What is sustainable development?
The West Midlands faces a whole range of economic, social, environmental opportunities and risks, now and in the future. Sustainable development is an approach to navigating through these risks to create a strong, healthy and just society, living within environmental limits.
The role of Advantage West Midlands in sustainable development
Advantage West Midlands promotes sustainable development through its leadership and influence, funding, business support activities, land and property development, and in its role as an employer.
In producing the West Midlands Economic Strategy (WMES) with partners, we are seeking to influence £20 billion of public sector economic and regeneration funding and £14 billion of private sector investment over a ten-year period.
Our approach has been to ensure the underlying principles of long-term thinking, low carbon economy, valuing the environment, equality and diversity, and urban and rural renaissance are built into the WMES.
We lobby Government and promote good practice. For example we have secured a carbon reduction target for all regional development agencies and had our industrial waste exchange and manufacturing diversification into the wind turbine sector schemes go national.
Advantage West Midlands incorporates sustainability into all of our activity by:
funding buildings that demonstrate high environmental standards
supporting research and development into new energy or environmental products
supporting companies to grow environmental-related business or helping businesses realise improved efficiency through waste and energy reduction.
We practice what we preach as employers by working to reduce costs and carbon. In addition, we are members of Sustainability West Midlands, Forum for the Future, and Business in the Community to ensure we benchmark ourselves against and share good practice. Our sustainable policy and action plan - Future Advantage - is the first of its kind among the regional development agencies.