I feel good about cycling to work.

Yes, the road is full of crazed people (some of them pedestrians). Yes, it often rains. And yes, I have on occasion forgotten to pack my shoes. But being outside and getting exercise without having to join a gym keeps me reasonably sane.

Environmentally friendly, socially positive and easy on the wallet – cycling is an incredibly sustainable form of transport. It’s also good for the public purse. According to a report commissioned by Cycling England, each regular cyclist – someone who uses a bike more than three times a week – should save the NHS £28.30 a year.

New cycle paths, then, must be a brilliant investment. But there’s the rub. Yes, they’d save money for the local NHS Primary Care Trust – but the responsibility for building them lies with the local authority. If sustainable thinking is holistic systems thinking, how can it be achieved by public sector bodies that control only parts of the system?

Local Strategic Partnerships (LSPs) go a long way to joining the dots. They bring together local public, private and voluntary sector organisations in order to develop Local Area Agreements (LAAs) – co-ordinated initiatives that enable these sectors to work together more effectively. They are forums for the future in their own way, and naturally our Public Sector Programme wants to help them develop their ability to deliver sustainable solutions. We’re currently working on a project to bring together a group of LSPs both to co-create solutions in their own areas, and to share learning to develop best practice.

Look, for instance, at Leeds, where the city council – a Forum partner – is demonstrating the possibilities of such joined-up solutions. The Leeds Initiative is an LAA developed in partnership with the wider Leeds Strategic Plan. One of its innovative schemes has seen the council’s jobs and skills department working with the Leeds PCT to introduce regular exercise and fitness programmes for people currently on incapacity benefit, tackling debilitating problems such as back pain and, in turn, helping them back into long-term employment.

The Leeds initiative has rightly been recognised by the government’s Beacon Scheme for excellence in local government. But such stories should not really be beacons; they should be the norm. In developing our work with LSPs, we want to find out what makes for leadership at the LSP level. What factors stop them being just another level of governance and a hindrance to progress? What ensures they instead act as a vehicle for real change in an area, transforming the lives of citizens? We’ll let you know how we get on. In the meantime, I’ll be doing my bit to save my local NHS trust that £28.30 – every little counts.

Helen Clarkson is deputy director of Forum’s Public Sector Programme

This article also appears in the current issue of Green Futures

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Today I took on the BBC in a rush-hour race to their Bristol studios. I left Temple Meads Station on foot and arrived safe, sound and full of energy 15 minutes ahead of the BBC reporter, who travelled by bus.

Radio Bristol issued the challenge on the day we launched walkit.com in Bristol, as part of our Sustainable Bristol City Region programme. walkit.com is a great website which provides all the essential information for anyone considering a journey on foot within a 5km radius of the city centre. You simply put in the two points you want to travel between, which then generates a map and directions and also shows the health and environmental benefits of choosing to walk.

So my walkit.com map for my rush hour race showed me journey time (25mins) calories burnt (150) and CO2 emissions saved in comparison to taking the car, bus or taxi (average 0.5kg).

Needless to say BBC Radio Bristol were impressed, particularly by all the detail that walkit.com provides for each journey taken. The launch generated a great deal of interest, with Bristol City Council Leader Helen Holland lending her support to the importance of encouraging people to get out of their cars in such a walkable city.

We have high hopes for walkit.com in Bristol, and are aiming for up to 20,000 users and over 50,000 walking routes generated in the first year. Evidence from users of walkit.com in other cities identifies that 90% are encouraged to walk ahead of other transport modes, with over 75% encouraged to take extra physical exercise. So watch this space for updates on how walkit.com is working in Bristol.

Choosing to get out of your car for short journeys makes great sense. It’s free, is good for your general health and well-being, and also reduces your carbon footprint into the bargain. A resource like walkit.com is just what we need to support people to try a different way of travelling, both for work and leisure.

We are very grateful to Bristol Primary Care Trust, Bristol City Council and Triodos Bank for their support in the development and launch of this website.


Susan Warren heads up the Forum’s Sustainable Bristol City Region Programme

Unlikely isn't it? But one of the most important pieces of environmental policy in the world is currently making its tortuous way through the European Parliamentary process, which if approved will result in new car CO2 emissions being reduced by nearly 40% by 2020.

That's dreamy stuff for climate campaigners, a real policy that would put us well on track for the drastic 80% cut we need by mid century; a refreshing change from the crazy disconnect apparent everywhere else, with airport and coal power expansion seriously discussed by adults even as the arctic ice disappears before our eyes.

But yes, MEPs are on the verge of approving proposals for new cars sold in the EU to emit an average of 130g/km by 2012, and 95g/km by 2020. By comparison the average new car sold now in the UK emits 165g/km. Improvements on this scale hold out the prospect of a sustainable future for the auto industry, rather than flagging in the face of oil and carbon constraints. But can the industry achieve these kinds of improvements, given they've only managed a 13% reduction in the last 10 years?

