Sustainable Development
Sustainability Appraisal (SA)
The need to undertake sustainability appraisal has evolved during a time of great change in both the UK legislative system and also the pace at which environment and sustainability have become mainstream topics. The planning legislative framework has undergone considerable change in recent years with for example, the implementation of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 in England that now requires a Sustainability Appraisal to be carried out on Development Plan Documents and Supplementary Planning Documents as part of the Local Development Framework. Similarly the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006 has placed a new focus on how the National Planning Framework and Development Plans will contribute to sustainable development. Other changes have been brought about by for example, the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (now a UK Act of Parliament), the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s (ODPM) Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive, Guidance for Planning Authorities, and the Planning Green Paper Delivering a Fundamental Change all signaled the new emphasis now being placed by Government on making development plans and programmes more sustainable and controlling potential environmental impacts.
Services
Natural Capital offers a wide range of services in the field of sustainability appraisal. These include:
- Combined sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment of local authority Core Strategies within the Local Development Framework.
- Sustainability appraisal of Development Control Policies within development plan documents.
- Sustainability appraisal of local area plans.
- Incorporating sustainability principles into strategy development.
Key Projects
- Combined sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment (SA/SEA) of the Core Strategies and Development Control Policies (the Local Development Framework) for Blyth Valley Borough Council.
- Combined sustainability appraisal and strategic environmental assessment (SA/SEA) of the Core Strategies and Development Control Policies (the Local Development Framework) for Alnwick District Council.
- Sustainability Appraisal / Strategic Environmental Assessment of Core Strategy Preferred Options Policies for Tynedale Council.
Indicator Development
Indicators are recognized internationally and nationally as an effective means of informing policy decisions and helping to understand and track sustainable development. They can be used as a benchmark for keeping whole countries, or regions on a sustainable track. For example the UK Government has developed a set of twenty ‘Framework Indicators’ shared by the UK Government and the devolved administrations in Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland, as a way of tracking the UK’s move towards sustainability.
Natural Capital recognises that good sustainability indicators should link the social, economic and environmental status of an area. The information behind the indicator should be presented simply and clearly and the indicator should be based on reliable and readily available information.
Services
- Advice and guidance on developing sustainability indicators.
- Production of community sustainability profiles based on sound indicators.
- Use of indicators for monitoring and tracking sustainability performance.
- Developing indicators in community planning.
Key Projects
- Dùthchas Sustainable Development Project – Area Sustainability Strategies for Peripheral Rural Communities. The Dùthchas Project funded by the EC LIFE Environment Programme and steered by a partnership of 16 public agencies and 2 NGOswas broadly aimed at developing mechanisms for achieving sustainable development within remote rural areas that have both high environmental quality and fragile economies. The project, which related closely to Local Agenda 21 and Community Planning was a lead project of its kind in Scotland and in Europe. A significant part of the work involved developing objectives, indicators and sustainability profiles with local communities for the three pilot areas.
- Work with Scottish Natural Heritage developing natural heritage indicators as part of a suite of sustainability indicators to be used to monitor the Wellbeing Alliance’s progress in delivering the Highland Community Plan. Work involved the selection of biodiversity indicators that would resonate with local people and engage communities in the delivery of the community plan on the ground.
Integrating Sustainable Development Principles into Business Strategy
It may be no surprise that the more successful companies are those that have moved beyond environment to embrace sustainable development principles. They manage their businesses in a fully integrated way with a total business strategy that includes finance, quality, human resources, ethics, health, safety and environment.
Natural Capital is fast establishing a reputation for new ideas and a creative approach to a total business strategy that helps business integrate the management of financial, social and natural capital.
Services
The approach complements similar concepts such as total quality management, total product management and business excellence. We work with our clients to support them with the following:
- policy development
- building a strategy
- setting objectives and targets
- prioritization
- sustainable solutions
- and we provide information on:
- what your competitors are doing
- what your customers expect.
Key Projects
- Assisting Unilever Bestfoods, Purfleet in building sustainability principles into its first environmental policy and embedding these into business practice.
- Assisting Westminster Dredging Company Limited (part of the Boskalis Group of companies) to produce its first environmental policy with sustainable development principles at the heart of the policy.
Sustainability Audits
Although auditing often gets a bad name in companies and organisations because of its common connection with policing and regulating it can, if approached positively, be an important management tool in the performance improvement process. Carrying out inspections, checks, interviews and reviews can be an effective way of maintaining performance and benchmarking against industry codes of practice and international standards.
Services
Natural Capital has considerable experience in undertaking audits of all kinds including, environmental, social and sustainability audits and appraisals. We can quickly identify gaps and suggest realistic actions to improve performance in all three areas. This can help to pin-point areas of attention and improvements to current systems and reporting.
Services include:
- management system audits (for ISO 14001, EMAS)
- internal audits
- supplier audits
- social audits (ASA 1000)
Benchmarking against:
- FTSE4Good
- Dow Jones Sustainability Index
- GRI Standards
Sustainability Reporting
Many organisations are already doing a great deal in terms of improving their economic, environmental and sustainability performance but are failing to report this to stakeholders. Our experience has shown that providing clear information about how an organisation is performing in these areas improves stakeholder perceptions and market value of the organisation. Natural Capital can prepare full reports or provide support to any in-house efforts.
Companies with a genuine interest and concern for their future success are moving beyond a focus on environmental matters alone, they see that in order to sustain their future they need to perform well in the three key areas that underpin sustainable development:
- economic performance - sustaining economic and manufactured capital
- social and ethical performance - sustaining social and human capital
- environmental performance - sustaining natural capital
So why narrow your vision? Why not gain more benefits from your efforts?
Services
Sustainability reporting delivers:
- a true framework for improving your progress towards a more sustainable business
- satisfaction to ever more demanding stakeholders
- respect and admiration from legislators and regulators
- a competitive edge when dealing with demanding customers
- a more effective coverage of business risks
- all leading to greater business success.
We can help:
- design and structure your report
- develop meaningful indicator
- independently verify the report
- ensure that the relevant sustainability issues are being addressed.