Sustainable Development
Ensure your organisation environmentally follows best practice
Sustainable development is often defined as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” Alternatively, Forum for the Future Annual Report 2000 stated: “Sustainable development is a dynamic process which enables all people to realise their potential, and to improve their quality of life in ways which simultaneously protect and enhance the Earth’s life support systems”. Both definitions stress the importance of protecting the environment when pursuing economic growth. Because human, terrestrial and aquatic resources are linked, it is important to produce integrated solutions to environmental, social and economic issues.
In the 1960s and 1970s, concerns developed over the consequences of over-fishing, over intensification of agriculture, over population and environmental destruction. These concerns led to meetings such as the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment (1972) and The United Nations Conference on Environment at Rio in 1992 (Earth Summit), which culminated in Agenda 21. The Rio principles were strongly reaffirmed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002.
The main principles of sustainable development include:
- put people at the centre;*
- take a long time perspective;
- take account of costs and benefits;*
- create an open and supportive economic system;
- combat poverty and social exclusion;
- respect environmental limits;*
- apply the precautionary principle;*
- use scientific knowledge;
- provide transparency, information, participation and access to justice;*
- make the polluter pay.*
Loreus offer a range of e-learning courses for waste and sustainability training or the Loreus EMS System is the complete package for implementing an Environmental Management System.
How can an organisation become environmentally sustainable?
Depending on whether an organisation wants to clean up it's environmental impact in one go, or take preventative action to significantly reduce it's impacts, there are two routes to becoming environmentally sustainable. They are:
- Carbon management - This could be the first step to eliminating your carbon footprint and becoming carbon neutral so that you are carbon 'clean'.
- Environmental management - If you are already carbon neutral and
would like to maintain your carbon neutral status, or would like to take
preventative action to reduce your resource use and carbon footprint, this
is a recognised route to complying with current environmental legislation.
If you would like to clean up your organisations environmental profile, call 0115 848 3050 and ask to speak to one of our environmental consultants for a chat. If you click on the links below, you can find out how Loreus can help your organisation become 'clean'.
Carbon management
Offsetting your carbon footprint to become carbon neutral
Environmental management
Managing an organisation's resource use to save on waste and reduce carbon
footprint