On the face of it 130g/km - or even 95g/km - should hardly be a challenge, given we have many models on the road right now that achieve 130g/km, and even a handful approaching 95g, while practical new plug-in hybrids from Toyota and GM which will go further still are already in pre-production testing.

But the car industry has never been about practicality - it's about image, power and glamour, and the biggest profits have come from selling the biggest, thirstiest chunks of metal. The industry faces having to turn around its marketing messages if it is to sell as well as build more efficient cars. Little wonder therefore that it is the German auto industry with its luxury brands that has been at the forefront of industry efforts to water down the EU proposals.

Of course, there is a long tradition of reaction to environmental - and even safety - measures, with seat belts, airbags and catalytic converters all opposed in their day. But the industry should think hard before such a knee-jerk reaction this time.

The EU proposals are not only a major step towards climate stabilisation, they may represent salvation for the car industry as oil supplies decline. The recent oil price hike has hit vehicle sales worldwide, and getting away from the old bricks-on-wheels business model should be a priority for the EU industry. A legal framework which accelerates that process will leave them leaner as well as cleaner, and ready to supply the high efficiency vehicles which will leave us best off, in every sense, in the years ahead.

This summer is certainly seeing interesting changes to holiday habits. With high oil prices and the credit crunch at the top of the agenda this summer, the holiday industry is going through a challenging period. Whilst many consumers are choosing to spend money more locally, others have elected to stay put for their vacations. Meanwhile, airlines’ profits have shrunk and some have even gone out of business.

But while the downturn is affecting holidays in the short term, the fundamentals of travel are also being challenged.

Over the next few decades the world’s new middle classes will increasingly travel internationally. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, tourist visits are going to double from 800 million now to 1.6 billion by 2020.

This staggering level of growth exposes the tourism industry to a classic sustainable development challenge - increased demands on a limited resource, in this case holiday experiences, be they exhilarating activities or the destinations themselves. The Harvard Business Review translates this into a ‘scarcity of place’.

The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment tells us that many of the natural resources on which tourism relies are being depleted. And if you also factor in climate change, CO2 emissions and related water scarcity then you have a tourism time bomb.

Given these factors, our latest tourism project, Tourism 2023 could not be more timely. The project aims to help the UK outbound industry and some of its key destinations understand more about their future and be able to plan for it.

Here’s a bit more information on why we, and others, think this project is so important and has such potential to create change. Addressing key challenges and creating a more sustainable tourism industry is an exciting prospect - our first workshop was so popular we had to move it to a bigger location!

Why futures thinking is important

We can’t predict the future. The amount of changes that have taken place even over the last few years, let alone the last 15, show us that it would be foolish to even try. But that does not mean we cannot and should not think about how to prepare for and shape our future. Rather that just reacting to events as they occur, the most successful organisations and industries think in advance what they might be, and how they might respond. Tourism 2023 will explore a range of possible future scenarios for the UK outbound tourism industry. This will help the industry to develop business strategies that can be robust in any future.

Using scenarios for futures thinking was a technique developed during the 1980s by Shell. Crucially, one of the scenarios anticipated the Soviet Union collapsing and the end of the Cold War. This thinking enabled the company to rapidly capitalise on new opportunities during the dramatic events of 1989.

Scenario planning is now used by a large number of governments, businesses and organisations around the world. If you haven’t seen them already, you may be interested in some of the work we did last year with Tesco and Unilever: Retail Futures

The language of sustainable development where assets are protected and enriched for ‘future generations’ – is highly relevant to an industry whose resources are so under threat. Futures thinking is integral to this approach as decisions made on the basis of short-term thinking only, often produce unsustainable results. By asking challenging questions about the long-term, we are forced to consider many of the environmental and social issues which will have dramatic impacts in time to come.

Engaging the industry and creating change

Instead of just responding to trends that threaten our future, we can shape them ourselves and create the change we all want to see. That’s why the Tourism 2023 project includes not only scenarios and an inspiring vision, but also a carefully developed strategy detailing how to get there.

During the project, we will document the wide variety of sustainability initiatives already happening in the industry and highlight the gaps where more needs to be done. Hopefully we’ll achieve consensus and clarity on where the industry wants to be in 15 years time and establish what sustainable tourism looks, sounds and feels like. We can then use this understanding to collectively engage and influence government.

No element of this project should distract from the important decisions needed here and now, but they should help make those decisions more considered and effective in the long-term.

Tourism 2023 is supported by a number of key players – TUI Travel, Thomas Cook, ABTA, The Travel Foundation, Carnival UK, The Co-operative Travel and British Airways. Our other collaborators include tour operators, transport providers, government, destinations, academia, technical specialists, travel media and innovators.

A senior level project Advisory Board is driving the project and taking forward recommendations. Ultimately, the proof will be in results – the project’s ability to inspire and then deliver change in the industry and a more sustainable future.

For more information on Tourism 2023 click here or email Vicky Murray.