Breakthroughs for the 21st Century
How can we create a more sustainable UK?
The Sustainable Development Commission has launched ‘Breakthroughs for the 21st Century’, an exciting new project for 2009 . We want to bring together some of the best ideas that will truly put the UK on the path to becoming a sustainable society – one which is strong, healthy and just, and lives within environmental limits. We plan to showcase these ideas in a publication and at a high-level event next summer.
"Though there has undoubtedly been some progress towards sustainable development, all the principal indicators reveal how slow that progress has been. There is plenty of 'good practice' dotted around, but not yet at a scale that promises the kind of transformation we’ll need over the course of the next few years.
"In our opinion, this is not due to a lack of good ideas. There is no shortage of proposals for innovative new policies, technologies and practical shifts in behaviour. So we at the Sustainable Development Commission want to bring together the most compelling and creative of these ideas - those that we think can really help us move forward. We want a dynamic and hard-hitting collection of breakthrough ideas brought together in one place that will really inspire and motivate policy makers and others to catalyse change."
Jonathon Porritt, Chair, Sustainable Development Commission
Our approach
The project involves the following key stages:
- A desk-based evidence review of progress against the four priority areas of Securing the Future, to provide the context of where we are now, and identify where we need breakthroughs to happen.
- Working with our Sustainable Development Panel and other key stakeholders to identify examples of where breakthroughs have already happened; and exploring what it was that enabled these changes, and what factors prevent progress.
- Inviting people to contribute their ‘breakthrough ideas’ to the project then, with our Commissioners, identifying a selection that we feel have the potential to make a real difference in the next 3-5 years.
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Breakthroughs Survey: Many thanks for all your time and contributions, we have now closed this survey. |
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Working with others, we aim to showcase the best of these ideas in a report and at a high-level event next summer.
Further information
Claire Monkhouse (Project Manager) - 0207 270 8124
AJ McConville (Project Officer) - 0207 270 3308
