.jpg "Earth from Space (c) NASA")
Sustainable Development
Sustainable Development is an approach to planning our present and future use of resources. In 1987 the Brundtland Commission defined sustainable development as development that "meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."
Elements of sustainable development include:
- Working to mitigate and adapt to the effects of global climate change.
- Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and tidal power.
- Reducing pollution.
- Promoting the effective use of resources - "reduce, re-use, recycle"
- Making sure that development does not harm biodiversity
- Taking into account the needs of local communities
- Green infrastructure planning
One of the Wildlife Trust's obvjectives is to promote sustainable development, as it will lead to a better, cvleaner and healthier future for people and wildlife.
This means we address wider environmental issues such as pollution and climate change across all of our work. Examples of ways in which we do this include:
- Promoting landscape scale conservation work to help wildlife adapt to climate change.
- Engaging with debates on future policy and strategy for the environment.
- Encouraging green infrastructure planning.
- Helping communities improve their local environment.
- Reducing our carbon footprint, for example by running our vehicles on carbon-neutral biodiesel.
- Minimising the use of harmful chemicals in our work.
- Recycling most of our waste and ensuring that the remainder is disposed of responsibly.
- Consulting local communities upon our future plans.
- Raising awareness and understanding of sustainable development issues.