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ONE PLANET LIVING ACTION PLAN – MOVING TOWARDS A MORE SUSTAINABLE TOWN

EXECUTIVE MEMBER FOR COMMUNITY PROTECTION: COUNCILLOR BARRY COPPINGER

DEPUTY MAYOR: COUNCILLOR DAVID BUDD

ACTING DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENT: ED CHICKEN

ASSISTANT CHIEF EXECUTIVE: KAREN ROBINSON

21 July 2009

PURPOSE OF THE REPORT

1)To outline the steps taken over the last year to implement the Council’s sustainability policy statement which is based on the 10 guiding principles of the ‘One Planet Living’ model’.

2)To identify a process to ensure that sustainability is embedded into the delivery of the wider vision for Middlesbrough – which includes the development of a longer term One Planet Living Mayoral Action Plan with some interim flagship schemes to cover the 2009 - 2010 period.

BACKGROUND AND EXTERNAL CONSULTATION

3)In April 2008, the Executive approved an enhanced sustainability policy statement based on the 10 guiding principles in the ‘One Planet Living’ model. Appendix 1 is an A4 summary sheet, which explains the significance of the 10 principles.

4)One Planet Living originates from a joint initiative between BioRegional (who are part of the team that is building the carbon neutral development on Middlehaven) and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). The model was developed to meet the challenges that face society to enjoy an acceptable quality of life within the carrying capacity of Earth, hence the ‘One Planet’ campaign. A network of international One Planet Living cities and communities is emerging but is still at an early stage.

5)The science behind One Planet Living is robust. There is approximately 13 billion hectares of productive land and sea on the planet. This takes account of the land and sea required to provide food, resources and consumables, and absorb pollution etc. The assumption is that if we allow only 10% of this for nature and for other species to survive, this leaves 11.7 billion global hectares for humanity to share. There are 6.7 billion people on the planet, so if everyone takes a fair share of the Earth’s available resources, this amounts to approximately 1.7 hectares per person per year, which is about 4 football pitches per person. The number of hectares required by an individual or community to maintain a specific lifestyle is often termed the ecological footprint.

6)In the UK, the average ecological footprint of a person is 5.3 hectares. Initial calculations show that a typical Middlesbrough resident has an ecological footprint of 5.1 hectares. Either way, UK residents are living a ‘Three Planet’ lifestyle. Ecological footprints across the world vary between 9 global hectares or 5 planets for the USA and some parts of the Middle East, down to 0.5 hectares or less than a third of a planet for parts of Africa. In the 1980’s, humanity’s global ecological footprint for the first time exceeded the bio capacity of the planet and moved past One Planet Living. This means that current lifestyles are eroding the biological ‘capital’ and are not living off the ‘interest’ the planet provides. Adopting a One Planet Living lifestyle is the only way for humanity to have a sustainable future, by living off the interest rather than using the capital.

7)The concern is that current lifestyles in the UK and developed world will continue to increase disadvantage and increase inequalities. Those having least access to resources and who have contributed least to unsustainable lifestyles, will most suffer the effects of climate change, droughts, extreme weather, food shortages, pollution, lack of shelter and population migrations, which are an inevitable consequence of a Three Planet Lifestyle.

Sustainability and the National Performance Framework

8)The framework in which local authorities and Local Strategic Partnership partners now operate includes a strengthened range of responsibilities and powers in relation to the achievement of sustainable development.

9)It is clear that sustainable development should now be at the heart of a Local Authority and Local Strategic partnership’s business. Key components of this strengthened sustainable development framework include:

  • The Sustainable Community Strategy (SCS) - the overarching, long-term plan for an area. There is a statutory duty on local authorities to prepare a SCS “that should contribute to the achievement of sustainable development in the United Kingdom.” To a greater extent than previously, sustainability should be at the heart of this Strategy.
  • The key plans of local authorities and their Local Strategic Partnership partners should take account of the SCS.
  • The Local Area Agreement (LAA) is the “shorter-term delivery mechanism” for the SCS, the LAA, should also therefore contribute to sustainable development.
  • Comprehensive Area Assessment (CAA), which “is inherently about sustainability”; “sustainability considerations will be integral to the three overarching CAA questions”.
  • Local authorities are also required to have regard to SCS when preparing their Local Development Frameworks.
Integrating Sustainability in to Middlesbrough’s Performance Framework

10)Integrating sustainability across the council requires leadership, improved partnerships working, integrating priorities and objectives and planning for the long-term. There have been a number of strands of work in recent years to ensure that sustainability is progressively integrated into the work of Middlesbrough Council, Middlesbrough Partnership and the Middlesbrough Sustainable Community Strategy. The most recent examples are summarised below.

