Characteristics of a Sustainable Community
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Sustainable Development aims to guide us towards a more sustainable community, a place where:

  • the needs of everyone in the community are met and people feel safe, healthy and ultimately happy
  • our environment is appreciated, protected and enhanced and damage to the environment is minimised
  • our economy is vibrant, employment opportunities are improved and our working lives are more rewarding

Creating a Sustainable Society involves:

Protecting and Enhancing the Environment

  • use energy, water and other natural resources efficiently and with care
  • minimise waste, then re-use or recover it through recycling, composting or energy recovery, and finally sustainably dispose of what is left
  • limit pollution to levels which do not damage natural systems
  • value and protect the diversity of nature

Meeting Social Needs

  • create and enhance places, spaces and buildings which work well, wear well and look good
  • make settlement 'human' in scale and form
  • value and protect diversity and local distinctiveness and strengthen local community and cultural identity
  • protect human health and amenity through safe, clean and pleasant environments
  • emphasise health service prevention action as well as cure
  • ensure access to good food, water, housing and fuel at a reasonable cost
  • meet local needs locally wherever possible
  • maximise everyone's access to the skills and knowledge needed to play a full part in society
  • empower all sections of the community to participate in decision-making and consider the
    social and community aspects of decisions

Promoting Economic Success

  • create a vibrant local economy that gives access to satisfying and rewarding work without damage to the local, national or global environment
  • value unpaid work
  • encourage necessary access to facilities, services, goods and other people in ways which make less use of the car and minimise impacts on the environment
  • make opportunities for culture, leisure and recreation readily available to all