Rt Hon Margaret Beckett MP

"Doing things differently": Speech by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs - Rt Hon. Margaret Beckett MP to "Environment 2004" Environment Agency Annual Conference: 26th October 2004

To develop as we all want to do, which is to develop sustainably, we all need to try and do things differently.

At last year's conference I tried to set out the scale and urgency of the challenges and I'm pleased to hear about some of the contributions that you're going to hear about later on today.

There are clear global environmental challenges. Among them, tackling climate change, halting the loss of biodiversity, protecting natural resources, minimising waste, and improving chemicals management are just what you might call the edited highlights, and having drawn attention to these challenges last year I want to focus a little on how we respond, and how this will benefit the UK. I want too to set out how, with Government providing leadership, all have a role to play. How we respond - through changing behaviour, providing environmental leadership and embedding sustainability - will be central to my department's 5 Year Strategy, which I will announce formally in a few weeks' time.

To look at the benefits for the UK, historically, economic growth has gone hand-in-hand with increased environmental impacts from production, use and disposal of goods and services, and the sustainability challenge is to break that link - to innovate so that our impacts match what the planet can bear.

We all want greater prosperity and, if we do things differently, we can have that without damaging our environment. In fact, the innovation necessary to meet this sustainability challenge will itself be a driver for growth and improved competitiveness and I firmly believe that economic growth and environment improvement can go hand-in-hand.

So how we can change our patterns of behaviour to "do things differently"? I believe that sustainable development depends on long-term changes in the behaviour of individuals, companies, communities and the public sector whether it's energy use, travel, consumption and production, waste, or health.

Some of these changes are happening already. The best businesses recognise that they can maximise their long-term returns to shareholders by minimising their negative environment impacts; that through responsible action they can become more competitive, not less. Individuals buy fair trade goods, organic products and invest their savings sustainably. But clearly, although worthwhile, that's not enough.

I think that Government has a pivotal role in trying to encourage these behaviour changes. We are putting in the resources to facilitate new, more sustainable behaviours - to help people to 'do things differently'. But we can't do it alone. We have to work in partnership with businesses, communities and individuals.

We are developing new approaches to try actively to engage businesses and consumers in these changing behaviours. Many of you will have seen the Carbon Trust adverts, and the multimedia 'Recycle Now' advertising campaign.

But this isn't just about Government to business, or Government to public engagement. Our proposals for an Operating and Financial Review provide the framework for companies to engage with shareholders on their environmental performance.

But recent research tells us that there is an "attitude-behaviour gap". Information failure is rarely the central problem. General public awareness campaigns can be effective, but information plays a much less important role than approaches that actively engage people.

So that's why we are providing a range of incentives to encourage people to do things differently. Our Energy Efficiency Action Plan, published in April, sets out a clear framework for improving energy efficiency at an unprecedented level. We expect the Plan to deliver 12 million tonnes of carbon savings by 2010, and to save business and households over £3 billion a year from their energy bills.

We are also going to increase the Landfill Tax by at least £3 per tonne every year from 2005. Less reliance on landfill, more recycling, will preserve resources for future generations and reduce environmental impacts. Every tonne of glass recycled saves more than a tonne of raw materials. That means less quarrying, less damage to the countryside, less pollution and fewer climate change impacts.

If only moving to a low carbon economy with sustainable patterns of consumption and production was as easy as Government providing incentives and public awareness campaigns. Many unsustainable behaviours are locked-in and made 'normal', not just by the way that we produce and consume, but by the absence of easy alternatives. We need to enable different behaviour choices, even where the barriers to change appear too great.

Historically, as you will all know, the UK has been bad at recycling. But we are making recycling easier than it has ever been before. The latest figures show a year-on-year increase in household recycling rising to 17%. Today, more than 2 in 3 homes have kerbside collection schemes and there is an ever expanding network of convenient 'bring' sites; and to support that, the Government has invested over £100m in the last year to help support new investment in recycling infrastructure.

