Brighton and Hove Council's Sustainability Team - is a small team based within the Strategy & Governance Directorate of the council. The team works across the council and with the community to promote sustainability issues through the development of action plans, supporting local projects and campaigns, and through the delivery of an environmental education programme. The team offer unpaid volunteering, work shadowing and other work experience opportunities. Work can range from general administration and office duties, to research projects and assisting in the organisation of events. Areas of activity and concern include:
(a) Carbon Management Programme-- (b) Climate change action plan -- (c) Sustainable Conference 2008-- (d) Eco-schools programme -- (e) Energy performance certificate-- (f) Environmental education -- (g) Fairtrade -- (h) Farmers' markets-- (i) Green kids club -- (j) Park Art Schools Resource CdRom-- (k) Microgeneration -- (l) Nuclear Power and Shoreham Harbour -- (m) Real nappies-- (n) Sustainability commission -- (o) Sustainable schools-- (p) Sustainability strategy -- (q) Water saving -- (r) Volunteering -- (s) Water Action Plan
Download the workshop programme 23rd to 28th September 2008
The 2020 Community Partnership (the Local Strategic Partnership for the city), BioRegional Quintain and Brighton & Hove City Council invite you to a week of sustainability–themed Workshops. These give you the opportunity to participate in creating the city’s proposed One Planet Living® Plan.
Tuesday 23 to Sunday 28 September 2008
Could Brighton & Hove become a sustainable community, living within the resources of one planet so that the quality of life is improved both for us and future generations? We’d like you, along with others from across all sectors of the city, to share in the vision of one planet living and say how you think we might achieve this together.
A refreshed Sustainability Strategy for Brighton and Hove is expected by the end of 2009
Brighton and Hove City Council first launched its Sustainability Strategy (28-page PDF) in 2002 - the year of the 'Rio +10 Earth Summit in Johannesburg'. There followed a series of 2-year Action Plans.
The above plans of action date from the period 2004 to 2006. The Council now recognises that its Sustainability Strategy needs substantial updating.
The process involves: a. collection of planning data (3 months) b. workshops with local stakeholders (6 months) c. production of a report (2 months), and d. launch of the refreshed Sustainability Strategy (1 month). It will therefore take us well into 2009 before completion.
The UK branch of One Planet Living has a separate wing known as BioRegional Quintain, responsible for delivering communities in England. BioRegional's first project in our city is expected to be a development of flats close to the railway station in Brighton. The development will meet the EcoHomes Excellent standard and a Sustainability Action Plan has been drawn up to demonstrate the project's response to each of the One Planet Living Principles:
The same ten principles are likely to be used in updating The Council’s Sustainability Strategy for the city of Brighton and Hove.
The Council’s Climate Change Action Plan is also due to be updated. The need for this was recognised during a themed discussion on Climate Change held on 31st May 2007 by a sub-group of Brighton and Hove's 2020 Community Partnership also known as The Local Strategic Partnership [LSP].
The intention of this sub-group was to develop a Climate Change Strategy which would be 'owned' by the 2020 Community Partnership - and therefore the wider community. The sub-group decided that for the strategy to be truly owned by the 2020 CP its development would have to involve a high level of consultation with local experts and interest groups from the outset.
To achieve this aim, it was decided to hold Brighton & Hove Climate Change Strategy Stakeholder Day on 19th November 2007.
A 13-page PDF report on this day, has been produced by The Environment Council, which helped in the planning of the event.
The Environment Council is a registered charity of 40 years standing, with considerable experience of training, facilitation and providing a forum for dialogue. They were asked by Brighton and Hove City Council, acting on behalf of the 2020 Community Partnership (LSP), to help in the design and facilitation of the meeting in an attempt to get the best outputs from the day and to shape a way forward for the LSP’s Climate Change work.
A cross section of stakeholders met at the University of Sussex on 19th November 2007 to consider and comment on the Council’s Climate Change Strategy. Three members of TB&H’s "Liaison with Local Gov’t Group" were among the stakeholders present. The first talk by John Chesshire, focused on the necessity for a statutory duty on LAs to address climate change, in the light of the IPCC Report findings. The second talk, by Heather Buttivant, addressed the expected effects of climate change impacts on the South East area of the UK in coming years. The third talk, by Thurstan Crockett, was an honest assessment of current work going on in Brighton & Hove i.e. the current Climate Change Strategy i.e. an acknowledgement by the Council that more needed to be done.
The paticipants present compiled a useful list of ‘Visions’ as well as specifying the gaps in policy which would needed to be filled if these visions were to be achieved by 2050. They further produced league tables of Key Strategic Areas that B & H would most benefit from to maximize carbon reduction before 2050. Housing, Resource efficiency & reduction, and integrated transport, were clearly the top three areas.
Revised Core Strategy Preferred Options document
Sustainability Appraisals
SPD on Sustainable Building Design--see a list of all the Supplementary Planning Documents (SPDs)
Warm Home grants
Warm Front grants
Open Space Study - Neighbourhood Survey and www.citywildlife.org.uk
The Local Area Agreement - sets out priorities for Brighton & Hove over the final year of the three year plan, agreed between the partners of our Local Strategic Partnership and Public Service Board and central government acting through the Government Office for the South East. The agreement contains 25 outcomes, grouped around four themes: 1. developing a prosperous and sustainable economy 2. ensuring all our children and young people have the best possible start in life 3. a healthy city that cares for vulnerable people and tackles deprivations and injustice 4. a safe city that values our unique environment.