Will sustainability take a back seat to growth in Scotland as economic conditions become tougher, asks William Peakin
Among the products on show during Scottish Food Fortnight, opened by Environment Cabinet Secretary Richard Lochhead at Glamis Castle in Angus last Friday, is Mey Selections. The brand represents the beef, lamb, mutton, geese, seafood, cheeses, biscuits, oatcakes, honey, conserves, wool products and whisky produced by co-operative members of North Highland Products based in Wick.
Mey Selections aims to source all of its major ingredients from within a hundred miles of the Castle of Mey, on the coast of Caithness, six miles west of John O’Groats, and to give what it considers is a fair price to traditional family farmers, fishermen and food producers.
“We are committed to using the highest standards of food production to produce the highest quality food,” says the company. “Also by extending our range of products to include sustainable supplies of fresh fish and shellfish through local harbours, as well as bakery and other products, we aim to deliver only top quality food to discriminating customers – at the same time, ensuring a sustainable future for local farmers and food producers.”
The products carry an image of the Castle of Mey, the late Queen Mother’s summer home. In 2005, Prince Charles, president of the Castle of Mey Trust, launched the North Highland Initiative which aims to promote economic development in the area, including the fostering of closer connections between farmers, fine food producers, and consumers. North Highland Products began with just 13 members; today it embraces more than 500 producers and last year it doubled its turnover to £8.6m.
It is, as Prince Charles said this summer, a “good story” of sustainability in action. But, as a recession looms, is the concept of food that is inherently more expensive sustainable in the minds of consumers? Is it indicative of a wider conflict in the cost of being green? And, with the changed economic conditions, will the Scottish Government be tempted to put more emphasis on economic growth than sustainability?
Ministers began the year with a series of populist measures. You could sign up to the Government’s ‘10 Greener Pledges’, including turning off the tap while you brush your teeth. Funding for householders and community groups to install solar panels and other ‘micro-renewables’ was tripled to £13.5m. We were wished a Happy Easter but urged to recycle the cardboard from the 30m eggs consumed. And thousands of home composting bins were distributed.
Public sector organisations and private companies had sustainability at the top of their agenda. VisitScotland launched its Green Tourism Business Scheme, encouraging businesses to adopt up to 120 measures of sustainability. The National Trust for Scotland said it was considering installing solar panels on some of the country’s historic buildings. Diageo, the spirits company, announced plans for a £65m bio-energy scheme at its Cameronbridge distillery in Fife, the largest single investment in renewable technology by a non-utility company in the UK.
The Government’s own behaviour came under scrutiny also. “The Cabinet received a presentation from our officials who are leading on the climate change agenda,” recalled Cabinet Secretary for Sustainable Growth John Swinney. “And at the end of it they rather delicately put up a slide on the projector which listed the Cabinet members down the left-hand side and cited the decisions that they would take on a regular basis which had to be taken in the spirit of the climate change agenda.
“So the Health Secretary, for example, was reminded rather bluntly that she shouldn’t preside over the building of hospitals in locations where there aren’t sustainable public transport measures in place. And the Cabinet Secretary for Justice was reminded, as he considers the forthcoming prison building programme, that he’s not allowed to build prisons unless they have the key elements of sustainability in the construction of the buildings.
“And I was reminded rather bluntly that we have an essential challenge to overcome in our transport planning that we have got to ensure that we have more people using sustainable transport at a time when many, if not all indicators are pointing in precisely the opposite direction.
“The point of the slide was to remind us, each one of us, that there’s no hiding place for any of us about the decisions we take on an occupational basis every day of the week. And equally for all of us in the public sector, there is a challenge to ensure that we all play our part in that process.”
Sustainability even became chic. Consultants Capgemini hosted a carbon neutral ball “to focus attention on the need for environmental change and raise funds for The Prince’s Trust. The Black and White Ball aims to redefine luxury through the concept of ‘eco-chic’ and has achieved carbon neutrality by purchasing carbon credits,” said John Duncanson, Capgemini’s managing director. Across Scotland, environment-conscious professionals met for Green Drinks Nights (inspiring one American participant to launch the concept in the US oil capital, Houston).
