Show me the pattern…

I spent the day yesterday with a room full of worthy and well meaning people like myself who had given up a day to help shape the proposed Sustainable Development Bill. The minister, John Griffiths, opened they day with the usual introduction –

• Wales is one the first nation to have a legal requirement to adopt sustainable development as its organising principle;
• the Welsh government, whatever its colour is required to produce a scheme outlining how it intends to fulfil this requirement;
• the government will report annually on that scheme, however, until now there is no legal duty to produce a good scheme or a way of enforcing others to adopt sustainability as their organising principle.

It was a great shame that the Minister didn’t have time to participate with us as it is obvious that this subject is very close to his heart.

A few years ago[1] I wrote a piece on the government’s performance on sustainability. At the time I noted that if one searched the then Welsh Assembly website for references to sustainability, there were only two hits, with three for ‘sustainable’ all exclusively appearing in Jane Davidson’s portfolio. A recent trawl through the current government’s ‘Programme For Government’  reveals that “The P4G and annex document – despite stating that sustainability is defined as wellbeing (used 19 times),  uses the term ‘sustainable’ 97 times. Uses include “sustainable financial settlement”; “sustainable virtual learning environment”; the Healthy and Sustainable Pre-school scheme; Sustainable Social Services Agenda; sustainable economic growth; sustainable jobs. Terms such as sustainable economic growth are not defined. Despite the current SD scheme One Wales: One Planet (2009) containing the statement that “all of our policies will show how we will reduce Wales’ Ecological Footprint to work towards our vision, initially through showing how we will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 3% a year, year-on-year by 2011 in those areas where we have devolved competence, and move towards a zero-waste society” there is no evidence that this has been implemented in the Programme for Government.

It is against this backdrop that the delegates at yesterday’s conference were asked to ponder the following questions and discuss them in their groups:

Discussion 1: SD as a central organising principle

• What does SD as a central organising principle mean to you?
• What would you expect to see your organisation doing differently
• Should a bill define SD, and if so what should the definition include
• How is your organisation already doing this: do you have good examples to share?

Discussion 2: Sustainable development duty

• What are the opportunities associated with a legal duty to SD?
• What are the risks associated with a legal duty to SD?
• How could each risk be mitigated?
• At what level should a duty applied?

Discussion 3: New Sustainable Development Body

• Is there a need for an SD body?
• If so should it be there to support or to scrutinise/challenge organisations under the duty? Can it do both?
• What sort of activities do you think it should do?
• What powers and resources should it have?

On one level it was hugely disappointing that we are still discussing such topics – of course we need a definition, but don’t we already have one in One WalesOne Planet?[2] We should certainly be moving away from the trend to define sustainability as ‘wellbeing’ as some people are advocating – wellbeing is an outcome of a sustainable lifestyle, a sustainable environment above the poverty line (which is a moving target). Even ticking all those boxes doesn’t guarantee wellbeing or contentment.

By the end of the day I reached a conclusion that the conversation was going nowhere and the same group of suspects could find themselves interrogated on the very same topics a year, or even ten years from now. In order to function effectively, we are forced into thinking linearly and in silos – cabinet is made up of politicians with defined portfolios, the civil services is full of officers servicing those departments. Each incoming administration will want to shake the beans up and make them land in piles that reflect their own version of how things should be done. Local authorities have boundaries, universities have departments, businesses have sectors and so on. All of them will have a ‘duty’ to deliver ‘sustainability’ (still yet to be defined!) and somebody will have to decide how to measure if they are all doing well or not and report on it. Annually!

And yet, we have to face an inconvertible truth – we are citizens of a finite planet; one planet, now and forever and we are sharing that planet with 7 billion others, the vast majority of whom do not enjoy access to a fraction of the earth’s resources consumed by us. We know that, whatever anybody else is doing, we as a country need to get to grip with this and have said so in One Wales One Planet. Who knows, perhaps we are better placed to do so as we have more to gain than more prosperous countries by doing things differently.

