Sustainable development

Sustainable development is about enabling people throughout the world to satisfy their basic needs and enjoy a better quality of life, without compromising the quality of life of future generations and the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

The concept of sustainable development encompasses three key elements, often referred to as 'pillars':

• social progress
• environmental protection
• prudent use of natural resources and economic growth and employment

Sustainable practices should offer benefits in all three of these areas.

The Food Standards Agency’s remit is to protect the interests of consumers in relation to food, both now and in the future. In doing so, the Agency will take sustainable development into account in all of its activities and policy decisions.

The Agency is committed to sustainable policies and undertakes to choose the most sustainable policy option. Only in exceptional circumstances will it not do so. In these cases the reasons will be clearly communicated and every effort made to minimise the resulting negative impacts. This is explained further in our ‘Sustainable development in policy making: statement of approach’ (see below).

The UK Government's sustainable development strategy, 'Securing the Future', requires all central Government departments and their executive agencies to produce sustainable development action plans (SDAPs) and to report on and update them regularly. The Agency’s objectives re sustainable development have been set in the Agency's 'Sustainable Development Action Plan'. The 2009/11 Action Plan has been refreshed in July 2010 to include new actions and targets (see below).

The Agency is committed to carbon reduction, energy efficiency and recycling. All activities on the Agency’s estate must comply with departmental and cross-government policies on sustainable development. Delivering a sustainable estate means adopting an approach to our work that respects all three elements of the sustainable development agenda – economic, social and environmental. This is explained further in our ‘Environmental Statement’ (see below).

To find out more about sustainable development in Agency policy making, contact Karen Dell on 020 7276 8481.
Email: karen.dell@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk

To find out more about sustainable development on the Agency’s estate, contact Aadil Bashir on 020 7276 8001.
Email: aadil.bashir@foodstandards.gsi.gov.uk