“The speed with which the doors of power, and of official financing, have flown open still comes as something of a shock
The speed with which the doors of power, and of official financing, have flown open still comes as something of a shock 
,” says Jonathan Dawson, a writer for the New Statesman, president of the Global Eco-village Network and a resident of the eco-village at Findhorn. “It is a great time just now to be in Scotland. There is a tangible sense of freshness, excitement and opportunity in the air.”
Dawson described a distinct change in the nature of the festivals the Findhorn community has held for many years: “Motley gatherings of permaculturists, eco-villagers, peaceniks and representatives of assorted causes talking, apparently, primarily to each other. Now, all at once it seems, we are being joined by local government officials, parliamentarians and even cabinet ministers!”
The veteran environmental campaigner Jonathon Porritt was similarly struck by the sense of momentum: “I feel that there’s something afresh and abroad in Scotland at the moment. Frankly, the record of governments is not outstanding historically. [They] are often constrained by their fear of being punished by electorates who aren’t yet as excited about the opportunity agenda as they need to be.
“They’re constrained by uncertainties; they’re not certain whether or not the evidence base gives them the authority to make some of the dramatic interventions in society that there are going to have to be. They’re often constrained, I’m sorry to say, by the degree to which they have been co-opted by vested interests and are incapable of making properly independent decisions in the interests of their own citizens,” said Porritt, chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission.
“And they’re constrained often by a lack of creativity, of imagination, of what we call sustainability literacy and by the kind of political leadership on which the whole of this agenda now completely depends. One of the great problems we’ve faced is that in any system, it is almost limitlessly possible for one part of that system to pass responsibility for this stuff on to somebody else. We call it pass the sustainability parcel! It’s always somebody else’s responsibility.”
He told a gathering of senior civil servants and public sector leaders: “I have to say that what’s going on here in Scotland in that context is really, really interesting. How [they] now intend to drive this across the whole of government is actually extremely inspiring. The depths of cynicism now in people about political processes and what politicians are or aren’t doing on their behalf has become one of the biggest constraints in achieving a sustainable society. That cynicism has become corrosive of every ambition or aspiration we might have to create this more equitable sustainable world.
“Government by synergy is better than government by drilled down departmental responsibility and what’s going on here at the moment is exciting. It’s got a sense of originality and some new thinking in it. At the heart is this knowledge that we can really get our act together and make this stuff work across the sectors, and empower people to do what the vast majority of people now want to do, which is to lead better, more responsible lives, in the real time today without damaging people tomorrow.”
The Scottish Government’s focus is on creating a more successful country “with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish, through increasing sustainable economic growth.” According to Environment Minister Mike Russell: “By sustainable economic growth, we mean building a dynamic and growing economy that will provide prosperity and opportunities for all, while ensuring that future generations can enjoy a better quality of life too.
“It follows that sustainable economic growth is not just about how fast we grow the economy. It’s also very much about how we do it. In particular, it’s about fairness between different parts of Scotland, between different groups in society, and between this generation and future generations. [It is] what we’re calling solidarity, cohesion and sustainability.
“Our economy and society depend on natural resources and the environment for raw materials and energy, for food, air to breathe and water to drink; for soils, air, and water that absorb and transform our waste and pollution; and for attractive and safe environments which support our health, wellbeing and quality of life.
“By the same token, economy and society have a variety of impacts that shape the environmental capital available to future generations. Some of these impacts are local – to Scotland or elsewhere – such as the environmental consequences, for example, of the primary industries such as oil and gas, farming and fishing, quarrying, mining, and forestry that produce the raw materials that ultimately feed, clothe and house us. And some are global.
