Josh Fothergill, policy and practice lead at IEMA, discusses how we are working to deliver a sustainable economy
A sustainable economy is one that works over the long-term to deliver economic, social and environmental stability. To build towards delivering such an economy, governments and organisations must review their approach to ensure they are contributing to delivering high employment and improved equality, while responding to the challenges of climate change, resource constraints and biodiversity loss.
To deliver a sustainable economy will require a different mix of skills, knowledge and competences from those in the current system. IEMA has identified three key catalysing actions to get the ball rolling: a national strategy on skills for the sustainable economy; a wide coalition of business and institutional support for action; and collaboration across this agenda between government and business. The Institute has chosen to tackle this challenge head-on by developing an outline strategy in our forthcoming position statement, Skills for the sustainable economy, which will launch in December.
Alongside this, IEMA is working with businesses and wider organisations to generate a broad campaign of action to demonstrate what is being achieved already by those leading the way on embedding sustainable skills across their business. IEMA’s position statement will highlight the actions and support needed from the government and wider institutions to enable a high-performing economy that drives social improvements and does so within environmental limits.
Member engagement is central to developing IEMA’s position statement and this consultation began in July. Wider consultation will take place in September, with a number of regional workshops on developing organisational capabilities to deliver sustainability. If your organisation is interested in supporting this initiative, email me.
