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Business interests have expressed concerns about the potential impact on corporate responsibility initiatives of a UK government decision to scrap its sustainability watchdog, the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC).
The Commission’s annual £3million funding, which came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has been withdrawn as part of the new coalition’s widespread financial cutbacks and an offensive against quangos – quasi-non-governmental organizations.
The withdrawal of funding and Whitehall support essentially abolishes the SDC in England, although the devolved parliaments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not yet made decisions on whether they will support it.
Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said the decision was taken partly because she wants to integrate sustainability thinking across government rather than isolate it in one area. ‘I am determined to play the lead role in driving the sustainability agenda across the whole of government and I am not willing to delegate this responsibility to an external body,’ she said.
However, Joan Walley, chair of the UK parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, said the SDC had played ‘an essential role in furthering sustainable development and environmental protection across government’ and questioned how ministers will now maintain any impetus on the topic.
SDC chair Will Day said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the decision but promised the SDC ‘will be working hard with government … in the weeks ahead to make sure sustainable development is given an appropriate place, and that the legacy of our cutting-edge advice and hands-on capability building continues’.
While one of the main jobs of the Commission was to advise government on ways in which it could become more socially and environmentally responsible, it also produced work on how ministers might encourage CSR in the business world.
Alan Knight, a former head of CSR at Kingfisher and SAB Miller who served on the SDC, told EP that its absence ‘will leave a vacuum in government sustainable development thinking’. He added: ‘What SDC did best was really good thinking, which ended up as good advice. As the complex and tangled relationship between natural resources, the way our economy works, consumption and business competitiveness are better appreciated, the SDC was working tirelessly towards converting that complexity into clarity.’
Knight said the demise of the SDC ‘will hinder government but also business, since it is clear that its work shaped corporate policies as much as the government’s.’
Alan Atkisson, founder of the US-based Atkisson sustainability consultancy, said the Commission had exercised influence globally, not just in the UK, as ‘an extraordinary source of innovative thinking and clear-sighted critique’. He added: ‘As a cost-cutting measure it’s wrong-headed.’
The Commission’s annual £3million funding, which came from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, has been withdrawn as part of the new coalition’s widespread financial cutbacks and an offensive against quangos – quasi-non-governmental organizations.
The withdrawal of funding and Whitehall support essentially abolishes the SDC in England, although the devolved parliaments in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have not yet made decisions on whether they will support it.
Environment secretary Caroline Spelman said the decision was taken partly because she wants to integrate sustainability thinking across government rather than isolate it in one area. ‘I am determined to play the lead role in driving the sustainability agenda across the whole of government and I am not willing to delegate this responsibility to an external body,’ she said.
However, Joan Walley, chair of the UK parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee, said the SDC had played ‘an essential role in furthering sustainable development and environmental protection across government’ and questioned how ministers will now maintain any impetus on the topic.
SDC chair Will Day said he was ‘deeply disappointed’ by the decision but promised the SDC ‘will be working hard with government … in the weeks ahead to make sure sustainable development is given an appropriate place, and that the legacy of our cutting-edge advice and hands-on capability building continues’.
While one of the main jobs of the Commission was to advise government on ways in which it could become more socially and environmentally responsible, it also produced work on how ministers might encourage CSR in the business world.
Alan Knight, a former head of CSR at Kingfisher and SAB Miller who served on the SDC, told EP that its absence ‘will leave a vacuum in government sustainable development thinking’. He added: ‘What SDC did best was really good thinking, which ended up as good advice. As the complex and tangled relationship between natural resources, the way our economy works, consumption and business competitiveness are better appreciated, the SDC was working tirelessly towards converting that complexity into clarity.’
Knight said the demise of the SDC ‘will hinder government but also business, since it is clear that its work shaped corporate policies as much as the government’s.’
Alan Atkisson, founder of the US-based Atkisson sustainability consultancy, said the Commission had exercised influence globally, not just in the UK, as ‘an extraordinary source of innovative thinking and clear-sighted critique’. He added: ‘As a cost-cutting measure it’s wrong-headed.’
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