Political and Senior Management Leadership

11)In April 2008, the Executive approved an enhanced sustainability policy statement based on the ten guiding principles in the One Planet Living Model

12)In September and October 2008, CMT and the Executive participated in a mapping and visioning exercise with Forum for the Future led by Jonathon Porritt, who was the chair of the UK Sustainable Development Commission for nine years. During the mapping process 130 sustainable development issues arose which were subsequently debated at informal Executive and CMT meetings. These issues were considered in the 2009/10 business planning process. Nine common themes emerged which are:

  • What does sustainability mean to the Council and how can it best be communicated?
  • Could One Planet Living be the basis for a Mayoral Action Plan and how comprehensive should that plan be. (i.e. indicative flagship schemes or a long term plan to take Middlesbrough towards a One Planet Lifestyle in future decades)?
  • How can limited resources be put to sustainable uses and help bend more resources into Middlesbrough?
  • Managing tensions, for example, developing the town’s economy can conflict with improving the town centre environment through more car journeys. The economic downturn has left a fragile local economy so being competitive and affordable to investors is vital.
  • Improving the baseline and tackling low aspirations, literacy, educational attainment, poverty and deprivation rest within a sustainability agenda
  • Sustainable regeneration and maintaining high developmental standards in the current budget climate and beyond remains a challenge.
  • The community must take responsibility to adopt more sustainable lifestyles. The community should share responsibility for finding creative and long lasting solutions. This includes retaining skilled professional people and involving the working population who live outside the town boundary.
  • Leadership and decision making. The Mayor is acknowledged as being a strong asset with respect from the community. Making difficult decisions and setting priorities to achieve a more sustainable town in the short and long term will require balanced and valued judgements.
  • Long and short term political priorities. Sustainable solutions often take longer than a short term fix and managing the trade-offs will involve getting the right balance and engaging and empowering the community to achieve self sufficiency.
Raising Awareness and Integrating into Business Plans

13)Following on from the Forum for the Future mapping work, there have been eight workshops with Pooran Desai from BioRegional, who is the architect of the One Planet Living model. The workshops and meetings involved senior officers from all Council services with political involvement from the Mayor, Cllr Kerr and Cllr Coppinger.

14)These workshops and meetings have helped raised awareness of One Planet Living. The performance management minimum standard also includes a requirement to consider sustainability within service planning, so all departmental business plans for 2009/10 include actions which reflect the OPL principles.

Embedding Sustainability into Middlesbrough Partnership and the SCS

15)The Sustainable Community Strategy for Middlesbrough sets out the long-term vision for Middlesbrough:

‘Middlesbrough will be a thriving, vibrant community where people and businesses succeed’.

16)The strategic priorities set out under each Sustainable Community Strategy theme are designed to help attract more people to come to live in Middlesbrough as well as encourage existing residents to remain and grow in the town. However, the SCS also includes a set of underlying principles that cut across, and need to be a consideration in, all Middlesbrough Community Strategy priorities and everything it does. Sustainability is an underlying principle and was considered both in the identification of the strategic priorities and in the development of actions to take the priorities forward.

17)As part of the development of the SCS, the Middlesbrough Partnershipadopted the One Planet Living model as a framework to assess the wider effects of its Sustainable Community Strategy. Each of the themes of Middlesbrough’s Sustainable Community Strategy has been considered in relation to the ten OPL principles.

Next Steps

18)The achievement of the Sustainable Community Strategy vision must be delivered in a sustainable way therefore a process needs to be developed which enables the sustainability impact of actions to monitored, measured and aid future planning. One Planet Living provides an ideal framework to structure any such process. OPL can also help to communicate and promote understanding of sustainable development issues in a very powerful way.

19)It is proposed that Middlesbrough will work towards being a One Planet Living sustainable town - this could be aligned with the delivery of the wider vision for Middlesbrough, although it is unlikely that Middlesbrough could become a OPL town before 2030. Achieving an OPL town will require a significant shift in national government policies, which is likely to progressively happen through new legislation, such as the Climate Change Act, which legally commits the UK to reduce carbon emissions by 80% by 2050.

