Sustainable development

This section of the website contains information about the ideas, policies and actions that support sustainable development. You will find links to key sources of information from government and non-government organisations and a list of suggested reading covering a range of views on the significance of sustainable development and what should be done to achieve it. Sustainable development is a controversial topic and you will find contrasting and contradictory ideas presented with equal degrees of certainty. When your group is presented with ideas about sustainable development you should always ask:

Do these ideas fit with our experience of life?
Do these ideas fit with the values that we want to underpin how we think and act?

What is sustainable development?

Sustainable development is the name that has been given to a particular approach to planning for the future. At the heart of the approach is a concern that the way in which the most powerful communities in the world are living their lives is causing irreversible damage to the planet on which we all depend. This damage is seen not only in the problems of climate change and the loss of wildlife species. It is also apparent in the poor health and well being of human populations, in widening inequalities of opportunity between different populations and in associated tensions, including wars, over access to resources. The United Nations has stated that, if life of all kinds is to be sustainable on Earth, we must all become involved in a process of sustainable development.

Changing lifestyles

Many countries, but not all, have signed up to a range of policies, strategies and treaties designed to promote sustainable development. But agreement is not always easy because what one group sees as sustainable might be seen as a major disadvantage to another. There are also differences of opinion about the degree to which people should be told what or what not to do. Despite this, there is a growing consensus that human lifestyles need to change if we are to avoid a break down in the natural systems on which our lives depend.

'Choosing Our Future'

The Scottish Executive's sustainable development strategy is called 'Choosing Our Future'. The aims of this strategy are 'to live within environmental limits' and 'to ensure a strong, healthy and just society'. The strategy suggests that we will achieve these aims by a combination of creating a sustainable economy, developing a more participatory society and by 'using sound science responsibly'. These aims reflect a set of principles that should underpin all levels of planning and decision making in Scotland.

Any discussion about the problems or potentials of Scottish communities is a discussion about development and we have choices to make about the directions in which we want development to go. We can choose to live for the moment, take the prize and run and let the devil take the hindmost, or we can choose to develop in a more sustainable way, conscious of our responsibilities to our neighbours, wherever they live on the planet, and to future generations. Sustainable development is more challenging than unsustainable development but it is, ultimately, more rewarding. Sus it Out aims to help you work our how decision making in your community can become more sustainable.

Key sustainable development policies

Choosing Our Future

Scotland's Sustainable Development Strategy

One Future Different Paths (PDF 436kb)

UK Shared Framework for Sustainable Development

Key sustainable development organisations