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… prosperous, inclusive and self-sustaining communities,
where the unique cultures,
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Environmental Sustainability
ESF Trainee
 

Environmental Sustainability

As defined by the World Commission on Environment and Development, sustainable development entails “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987).  

Environmental sustainability is the component a sustainable development approach governing how the environmental resources of a region are used.  It has a wider implication beyond natural resource usage involving cultural attitudes to environmental protection.   There is a strong tradition of environmental sustainability in Scottish Structural Funds Programming.  It has been a key horizontal theme in the Special Transitional Programme, 2000 – 2006, where the approach to sustainable development was taken forward substantially.  Structural Funds has developed a ‘missionary’ approach to environmental sustainability, viewing its embedding in wider policy-making as one of the legacy aims of the Programme.  To a large extent, this has been achieved through the development of an archive of good practise projects and processes, which have informed the development of the approach taken in the 2007 – 2013 Programmes.   The environmental sustainability vision for the current Programmes is “to ensure that Structural Funds programmes promote the sustainable use and conservation of Scottish environmental assets by enhancing the role of environmental sustainability in economic development policy-making”.    

This translates into 2 distinct objectives governing Programme activities:  

  • to strengthen the mutual contributions of environmental sustainability and economic and social development in Structural Funds-supported activities; and 
  • to raise awareness of the role of environmental sustainability in project planning and policy development.   

As with Equal Opportunities, this embodies a two-fold approach to horizontal themes.  The first will be addressed through direct support for projects that aim to achieve environmental sustainability goals; the second through a wider mainstreaming of the horizontal theme into the Programme’s processes.   Examples of activities in support of this theme are as follows:  

Priority 1

ERDF

  • Encouragement of the ‘greening’ of enterprises through improved resource efficiency.  Eligible activities include environmental and carbon-use audit, more environmentally-sustainable production systems and business processes and plans for energy and resource efficiency

ESF

  • Requirements that projects meet recycling and environmental sustainability standards as a condition of support.

Priority 2

ERDF

  • Support for improving the renewable energy research capacity of the region by enhancing the centre of research expertises within the UHI and its network;
  • Green tourism will be supported as a growth are in the sector.

ESF

  • Encouraging skills training projects for enterprises to include environmental and resource sustainability elements.
Priority 3

ERDF

  • Community sustainability achieved through the application of environmental building standards and the use of derelict/brownfield sites for development;
  • Support for small-scale renewables in local energy generation.

ESF

  • Development of environmentally-friendly approaches to improving lifelong learning access (e.g. distance learning instruments that reduce carbon emissions).