The East of England is one of the fastest growing regions in the country. With economic success comes increased demand for housing, transport, business premises, leisure facilities etc
Is it possible to have economic growth without having a detrimental impact on the environment?
Well, with the right leadership and co-ordination, research shows that decoupling growth and carbon is possible. Indeed, we will need to grow in order to provide the reinvestment required to mitigate and adapt to the challenges of climate change. The region is well placed to address growth sustainably and to maximise its opportunities. The sustainable economy programme aims to underpin this premise through driving appropriate activity in other programmes as well as leading through its own actions.
Climate change poses a very real threat to our region, with our low-lying geography; vulnerable coastline and scarce resources whilst we're the highest resource users. However, rather than react to the changing business climate, we must seize this moment as an opportunity. The Stern Review gave us evidence of the economic opportunity in tackling climate change: potentially, this is a market worth billions of pounds. Capitalising on this opportunity is not an impossible challenge with the region's emergent strengths in renewables and environmental technologies.
Today, sustainable development is no longer just a 'bolt-on' or desire - it is a critical success factor to the future of our region and EEDA will lead by example. We will shortly achieve Environmental Management System (EMS) certification, through achieving ISO 14001 and Eco-Mangement and Audit Scheme (EMAS), and plan to become carbon neutral by 2010. We aim to provide an example to 95% of businesses in the region through a comprehensive retrofit project on our offices. All EEDA investment in the region is also now subject to minimum standards of sustainability in design, concept and management, using the Excellence Framework.
A key aim of the programme is to lead the drive towards efficient use of resources (in particular water, energy and waste) in the region through, for example mainstreaming resource efficiency support into Business Link, and investing in innovation in environmental and energy technology, We will also use innovative campaigns to reduce carbon in the region's communities - the Cut your Carbon campaign. The region's rural areas have huge potential to contribute to this agenda, and we will be working to ensure that these opportunities are optimised. We are also the only region to be maintaining a low carbon/resource efficiency theme for all the EU funding which we manage.
The sustainable economy programme will underpin all the work that EEDA delivers in the East of England - and, with the support of the region - we can help to realise low-carbon economic growth for everyone.