The Sustainable Development Commission has called for the government to put more effort into its sustainable development policy.
The report, entitled Shows promise. But must try harder, describes sustainable development as ‘one of the most demanding challenges facing humanity today’ but that ‘some people think it is a platitude, no more demanding and no more exciting than apple pie.’

In its overall assessment of the progress made on sustainable development over the past five years, the report states: ‘Neither the UK government, nor the devolved administrations nor our society as a whole have as yet fully assimilated how far adrift we are from meeting our global and national responsibilities and creating a fully sustainable society.’

The report issued twenty challenges to the government, the first of which is to create a new strategy that would ensure sustainable principles are mainstreamed into all its programmes and policies.

Other challenges include the introduction of a new set of indicators by which sustainable progress can be measured and a call to government to encourage businesses to operate by more sustainable means by setting them demanding targets for improved performance. ‘The commitment given so far is too generalised and patchy to deliver the changes needed,’ says the report. ‘We all need to try a great deal harder.’

Source

Building Sustainable Design