, and the Welsh Assembly to set up an annual
greenhouse gas reduction target of 3% by 2011.
FOE's local groups continued to take effective action of particular
relevance to their own areas and their Campaign Champions scheme
enabled members without local links to become actively involved
in various other ways.
Much of FOE's work has entailed reaching out to people not already involved in, or aware of, sustainability concerns, the organisation's maintained a presence at the annual festivals, pop and rock tours and through various exhibitions.
The new 2008 - 2011 Action Plan is focusing on two issues members have identified as being the most serious and urgent - climate change and biodiversity.
On climate change FOE will be working with local groups to implement
changes and colleagues across the EU to gain a 30% emissions reduction
by 2020. At international level they plan to lobby the December
2009 UN Climate Change talks in Copenhagen.
Biodiversity programmes will focus on the impacts of livestock,
diet, biofuels and of western lifestyle and consumption on the south.
Their international level work on deforestation will of course
also embrace climate change issues.
For details of your local Friends of the Earth group or to join nationally see the website, phone 020 7490 1555 or write to FOE, 26 - 28 Underwood Street, London N1 7JQ.
Environmental Investigation Agency
www.eia-international.org
At present EIA's main programmes are:
Working with local communities in Indonesia to help them oppose
forest destruction for logging and the development of biomass oil
plantations.
Building pressure on the Chinese government to close the tiger
skin trail.
Cooperating through multilateral agreements and enforcement agencies
to end the illegal trade in environmentally harmful chemicals.
Investigating the illegal ivory trade and strengthening the international
and local protection of elephants.
New Economics Foundation
During 2008 the think-tank was involved in a number of successful high-profile ventures, which include:
Its Post Offices campaign, which resulted in a Government u-turn
on contracting out the PO's Card Account.
Triple Crunch actions on climate, oil and credit.
Continued promotion of the Sustainable Communities Act, which
can devolve unprecedented power to local communities.
The instigation of Green New Deal / Green Collar thinking.
A campaign for trade measures to be used for tackling nations'
non-compliance with the Kyoto Protocol.
Further development of its Clone Town concept, which is now accepted
as an important community issue - and has been adopted by the European
Commission in its proposal to "investigate and remedy the abuse
of power by large supermarkets in the EU".
The publication of a five-point plan on how to achieve personal
wellbeing - without spending money.
Responding to a UN invitation to make innovative input into its
Working Group on Climate Change and Development and to a Bank of
England request for information on building a sustainable economy.
Campaign for Better Transport
Impact, CBT June2009. www.bettertransport.org.uk
CBT is currently lobbying the Government on three different aspects of policy making:
Recent regional funding bids - these have been skewed in favour
of road schemes (some want up to four times more for these than
for rail, bus, tram, cycling and walking combined).
Councils' 2011 - 2016 transport plan guidelines - the Government
is being reminded of this important opportunity to meet its carbon
reduction targets.
National travel corridor planning - CBT is bringing expertise
to the interpretation of transport research data.
At local level the organisation is planning workshops to help local people get more sustainable travel provisions.
Since 1997 the real cost of motoring has fallen by 13% while that of bus travel has risen 17%
Please
contact us with any information or feed back:
E-mail - info@sustainabilitylinks.org.uk
Post - Sustainability LINKS, 3 Park Road, Bedworth CV12 8LH