20)To achieve the aims outlined in paragraphs 18 and 19 above there are a number of actions proposed:

  • Develop a long term ‘One Planet Living’ Mayoral Action Plan to show how Middlesbrough will achieve the wider vision for Middlesbrough whilst becoming a One Planet Living Sustainable Town.
  • Establish a process to ensure the Action Plan is monitored and measured
  • Deliver an Action Plan for 2009 and 2010 that, subject to affordability, launches a series of One Planet Living flagship schemes, which are attached as Appendix 2. These schemes result from both the One Planet Living workshops and initiatives already planned.
  • Prepare a report to the LSP Executive Board which proposes how sustainability and OPL will be taken forward across the LSP
  • Work with individual key partner organisations, e.g Middlesbrough PCT, to consider embedding OPL further.
  • Continue our partnership with BioRegional to undertake the tasks identified in Appendix 3. This will ensure that a draft Mayoral Action Plan is produced by the end of March 2010 to meet priority action EN70 in the Strategic Plan.

OPTION APPRAISAL/RISK ASSESSMENT

21)Sustainability is a key feature of the new Comprehensive Area Assessment. To achieve a positive outcome within the CAA process, Middlesbrough will need to demonstrate how it is integrating sustainability into improving quality of life for local residents, adopting OPL provides an ideal framework for this.

22)Living within the carrying capacity of the planet is the only way for humanity to have a sustainable, or any, future. It is not sustainable to maintain lifestyles requiring more than one planet.

23)The Strategic Plan 2009/10 has a commitment to produce a draft Mayoral Action Plan by March 2010. The issue is therefore, how the actions proposed in this Report should be achieved.

24)BioRegional are the architects of the One Planet Living model and they coordinate the national and international One Planet Living communities. By continuing our work with them, there may be sponsorship opportunities and we will be gaining access to best practice. The recommendation is to continue to work with them in accordance with the work programme in Appendix 3, which amounts to Bioregional supplying 102 partnership days over 2009/10 and 2010/2011. This option has the advantage of building up in-house skills and knowledge to make the process self-sustaining. An exemption from standing orders will be sought under the normal approval process to enable BioRegional to be appointed to undertake the work on the basis that they are the sole suppliers of the One Planet Living Model.

25)Consideration has been given to developing the programme solely in-house. The conclusion is that the Council requires the expertise of BioRegional as we lack the immediate resources, contacts and expertise to deliver an effective document, which will commit the town to a 20 year work programme towards becoming a One Planet Living town.

FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND WARD IMPLICATIONS

Financial

26)The anticipated costs of the BioRegional fees are £40,000 in 2009/2010 and £15,000 in 2010/2011. A bid to the Government’s ‘BREW’ fund for £30,000 was not successful as other applicants better met the “saving waste and resource efficiency” priorities. A Communities for Health grant of £15,000 is available in 2009/2010 to reflect work on reducing health inequalities and community based work. It is requested that for the remaining £40,000 (£25,000 in 2009/2010 and £15,000 in 2010/2011) a bid be made to the Corporate Initiatives Fund.

27)Appendix 2 lists flagship schemes for the 2009 - 2010 period and are subject to the availability of resources. Most of the projects have already started or are at the planning stage with core funding in place. Others such as those relating to developing a One Planet Living sustainable building or street or school are subject to consultation and will require external sponsorship. The BioRegional work programme allows for 15 days support on flagship schemes. The work programme in Appendix 3 may achieve savings in the use of resources with subsequent financial savings.

Ward Implications

28)The proposed Mayoral Action Plan and flagship schemes will benefit all wards by making Middlesbrough a more sustainable town as planned activities are implemented under each of the 10 guiding principles in Appendix 1. A move to One Planet lifestyles will target activities, where possible, towards the most socially deprived areas of the town.

Legal Implications

29)There are no legal implications in the recommendation

RECOMMENDATIONS

30)The Executive is recommended to approve the steps needed to improve the way sustainability is embedded in Middlesbrough as outlined in paragraphs 18 – 20 of this Report.

31)That an exemption from standing orders is sought under the normal approval process to enable BioRegional to be appointed to undertake the work required on the basis that they are the sole supplier of the One Planet Living model.

32)That a bid of £40,000 (£25,000 in 2009/2010 and £15,000 in 2010/2011) be made to the Corporate Initiatives Fund to fund the anticipated costs of the BioRegional fees.

REASONS

33)The proposal is consistent with the sustainability policy statement approved by the Executive on 1st April 2009, which commits the Council to adopt One Planet Living principles.

34)The proposal will ensure that the following strategic plan priority actions are met:

  • Prepare an ecological footprint to support One Planet Living requirements by December 2009. (Priority EN69).
  • Publish a draft One Planet Living Action Plan to supersede the Environmental Sustainability Strategy by March 2010. (Priority EN70).

