Sustainable development : fourth annual assessment of progress by the Scottish Government

SDC Scotland’s annual assessment is based on a review of government policy across a range of topics from economy and energy to education, health, waste and biodiversity. The conclusions and recommendations are also based on discussions with expert groups in each policy area, government civil servants and a stakeholder survey.Publisher PD

Submission from the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland on the Scottish Government's 'Energy efficiency action plan'

This letter is a response from the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland to the Scottish Government's 'Energy efficiency action plan'.Publisher PD

‘Public bodies climate change duties’ pre‐consultation workshops report

The final report produced after the consultation is entitled 'Public bodies climate change duties : putting them into practice'.The Climate Change (Scotland) Act requires that Scottish Ministers provide guidance to relevant public bodies in relation to their climate change duties and that those bodies must have regard to such guidance. A public consultation on draft Scottish Government guidance will take place in summer 2010. In advance of that a series of pre-consultation workshops were held across Scotland.Publisher PD

A review of the National Performance Framework in light of the Stiglitz Report recommendations

Contents: A review of the National Performance Framework in light of the Stiglitz Report recommendations -- Annex 1: A national performance framework (Chapter 8 of 'Scottish budget spending review 2007') -- Annex 2: The capabilities approach (reproduced from Sen and Alkire in the Stiglitz Report, p. 151) -- Annex 3: The equality measurement frameworkThis report is based on the 'Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress' (Stiglitz Report, 2009) and 'More than GDP : measuring what matters' (2011).The aim of this paper is to review the structure of the Scottish National Performance Framework (NPF) against the 12 recommendations set out in the Stiglitz Report.Publisher PD

Environmental aspects of health care in the Grampian NHS region and the place of telehealth

Detailed information about the composition of the carbon footprint of the NHS in the Grampian health region, and in Scotland generally, is not available at present. Based on the limited information available, our best guess is that travel emissions in Grampian are substantial, perhaps 49,000 tonnes CO2 per year. This is equivalent to 233 million km of car travel per year. A well-established telemedicine network in the Grampian region, which saves over 2000 patient journeys a year from community hospitals, avoids about 260,000 km travel per year, or about 59 tonnes CO2 per year. Therefore using telehealth as it has been used historically (primarily to facilitate hospital-to-hospital interactions) seems unlikely to have a major environmental impact – although of course there may be other good reasons for persevering with conventional telehealth. On the other hand, telehealth might be useful in reducing staff travel and to a lesser extent, visitor travel. It looks particularly promising for reducing outpatient travel, where substantial carbon savings might be made by reconfiguring the way that certain services are provided

No such thing as a free lunch?

A summary of a discussion about sustainable food in Scotland at the Scottish Parliament held on 7th March 2007.Publisher PD

The right ingredients : Sustainable Development Commission Scotland response to the discussion on a national food policy for Scotland

Response of the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland to a consultation on national food policy for Scotland.Publisher PD

SDC challenge paper : measuring what matters in light of the Stiglitz Report

This report is based on the 'Report by the Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress' (Stiglitz Report, 2009).This paper was an input to Sustainable Development Commission Scotland’s work for the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust (to be published on their website). It was also sent to Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs as an input to the review of sustainable development and well-being indicators.Publisher PD

Review of the Scottish Government’s budget and spending review

Written evidence to support oral presentation to the Scottish Parliament Finance Committee on the Scottish Government's budget and spending review.Publisher PD