But first, if we say we have an organising principle then we have to start organising. I think that we should think of sustainability as rather a giant knitting project. All the cabinet ministers represent a ball of coloured wool, all of them contribute to an intricate jumper made of all the colours. So we can now answer the questions:

• What does SD as a central organising principle mean to you?

Sustainable development is an intricate knitting project a complex web of people, planet and prosperity against a backdrop of ‘one planet living’ principles.

•  What would you expect to see your organisation doing differently

Government and organisations will recognise that all their activities and functions are contributing to a part of a completed knitted masterpiece, each working with complementary colours.

•  Should a bill define SD, and if so what should the definition include

The SD bill should define the end product – the jumper, which is beautifully patterned, a perfect balance of colours and textures – one which is the right size for Wales.

•  How is your organisation already doing this: do you have good examples to share?

To my knowledge there are no organisations who are tackling this properly, there are some better than others. To continue the analogy: some know they should be knitting, some knitters are currently more skilled than others, but most of us are dropping stitches and the overall effect is something thrown together, tensions, materials and colours juxtaposed or even competing.

Discussion 2: Sustainable development duty

• What are the opportunities associated with a legal duty to SD?

If we carry on with the knitting analogy we see that  the opportunities are immense because they ensure total inclusion of all the issues of the day in a balanced way with everyone aware of where their ball of wool fits into the bigger picture.

•  What are the risks associated with a legal duty to SD?
• How could each risk be mitigated?

These risks are associated with a ‘business as usual’ approach – if this is ‘just another bill’ then it will become a chore and a bore with yet more forms to fill and constraints telling people what they cannot do rather than freeing them up to get on with creating their piece of the garment in the best possible way.

•  At what level should a duty applied?

I’d rather it was called a treat than a duty – a national treat to be involved in such an amazing project to turn our country around into something new and different that everyone will want to copy (like Sarah Lund’s Faroese jumper). But that’s utopian! All levels of government and local authority should be shown the pattern, given the resources to buy the wool and given knitting lessons. This is perhaps the biggest constraint of all – nobody will know how to knit!

Discussion 3: New Sustainable Development Body

• Is there a need for an SD body?

There is a need for a ‘master knitter’ and his/her helpers.

This raises the question of what qualities would we be looking to accomplish this job? We would be looking for a team of people who are ready to acknowledge their own limitations, as everyone will be following an unfamiliar pattern. They will be able to reflect on and gain insight from the creativity and mistakes of others, adapting the practises they observe as they go about their business. They will be able to interpret what they observe, sharing topical tips and hints widely making them relevant to the current context. The master knitter himself/herself will be a leader; a leader who learns from doing.

• If so should it be there to support or to scrutinise/challenge organisations under the duty? Can it do both?

Like Fair Isle or Faroese knitters everyone would be following a pattern and knitting up their own jumpers and somebody would come along to control the quality. So in government whilst every minister was primarily in charge of his/her ball of wool they would also be in charge of making sure that they were able to report on linkages between their ball of wool and everybody else’s. This would ensure that the current scenario – where assembly members feel it’s ok to leave the chamber when the minister for the Environment & Sustainable Development reports on the SD scheme but crowd into their seats and fight to be on TV with their question on finance when the Minister for the Economy delivers a speech – would no longer be acceptable.

•  What sort of activities do you think it should do?

Help develop, evolve and communicate the pattern. The pattern in year 1 will not be the same pattern as in year 10 or 50 but all the patterns would be following the same principles – the principles of One Planet Living. They would also need to develop guidelines for knitting lessons across the piece. And NOT another ‘toolkit’!

•  What powers and resources should it have?

I don’t know – ‘enough’

Conclusion.

The fact that we are even thinking along these lines indicates that Wales is a country with a heart and a social conscience. If we succeed, we’ll be happy and many might follow.

I’ll keep my thoughts on what happens when the cat and her kittens are let loose in the wool basket for another day.

Einir Young, 02-12-2011

VERY IMPORTANT: The content of this blog and every other blog (if there is ever another) reflects my option and in no way represents the opinions of any other person or organisation