Achieving Sustainability in Scotland

Long-time 2GreenEnergy support Bruce Wilson, contractor on eco-friendly buildings whom I’ve know since we were both five years old sent me this the other day:  Hi Craig, I came across this on LinkedIn about the plans of the Scottish EPA to deal with their responsibilities with respect to Climate Change.  Pretty refreshing.

This is really good; I’m impressed, and think there are certain elements of this piece that are particularly striking.

First is the admission that the country,  on a per-capita basis, consumes three times more resources than are available to each person on this planet, and that this is unacceptable.

Another is the notion that enforcing regulation is only one aspect of environmental governance. The public sector in Scotland seeks to take an active role in helping companies operating in the country to move beyond compliance and into more forward-thinking ways of reducing carbon and consuming fewer resources. The piece is a bit vague as to exactly how this can happen, but it’s an important concept nonetheless.

While this is a good idea overall, if I had it in my power,  I think I would concentrate on a few aspects of environmental stewardship that are scorching hot priorities: eliminating coal from the grid-mix and reducing the impact of red meat consumption.

In any case, the main point here is that the country as a whole perceives a duty to act responsibly vis-a-vis the planet’s capacity to support life.  Needless to say, this is an idea that you won’t find coming out of Washington, DC anytime soon.