Sustainable Development

Sustainable development is about balancing our economic, social and environmental goals.  The development of the Northern Ireland economy is important but it must not be our only consideration.  There needs to be a balance between prosperity, people, and our environment.  We are building a society not only for ourselves, but for our children and our children’s children.  What this means is that we must ensure that all of our actions take account of their economic, social and environmental consequences.  

For the average person in the street, sustainable living means considering every decision we make in day to day life ensuring that we do not use more than we need to and considering other people’s wellbeing.

For government, sustainable development means creating policies and making decisions on behalf of the country that equally support our communities, improve our standard of living, and help us to live within environmental limits.  For example, in the case of government procurement policy, it means not just buying as cheaply as possible, but seeking to procure so as to generate positive results for the economy, society and environment.

Similarly for other policy areas – policies designed to promote economic growth should seek to promote social development and the achievement of a high level of environmental quality at the same time.

This requires us to consider all the impacts of our policies and actions and to attempt to make strategies and policies across government that are co-ordinated and complementary to achieve the best possible results for the people of Northern Ireland in environmental, social and economic terms.

The Sustainable Development Strategy for Northern Ireland and its Implementation Plan set out how Government intends to achieve this.