“We have a responsibility to future generations and those less fortunate than ourselves for the legacy we leave them. That’s why we have made reducing the local and global environmental impact of our consumption and production one of our fifteen high-level national outcomes and set ourselves the goal of reducing our ecological footprint.”
Russell said Scotland is committed to playing its part in a co-ordinated global response to the challenge of climate change and as part of its legislative programme the Government is putting in place a statutory target to achieve an 80 per cent reduction in Scotland’s emissions by 2050. The consultation on its proposals for a Bill attracted more than 20,000 responses from 145 countries.
“Sustainable industry will have a critical part to play in enabling us to create and sustain the economic opportunities we need for a wealthier and fairer future for Scotland’s people. Doing so in ways which protect and enhance our environment for future generations and that capitalise on our natural assets and strengths, such as the quality and beauty of our natural environment and historic cities and considerable potential in renewable energy sources and associated technologies.”
The Government regards energy production and use as “key to a greener, wealthier and fairer future, in the face of the imperative needs to tackle climate change and ensure security of supply against the background of rocketing demand in the newly industrialising economies such as China and India and uncertainties and risks on the supply side.”
Scotland has considerable supplies of renewables including wind, wave, tide and biomass and long-established skills and capacity in the technologies such as offshore engineering needed to harness them.
“We have increased Scotland’s own targets for renewable energy generation to 31 per cent by 2011 and 50 per cent by 2020. To meet these, we will need several more GigaWatts of capacity.
“We need to ensure government plays its part in supporting the sector and in providing the long-term frameworks needed to enable investment. We need to make sure that the planning and consents system is working well. We have set a clear framework for renewables development in the planning system, which will be reinforced by our proposals for a new National Planning Framework highlighting priorities in renewable energy and improvements infrastructure. We want more renewables, but not at any price; the best proposals will reconcile community and environmental concerns in advance.”
There is a focus on energy efficiency as well. The Government is helping businesses to cut emissions, improve productivity and increase competitiveness. Through Loan Action Scotland, it provides interest free loans of up to £100,000 to help SMEs invest in energy efficiency measures. Last year 84 Scottish SMEs received loans worth £2m and there are plans to expand the scheme.
The Carbon Trust helped more than 300 Scottish businesses implement measures which will save more than 200,000 tonnes of CO2 and more than £15m during their lifetime. The business adviser network, funded through the Energy Saving Trust, helped smaller SMEs to reduce their energy bills. The Government is working to reduce industrial and consumer waste. And it has begun a move to sustainable procurement in the public sector.
“In the end, businesses will produce and supply the goods and services that they believe customers will pay for
In the end, businesses will produce and supply the goods and services that they believe customers will pay for
,” said Russell. “As well as advocating, supporting and driving businesses to become more efficient in how they use resources, including energy, we want to encourage consumers to demand greener products, and make it easier for businesses to meet that demand. One thing that government can do – and the Scottish Government is doing – is to work, in partnership with civil society, to influence the behaviours of and demands of present and future consumers.”
But, as the economic going gets tough, will this come to be regarded as green rhetoric? The Oxford economist Professor Dieter Helm has already detected a “shift back to the safe territory of concrete and jobs.” He said that “it is a sad fact that the environment is one of the first things to suffer” in the face of an economic slowdown.
Findhorn’s Jonathan Dawson said: “[The] SNP administration almost overnight seems to have propelled politics in Scotland out of the tired, grey sleepwalk of the semi-conscious soundbite into new and fresh approaches that seek to truly address themselves to the challenges of the new world we are transitioning into.
“This is not to say that the Green dawn has arrived – there are far too many cases where given the need to choose between ‘sustainable’ and ‘development’, the administration has plumped squarely for the latter.” The Government’s perceived attitude to the Trump golf course proposal would support this view, favouring as it does jobs, luxury housing and tourism income over the natural habitat and resource conservation.
