The UK government has contracted six industry trade bodies to draw up sustainable development plans for their sectors.
The British Property Federation, the Chartered Institute of Marketing,
the Confederation of British Metal Forming, the Furniture Industry
Research Association, the Metals Forum and the Quarry Products
Association will each have to implement their individual plans ‘in ways
that stimulate practical actions that will lead to improved
[sustainable development] performance’.
The contracts, together worth £100,000 ($175,000), have been awarded by
tender under the government’s Sector Sustainability Challenge
programme. They fulfil a pledge in the government’s sustainable
development strategy, introduced in March 2005, to support ‘sectoral or
supply chain initiatives to put sustainable consumption and production
into practical action’.
The grants are relatively small, but nevertheless signal the
government’s desire for trade bodies to play a greater role in
promoting sustainable development. Officials believe that social and
environmental initiatives from industry groups have a good chance of
being taken up because the groups tend to have close relationships with
their members and are therefore likely to propose measures that display
‘joined-up thinking’.
