Sustainable Communities

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Welcome to Sustainable Communities

What is meant by Sustainable Communities?

The creation of sustainable communities is identified within the UK’s Sustainable Development Strategy (March 2005), Securing the Future, (see link at bottom of page) as one of the key priorities for immediate action in order to achieve sustainable development.

In 2004, Sedgefield Borough Council demonstrated its commitment to Sustainable Communities by creating a specialist, award winning team tasked with delivering sustainable development.

There is only one world, and we all have our role in looking after it!

We now have officers with responsibility for:

• Energy and Climate Change;
• Waste and Recycling;
• Healthy Lifestyles;
• Countryside and Biodiversity;
• Fairtrade;
• Events.

Why is it important?

Issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity and shrinking fossil fuel supplies all highlight the negative impact of our consumption patterns.

Globally we are not meeting the needs of the present let alone considering the needs of future generations! However, the greatest threat to our planet is people believing that the decline of the environment is inevitable – nothing could be further from the truth.

Follow the links on this page to find out more about the issues that affect you, your local community and the rest of the world.

DID YOU KNOW? 20% of the world’s population (living in the developed countries) consume more than 80% of the world’s resources?

And.......

• An estimated 1 in 6 people suffer from hunger and malnutrition while attempts to grow food are damaging swathes of productive land. In Sudan alone, the projected number of people needing food aid is 6.1 million. Currently over 800 million people are malnourished and 2.5 billion lack access to sanitation.
• Around 1 in 5 adults are clinically obese in the UK and the rates are rising.
• By 2025, two thirds of the world’s people are likely to be living in areas of acute water stress.
• The average person in the UK now washes away a staggering 1050 litres of water a week.
• Oil production could peak and supplies decline by 2010.
• Every year in the UK, 13,000 tonnes of car oil are improperly discarded contaminating the country’s rivers, lakes, and streams and threatening aquatic life.
• Hazardous chemicals are now found in the bodies of all new born babies, and an estimated one in four people worldwide are exposed to unhealthy concentrations of air pollutants.
• Humans can absorb up to two kilos of chemicals through toiletries and cosmetics each year. A bottle of perfume could contain a mixture of 600 synthetic chemicals. Over 95% of chemicals are made from petroleum and many are designated hazardous.

Find out how YOU can make a difference by making small changes to your lifestyle that will benefit you and your family, whilst having the least environmental impact on the earth - follow the links on this page...

Pages Associated with this Category

• Sustainable Development Strategy, (March 2005), Securing the Future.
  Securing the Future.pdf