Sustainability and environmental performance

Sustainability is the ability of something to last.

For humans to continue living on this planet and to live well and equitably, we need environmental conditions such as access to healthy soils to grow crops, clean water, air and sufficient resources to be maintained now and for future generations. Globally, humans are consuming the Earth's resources 1.7 times faster than these can be regenerated, meaning that we are not living within the natural limits of the planet (statistics from Earth Overshoot Day: How many Earths? How many countries?).

Unsustainable levels of pollution, over-consumerism and destruction of habitats affect the natural cycles we rely upon to regulate our environmental conditions. Climate change is one symptom of unsustainable practices. Human activity has emitted too many greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which coupled with deforestation is affecting the ability of the planet to regulate global temperatures at safe levels for life to be maintained and thrive.

What we are doing to be more sustainable

The council has been at the forefront of and has contributed towards many sustainability initiatives over the years - Our story in timeline. In more recent years, the council has developed an Environmental Management System (EMS) which helps to identify the council's key environmental impacts when delivering its services and enhance positive, sustainable opportunities. The EMS is externally audited each year and accredited with Investors in the Environment (iiE) - UK environmental accreditation scheme. A key part of the audit involves considering how well we are performing against our Environmental Statement (PDF) [516KB] .