35)As the Action Plan is implemented there will be positive benefits to a wide range of national indicators dealing with healthier lifestyles, climate change, transport, respect for the environment, recycling etc. A main focus of the Action Plan will be to raise awareness about the consequences of current unsustainable living and why a change in behaviour is the only option. Without a sustained change, the planet will not support the existing population.

BACKGROUND PAPERS

36)The following background papers were used:

  • Local decision-making and Sustainable Development -Sustainable Development Commission
  • One Planet Living data provided by BioRegional. For more information on One Planet Living the BioRegional websites are:

AUTHOR: Jeff Duffield / Kathryn Warnock

TEL NO: 728197/ 729559

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Address: PO Box 65, Vancouver House, Middlesbrough TS1 1QP

Website:

APPENDIX 1

The Guiding Principles of One Planet Living

One Planet Living promotes the concepts of sustainable development and ecological foot printing, notably by establishing a set of sustainable communities in diverse contexts across the globe. The One Planet Living programme is based on ten guiding principles, which act as a framework to highlight the sustainability challenge in a given situation and as a mechanism for developing and presenting solutions.

GLOBAL CHALLENGE /

O.P.L. PRINCIPLE

/ OPL GOAL and STRATEGY
Climate change due to human-induced build up of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere / Zero Carbon / Achieve net CO2 emissions of zero from OPL developments
Implement energy efficiency in buildings and infrastructure; supply energy from on-site renewable sources, topped up by new off-site renewable supply where necessary.
Waste from discarded products and packaging create a huge disposal challenge while squandering valuable resources / Zero Waste / Eliminate waste flows to landfill and for incineration
Reduce waste generation through improved design; encourage re-use, recycling and composting; generate energy from waste cleanly; eliminate the concept of waste as part of a resource-efficient society.
Travel by car and airplane can cause climate change, air & noise pollution, and congestion / Sustainable Transport / Reduce reliance on private vehicles and achieve major reductions of CO2 emissions from transport
Provide transport systems and infrastructure that reduce dependence on fossil fuel use, e.g., by cars and airplanes. Offset carbon emissions from air travel and perhaps car travel.
Destructive patterns of resource exploitation and use of non-local materials in construction and manufacture increase environmental harm and reduce gains to the local economy / Local and
Sustainable Materials / Transform materials supply to the point where it has a net positive impact on the environment and local economy
Where possible, use local, reclaimed, renewable and recycled materials in construction and products, which minimises transport emissions, spurs investment in local natural resource stocks and boosts the local economy.
Industrial agriculture produces food of uncertain quality and harms local ecosystems, while consumption of non-local food imposes high transport impacts / Local and
Sustainable Food / Transform food supply to the point where it has a net positive impact on the environment, local economy and peoples' well-being
Support local and low impact food production that provides healthy, quality food while boosting the local economy in an environmentally beneficial manner; showcase examples of low-impact packaging, processing and disposal; highlight benefits of a low-impact diet.
Local supplies of freshwater are often insufficient to meet human needs due to pollution, disruption of hydrological cycles and depletion of existing stocks / Sustainable Water / Achieve a positive impact on local water resources and supply
Implement water use efficiency measures, re-use and recycling; minimise water extraction and pollution; foster sustainable water and sewage management in the landscape; restore natural water cycles.
Loss of biodiversity and habitats due to development in natural areas and overexploitation of natural resources / Natural Habitats
and Wildlife / Regenerate degraded environments and halt biodiversity loss
Protect or regenerate existing natural environments and the habitats they provide to fauna and flora; create new habitats.
Local cultural heritage is being lost throughout the world due to globalisation, resulting in a loss of local identity and wisdom / Culture and Heritage / Protect and build on local cultural heritage and diversity
Celebrate and revive cultural heritage and the sense of local and regional identity; choose structures and systems that build on this heritage; foster a new culture of sustainability.
Some in the industrialised world live in relative poverty, while many in the developing world cannot meet their basic needs from what they produce or sell / Equity and
Fair Trade / Ensure that the OPL community's impact on other communities is positive
Promote equity and fair trading relationships to ensure the OPL community has a beneficial impact on other communities both locally and globally, notably disadvantaged communities.
Rising wealth and greater health and happiness increasingly diverge, raising questions about the true basis of well-being and contentment / Health and
Happiness / Increase health and quality of life of OPL community members and others
Promote healthy lifestyles and physical, mental & spiritual well-being through well-designed structures and community engagement measures, as well as by delivering on social and environmental targets.

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