Strategic Approach
Human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development. They are entitled to a healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
Report of the United Nations conference on Environment and Development, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14 June 1992
This diagram summarises the strategic approach to embedding sustainability very simply:
- Identify key issues & drivers - Why is embedding sustainability important to my organisation? What are the internal and external drivers? What are my organisation's material relevant sustainability issues?
- Develop strategy - What does good practice look like for each material issue? What broad strategies can be implemented to achieve this?
- Establish governance & accountability - Who does what to deliver these broad strategies per material issue?
- Set targets & action plan - Where do we want to be in 'x' number of years? What concrete actors do we need to achieve the targets? Which of our existing initiatives can we include to the action plan to help deliver our targets?
- Monitor - How have we performed so far?
- Report & evaluate - Are our processes working?
Arising from the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, Agenda 21 recognised that decisions on the issues surrounding sustainable development should be made by stakeholders together and it proposed that the agenda inherent in sustainable development needed an orderly approach – a ‘strategy’. However, Agenda 21 stopped short of defining such a strategy, or even of guidance on how to go about it. A multitude of strategic approaches has grown up. This area of the website provides some guidance through six key areas of strategic direction setting from identifying your issues and drivers, through to reporting and evaluating your progress.
Embedding sustainable development in either the public or the private sector is complex as the issues are cross cutting and the concept itself often contested. A multitude of approaches has grown up. What they all have in common is that they seek to integrate social, economic and environmental aspects, that they take an inclusive approach to stakeholder involvement and empowerment, and that they take a longe term view. The government produces an annual report Sustainable Development Indicators in your Pocket which is a useful and accessible reference for experts to help illustrate the breadth and challenges of sustainable development.
To embed sustainable development you need to include core sustainability principles within the overarching strategy of the organisation. For many organisations, particularly in the public sector, it is logical to base their strategies on the UK Sustainable Development Strategy – Securing the Future. In this, the UK Government has set out its own understanding of what sustainable development means:
The goal of sustainable development is to enable all people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising the quality of life of future generations.
In Securing the Future the Government also established a set of principles in the form below:
The UK’s five guiding principles of sustainable development
The UK Government, Scottish Executive, Welsh Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland Administration have agreed upon a set of guiding principles that provide a framework for sustainable development policy in the UK. These signalled that Government wants us to live in a strong, healthy and just society within environmental limits, by means of a sustainable economy, using sound science responsibly, and promoting good governance. For Government, respect for, and integration of, all five principles is central to sustainable decision making and developing a sustainability strategy.
Work towards improving strategic and co-ordinated action towards sustainable development will yield large gains in the ability to identify leverage points for influencing sustainable development, to identify emerging issues, and to continuously learn and adapt in a world where surprise, change and uncertainty are the norm, not the exception. [However…] There is no single recipe for pursuing strategic and coordinated action towards sustainable development.
International Institute for Sustainable Development (2004): National Strategies for Sustainable Development