29 May 2009
By Paul Dicken in Cardiff
Sustainable development will be the ‘central organising principle’ for the Welsh Assembly Government and public sector in Wales, the first minister has said.
Announcing an all-encompassing sustainability strategy at the Hay-on-Wye literature festival on May 22, Rhodri Morgan said the plan went beyond ‘just environmental issues as we have defined them so far’.
He added: ‘I know sustainability is in danger of becoming one of the most over-used words of the early twenty-first century, but it is a vital concept if we can get out of the narrow environmental docket.’
Morgan said the Assembly Government’s view of sustainability was about people living within their resources, while improving residents’ wellbeing. The plan sets out 18 main actions across all the ministerial portfolios, joining up social justice, economic and environmental policy.
The One Wales, One Planet strategy recognised that public buildings had been early examples of greater efficiency and renewable technology, and the public sector had pioneered approaches that had reduced staff travel, he added.
Other initiatives in the strategy include embedding sustainable development in capital investment projects and developing a plan to encourage waste reduction, high-quality recycling and product leasing as conditions of public sector grants.
Jonathon Porritt, chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, the UK government’s independent adviser on sustainability, welcomed the strategy and said the commission would measure the progress made.
‘If actions match the ambition shown in this document, Wales will set an example for the rest of the world to follow,’ he said.
Tim Peppin, the Welsh Local Government Association’s director of sustainable development and regeneration, said the WLGA particularly supported the sustainable development framework being rolled out by councils. ‘Local authorities recognise that they have a big role to play in this agenda and are committed to working with the Assembly in implementing the goals which it is setting out.’
