Sustainable St Andrews
Sustainability is the way forward. StAndEN work with businesses throughout St Andrews with focus on improving sustainable practises and environmental initiatives.
Sustainable St Andrews
What We Do
Sustainable St. Andrews (SSA) is the current initiative led by St. Andrews Environmental Network (StAndEN) in an effort to develop a clear and unified sustainability strategy supported by all the stakeholders and the wider community in St. Andrews. Following the success of the ‘Towards a Plastic Free St. Andrews’ initiative that was established in 2019 and led to the collaboration amongst all the major stakeholders in St. Andrews towards the eradication of single-use plastics, SSA will be looking beyond plastic pollution. SSA aims to promote sustainable practices within the community and the local businesses in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and develop further collaboration amongst all stakeholders in St. Andrews.
This initiative aims to benefit the community and strengthen its presence as one of the notable towns in Scotland. As the country is now entering the next phase in response to the pandemic crisis and looking into adopting new ways of functioning in order to promote an economic recovery and strengthen the community, sustainability is now more than ever essential for a successful recovery.
From the perspective of an economic recovery, local businesses will benefit by adopting sustainable practices within their operations and also set up close partnerships with each other, where possible to strengthen their offering.
Get Involved!
In terms of the community groups, the Scottish government has highlighted the need for stronger partnerships between organisations in the third sector, while both public and private funders have also indicated they would rather support collaborative projects to ensure a more effective social and economic impact.
Therefore the 'Sustainable St. Andrews' initiative would like to develop a common sustainability strategy for St. Andrews and establish a unified action plan amongst all the stakeholders. The current pandemic has enforced the fact that it is now even more urgent to be able to implement such a strategy within our community. A single, united strategy will be extremely useful for everyone involved:
It will help with the economic recovery of the businesses
It will increase the effectiveness of the charities and community groups operating in the town, and
It will strengthen relationships between all the main stakeholders and provide a united front of the community to external actors, such as the local authorities (Fife Council), the government and potential funding bodies and corporate entities.
We envision that as all community groups and local businesses come together to develop, support and implement this strategy, St. Andrews will be able to implement a long-term sustainable future for the town in accordance with the UN SDGs. From the 17 SDGs that are currently in place, we have identified the ones that will become the focus of the common sustainability strategy and will act as the leading force within our community.
Under the overarching SDG of Partnerships to achieve a sustainable future, and based on the principles defined by the goals of Quality Education and Responsible Consumption and Production, this initiative will incorporate the following SDGs within its strategy by giving the lead to certain community groups for each SDG as noted below:
Affordable and Clean Energy
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Reduce Inequality
Sustainable Cities and Communities
Climate Action
Life on Land
If your organisation would like to discuss this and join the initiative and play a central role in the realisation of a common strategy for the benefit of our community as a whole, please feel free to get in touch with our trustee, Daphne Biliouri-Grant (jane@standrewsenvironmental.org) as the Co-ordinator of ‘Sustainable St. Andrews’ initiative.
To develop a clear and unified sustainability strategy supported by all for St. Andrews
To promote sustainable practices within the community and the local businesses in accordance with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
This initiative aims to benefit the community and strengthen its presence as one of the notable towns in Scotland.