Forward Scotland is a company limited by guarantee with charitable status committed to making sustainable development work. Here its Chairman, John Markland, using landfill tax credits as an example, suggests that sustainable development should not be hived off into a separate function, but have an integral place in operations.

FORWARD SCOTLAND AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Launched in May 1996 to take practical action on sustainable development, Forward Scotland is now involved in over 100 partnership projects across Scotland with the public, private and voluntary sectors.

For Forward Scotland sustainable development means seeking ways to improve the quality of everyday life while respecting the environment. Turning sustainable development into practical action requires action in the three related spheres of economy, society and environment. Actions in any one sphere have impacts on the other two. Sustainable development needs to maximise the positive effects of actions in all three spheres.

This is especially important for the business community. More often than not the positive benefits of sustainable development for business strategy are overlooked because the environment and sustainable development are seen as the same thing. The strategic significance of sustainable development to the prosperity and growth of the business is lost, though a good number of decent environmental objectives are met! Some environmental projects may gain good publicity; others may gain a modest improvement in the bottom line through, for example, waste reduction. These are worth having, but they seldom make a significant strategic difference to business prospects.

Putting sustainable development at the heart of business decision making still allows these environmental improvements to take place, but for year on year improvement a long term view is necessary. A view which understands the context in which businesses operate and how the various elements of this context interact and where the opportunities lie.

THE LANDFILL TAX CREDIT SCHEME

The Landfill Tax Credit Scheme illustrates one example of what I mean from the experience of our company. The Landfill Tax Credit Scheme was introduced in October 1996. The scheme allows for credits to be claimed by landfill site operators on the landfill tax which they must pay on waste deposited at their sites. This credit can be up to 20% of their tax liability.

"The landfill tax credit system gives site operators like me the opportunity to put something of lasting benefit into the community and Forward Scotland is playing a useful role in this process. "

W Paterson, Managing Director, Paterson’s Quarries

It will come as no surprise to know that a great many organisations have tried hard to raise money for their own projects through this mechanism. Forward Scotland has taken a different approach.

FORWARD SCOTLAND’S APPROACH

Rather than raise money for its own projects, the company is promoting a model which ensures that landfill tax credits have the maximum beneficial effect locally through the development of strategic partnerships to achieve social, economic and environmental objectives. This typically involves a range of organisations and meets existing objectives of partners as well as national objectives in relation to the New Deal and Social Exclusion in addition to the environmental objectives contained in the landfill tax legislation. By operating in this way, Forward Scotland has helped to secure almost £1.5 million from the scheme which when put together with other resources will result in around £3 million of additional finance for local sustainable development projects which otherwise would not have been there.

Forward Scotland is currently operating in North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire and Fife with schemes in the process of development for Stirling and Edinburgh using resources from both the public and private sectors. In addition Forward Scotland has helped a number of organisations to develop their own projects for landfill tax credit funding.

In moving away from a narrowly focused approached: i.e. "how do I get my hands on some of this money for environmental projects"; towards a more strategic focus i.e. "how can I work with others to maximise the benefits from this scheme for as many people as possible"; a number of positive outcomes have emerged.

• A significant sum of money has been raised for local sustainable development projects.

• A number of effective partnerships have been established which have the capacity to develop significant programmes of activity at a local level in the short, medium and long term.

• These partnerships can play a key role in delivering across a range of key government policy areas, for example, The New Deal, Social Exclusion and Sustainable Development. They are also instrumental in adding value to existing resources and so encourage sustainable development initiatives to become embedded in organisational development, rather than bolted on to be discarded later.

TWO EXAMPLES

EXAMPLE 1: THE EAST OF SCOTLAND WASTE MINIMISATION PROJECT

A good example of this in the business sector has been the East of Scotland Waste Minimisation Project. Managed in partnership by a number of key organisations, this project has been set up to demonstrate to business and industry the benefits of waste minimisation. In the first year savings of over £3 million have been identified for the dozen or so companies involved.

The associated reduction in environmental outfalls is now being measured in hundreds of tonnes. A further 20 or so companies are involved in waste club activities, where they learn of the experience of others in waste minimisation. A further development has been the extension of the scheme to over a hundred SME’s funded by the landfill tax credit scheme.

EXAMPLE 2: SMALL BUSINESS AND SUSTAINABILITY INITIATIVE

In an attempt to take a step beyond waste minimisation Forward Scotland, together with Midlothian Council, has been supporting Midlothian Enterprise Trust to work with businesses in the Midlothian area. Building on an existing programme of environmental audit, this initiative will investigate how best to promote the 30 Left to right: Paul Charlesworth, The BOC Foundation for the Environment; John Markland, Forward Scotland; Diana Maslin, Environmental Technology Best Practice Programme; Jim McCulloch, ScottishPower; Mike Heap, East of Scotland Water; Brian Healey, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency31 benefits of sustainable development. Training on sustainable development will be piloted in participating workplaces and businesses will be supported to engage, as part of their business strategy, to become more actively involved in some of the social and economic issues integral to sustainable development.

A NATIONAL STRATEGY

So far while our operations in this area have been strategic they have been local. There is an emerging need, as the landfill tax credit scheme matures, for a national perspective to be adopted. A national body would fulfil a number of functions: increase the number of landfill operators contributing to the scheme; allow representatives from different sectors to debate ideas and the direction of national strategies to make the scheme work for everyone. There is also the possibility of using private sector sponsorship as seed corn for landfill tax money — with every pound donated generating a further £10 in landfill tax credits.

A further initiative currently under consideration is the establishment of a national body designed as a partnership between the private, public and voluntary sectors to initiate support for sustainable development across all three sectors. There will certainly be opportunities to maximise the impact of the landfill tax credit scheme at the national level, especially if a strong partnership can be established.

CONCLUSION

My argument is a simple one. As an approach, sustainable development has much to offer in ensuring that that the type of economy, society and environment which we hand on to our descendants is worth having. To get the most from it, it must be embedded in organisational thinking and organisational development.

This approach requires leadership. This leadership needs to come from the Boardroom. Neither an ad-hoc nor an environmental approach will suffice. To paraphrase Andrew Carnegie: " If you look after the pennies, you will end up with… a pile of pennies!" Similarly if you set out to undertake a pile of projects, you will end up with a pile of projects. Sustainable development is not only about the environment or environmental projects; it offers a strategic framework which covers social and economic issues. It offers a framework that will help businesses to prosper in the new millennium by fully understanding the context in which they work and where long term opportunities lie. The landfill tax credit scheme can help in this process.

John Markland is Chief Executive of Fife Council, Chairman of Forward Scotland and Chairman of the Secretary of State’s Advisory Group on Sustainable Development.

If you wish any further information on landfill tax or on the activities of Forward Scotland please contact either George Chalmers, Executive Director or Andrew Lyon, Development Manager, who have taken this initiative forward on behalf of the Board of Forward Scotland, c/o ScottishPower, St Vincent Crescent, Glasgow G3 8LT.

Telephone No. 0141-567-4334, Fax No. 0141-567-4339.