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ARTICLE · 19 NOVEMBER 2010

Planning & Sustainability in Scotland

Sustainability is a word which has become "omnipresent" in 21st century Britain. Everything (it feels) has to be sustainable.

United KingdomGovernment, Public Sector
Murray Shaw
Murray Shaw

Sustainability is a word which has become "omnipresent" in 21st century Britain. Everything (it feels) has to be sustainable.

Definition of Sustainability

What do we mean by sustainability in the context of development? An early definition was provided by the Brundtland Report in 1987. That suggested that "sustainable development" was "development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". While that report resulted from a Commission set up under of auspices of the UN, other reports have come out proposing similar if not identical definitions.

The Scottish Government have embraced the concept of sustainability with enthusiasm and have attached to it a wide reaching definition. In the National Planning Framework 2 (a key planning document) while defining sustainable development in a way very similar to that in the Brundtland Report the Scottish Government makes the point that it is has

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