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Leading businesses are cleaning up, in both senses of the word. So why isn't local government? The private sector's enthusiasm for sustainable development has major implications for the public sector, not least local authorities, who have tended to see it as something worthwhile but peripheral – the green, fluffy thing in the corner. The private sectors' own green, fluffy thing was Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). CSR strategies were essentially about resourcing worthwhile causes in local communities, by funding a local charity or giving staff time off to mentor local teenagers. All well and good, but always predicated on being able to do something tax-deductable after a profit has been made. However, times have changed. Challenges such as rising temperatures, water shortages and 2.5bn people living in poverty have made many realise that the economy is at the early stages of fundamental, permanent change, in adapting to life in a carbon-constrained world. Environmental limits present real business risks, but they also create lucrative business opportunities. The most innovative companies are already future-proofing themselves by embedding sustainability into their business models. In the retail sector alone, recent announcements by M&S and Tesco have made sustainable development a clear business objective. If private sector leaders have embraced this new ‘business as usual', surely local government can too. We can move away from thinking of sustainable development as a ‘bolt-on', divorced from the core activity of service delivery. Current priorities and ways of working are simply not going to stand up, given the changes taking place in climate, resource availability and demographics. And there is an increasing leadership imperative for local government to ‘get it'. The Local Government Bill will place the onus on local leadership to respond to growing consumer interest, community concern and coverage in mainstream media of big issues such as climate change, the price of energy, and environmental pollution. If this sounds like a burden and not an opportunity, then think again. In the context of Lyons, what better opportunity could there be to demonstrate ‘place-shaping' than in addressing the defining issue of our times? We can all recognise that buying cheap processed food for school meals from a supplier in a distant area is a false efficiency. The side-effects include unfit children, fewer local jobs and increased food miles. The more sustainable alternative is to buy fresh, seasonal produce, from local suppliers, improving the nutrition, health and educational capacity of children, reducing environmental pollution and supporting the local economy: win-win-win. Local authorities need to be making progress on three fronts. Firstly, as organisations, they need to manage their own impacts. Secondly, the need to deliver genuine leadership that gets communities on board and integrates sustainability in planning and delivery. And thirdly, deliver real outcomes that improve local environments, economies and communities. Forum for the Future's pioneering partner authorities recognise the desirability of sustainable development now and are pitching it to demanding electorates in terms of both opportunity and progress. Councils like Carmarthenshire CC, Devon CC and West Sussex CC treat sustainable development as an overarching framework for joined-up delivery, improved collaboration and partnership working. West Sussex CC's ambition is to achieve an ‘excellent' sustainability rating by 2012. Using Forum for the Future's Sustainability Standard, it is shifting to improved ways of working. These will: improve the resilience and future viability of their communities; achieve better-integrated social, environmental and economic benefits, rather than making trade-offs; and make immediate efficiency gains through cutting duplication and minimising resource use. This is not the green, fluffy thing in the corner. It's real, and it's now. n Warren Hatter is director of the public sector programme at Forum for the Future

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WHITEHALL

Think the unthinkable

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