Our work is designed to ensure that Herefordshire develops sustainably
“development that meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(the Brundtland Report, 1987)
At its heart is an approach that looks to balance different, and often competing, needs against an awareness of the limits to be found in environmental, economic and social conditions.
Sustainable development seeks to ensure a strong, healthy and just society that meets people’s diverse needs and promotes their health and well-being. It builds social cohesion, inclusion and creates opportunity whilst also protecting and enhancing environmental quality.
The first pillar contributes to valuing our natural resources, the second to the development of strong, just communities and individual well-being and the third to a resilient and fair economy.
In order to assess whether Herefordshire is developing sustainably we have adopted a series of indicators tailored to the county’s needs, which were developed following extensive community consultation. Together these form Herefordshire’s Sustainable Route Map. Monitoring these indicators will tell us whether our situation is improving, remaining stable or getting worse.
Our project and policy work will focus on addressing those areas in which we are doing badly in order to improve our future prospects. This is the concept that lies behind the Route Map: not projecting a blue-print of what the future will look like, but developing a tool to determine whether our prospects for achieving a sustainable future are increasing or decreasing.
The Sustainable Route Map will be constantly updated on the web and we plan to host regular events to highlight what progress is being made.
The data which underpins each of the county’s indicators is available to be interrogated and is contained within Herefordshire’s Data Hub. Links to all of the supporting data are found on the Sustainable Route Map project pages.