Sustainable Stirling
Sustainable development involves more than just protecting the environment but means making sure that we create the circumstances to enable everyone to live safe, healthy and fulfilling lives without seriously damaging our most precious resource – the single planet on which we all depend.
At its simplest, sustainability means living within our means, but on a global scale and into the distant future, and applies to everything we do. The challenge is to find ways to maintain a balance between long-term economic, social and environmental demands and concerns without destroying opportunities for future generations or our neighbours across the world.
Whilst a global perspective is important, since the problems created by unsustainable practices are being felt right across the world, many of the solutions will come from local activity because it is the collective actions of many individuals, communities and organisations that have created many of our current global challenges.
Stirling Council adopted its first Sustainable Development Strategy in December 2006. The strategy, and accompanying action plan, sets out the Council's commitment to sustainable development and outlines what we are going to do to ensure a more sustainable Stirling.
Sustainability or quality of life indicators measure environmental, social and economic conditions in an area and are central to most attempts to measure and report effectiveness in delivering sustainability. They are not intended to measure sustainable development itself but to give an indication of the direction of movement towards or away from sustainable development objectives.
A local set of sustainability indicators has been developed in consultation with Council Services. These indicators will be used in future reviews of the Council’s Sustainable Development Strategy to help scrutinise progress towards a more sustainable Stirling.