Jonathon Porritt has recalled how the last time the UK was going through a serious economic downturn in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the environmental agenda was fairly frail. Mrs Thatcher might have ‘got’ climate change, he says, but very few people knew what she was talking about. Energy and food prices were relatively low, and the idea that there were serious limits to growth in the offing was restricted to hardcore greenies.
“It’s very different now. Twenty years of accumulated evidence on a host of environmental issues leaves little if any room for doubt as to the need for rapid and radical change. This is reinforced by soaring energy and commodity prices. Nonetheless, most pundits are still persuaded that the current economic downturn will kill off today’s heightened interest in the environment. They may be right, though the most recent Guardian/ICM poll showed that concern about climate change is still high, compared to concerns about the economy.”
Despite Porritt’s warm words for Scotland’s public leaders, he remains suspicious of the wider political and economic agenda: “If environmental issues do come off the boil, I believe it won’t be because of the economic downturn but because our politicians refuse point blank to accept the true implications of today’s converging environmental crises. Responses of mainstream politicians are geared entirely to carrying on doing what we do today but in ‘much less environmentally damaging ways’. There is still no challenge to the dominant model of progress; no fundamental questioning of the idea of permanent economic growth; and no serious interrogation of the mounting societal and moral costs of debt-driven consumerism.
He says that “these naked emperors would still have us believe that we can ‘decouple’ the worst effects of permanently rising per capita income from the kind of environmental damage that it is causing.” A mix of smart technology, resource efficiency and ‘responsible/ethical consumption’ will somehow reduce emissions of CO2 by 80 per cent by 2050, overcome resource shortages, prevent further damage to biodiversity, eliminate the build-up of toxic chemicals, and deliver the world’s nine billion population (by 2050) into a “global green nirvana where we can all go on getting richer even as the environment gets greener.”
Writing in The Guardian recently, he said: “There is not a shred of evidence to support such a fatuous fiction. Exactly the opposite; the latest study carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers on the state of consumer behaviour shows that, even after 20 years of improved media coverage and heightened environmental awareness, the ‘sustainable retail market’, as a share of total UK consumer expenditure on retail products, is still no more than 4 per cent, or £220bn.
“An even half-way honest analysis of current economic and environmental trends would demonstrate incontrovertibly that such an economy is not compatible with sustainability. With tens of billions of dollars spent every year exhorting people to consume more, no amount of decoupling can decarbonise the global economy fast enough. No amount of huffing and puffing about the need to increase oil production can any longer conceal the fact that the days of cheap oil, on which our entire model of progress is built, are gone forever. On both counts, the party’s over.”
The economic downturn provides, he believes, an all-too-convenient excuse for politicians to continue to ignore uncomfortable home-truths about the state of the planet over and above the economic bad news. “Two ‘revealed truths’ occupy so much space in their political brains that radically unorthodox views are literally inconceivable. The first is that politicians in the modern world only get elected by promising people more growth and increased disposable income. This first ‘revealed truth’ is powerfully reinforced by a second (and much deeper) ‘revealed truth’ that this kind of amoral, greed-pandering politics simply reflects basic human nature. And you can’t buck human nature.
“But it is precisely that kind of shift – from consumptive, life-threatening growth to improved wellbeing and real quality of life – on which any prospect of an environmentally and socially sustainable future rests. And would such a message be so unpopular? It’s not as if today’s model of progress is making most people any happier – just look at the Department of Health’s staggering statistic that the cost to the UK economy from mental ill-health amounts to around £75bn per year.
“In the meantime, enjoy the following paradox: for a growing number of people, the economic downturn will discourage waste, incentivise much more efficient use of energy, persuade people to ‘make do and mend’, to live better, off less, to focus on what really matters in life, to seek to reduce and even avoid debt, to downsize, to drive more slowly, to get the bike out of the shed, to stop seeking status through conspicuous consumption – all of which, by and large, are better for the environment (and personal health) than so much of today’s brash, business-as-usual bingeing. And it might even make us a little happier in the process.”
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