Better products can also enable people to do things differently. Every time someone buys an inefficient product we lose an opportunity to reduce environmental impacts until it is replaced or it wears out - often up to 10 years later. The mandatory A to G energy label enables consumers to choose the most efficient products. It's also enabled industry to innovate in bringing to market more efficient products. We are pushing for the EU to set minimum product standards and to expand labelling to cover a wider range of products.

Better design and construction of buildings is essential. Buildings contribute nearly half of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions. So we recognise the need to enable businesses and individuals to operate and live in more sustainable offices and houses. We are committed to a progressive raising of the regulatory floor. That's why we are working with the building industry and wider stakeholders on a new flexible Code for Sustainable Buildings, and I am very grateful to John Harman and the Agency for the vital contribution they've made to that. That code will enable higher standards for everything from water efficiency as well as waste, to the use of materials, to be pushed to the fore. We will also enable the national rollout of the Code by early 2006 by working with Local Authorities and developers on demonstration schemes in the Thames Gateway, and potentially elsewhere.

In addition, we're also considering the creation of an Environment Direct service - to give clear, independent advice to consumers on the environmental impact of the choices they face.

But enabling people to do things differently is only part of the picture. We need to provide catalysts for change. Many unsustainable behaviours are embedded in systems that are deeply entrenched and resistant to change.
To disrupt the status quo and promote a new sustainable pathway may require catalysts that help to bring about broad change.

This is difficult. But we have had some success. By working in partnership with business, we have shown that fairly simple changes in business practices can produce substantial reductions in costs and environmental impacts. On average businesses have made savings of the order of £1,000 per employee using advice and support available from Government funded support programmes such as Envirowise.

But that's just the tip of the long-term behaviour changes that we envisage. As much as 80% of water consumption can be saved through very simple and low cost measures. By adopting best practice waste minimisation, business could save between £2-3billion every year.

I firmly believe that these are measures that business should be taking anyway. Saving billions of pounds surely makes business sense. But I also believe there is a role for Government in helping to catalyse those behaviour changes.

We've already announced that the increases in the Landfill Tax, which I referred to earlier, will be revenue neutral to business.

I expect shortly to announce a programme of measures that will recycle these Landfill Tax revenues - some £284 million over three years - by providing new support to business that specifically targets waste minimisation, diversion away from landfill, and a marked improvement in resource efficiency.

Under that Programme, up to £20 million a year by 2007/08 will be used to fund a Technology Strategy aimed at waste minimisation and energy efficiency, and at least £40 million by 2007/08 will be used to expand the Carbon Trust's energy efficiency programmes. We'll also be looking at introducing a new enhanced capital allowance scheme to target waste and resource efficiency technologies.

It's not just in businesses that we're aiming to catalyse these changes. Environmental impacts from business are themselves driven by the purchases and choices we make in our everyday lives. Each of us can do some simple things, like cutting energy use with the help and advice of the Energy Saving Trust. We can be more demanding in our shopping - and I do challenge supermarkets to raise their game by only selling products that minimise environmental damage in their production and use.

And all of us - whether we're in Government, business or as individuals - should be prepared to think deeply about how the benefits of a modern lifestyle can be enjoyed in a way which enhances rather than harms the world around us. At present, our homes, their contents, our transport choices, our food supply all come with big environmental footprints.

That is not meant to be a hair shirt agenda. But we can reduce these impacts and that requires radical thinking. I'm looking to the Sustainable Consumption Round Table, which we're funding jointly through the National Consumer Council and the Sustainable Development Commission, to help us find the answers.

We're also working with the Local Government Association and the local authority practitioners to investigate options for influencing household behaviour. We are looking at practical catalysts to help people recycle more, and we're going to consult local authorities on voluntary reward schemes for household recycling.

But of course none of this is just a UK agenda. The European Union is a really positive force for doing things differently in this sphere, and as the EU we've set ourselves a series of ambitious targets, for 2010 and beyond, for virtually every major environmental issue. There are the Kyoto targets on climate change; the Landfill Directive, setting targets for reducing landfill; the Water Framework Directive for improving water quality; and we've agreed to try to halt the decline in biodiversity. All of these are challenging targets and we need now to accelerate action to meet them.

Next year, the priorities for the UK Presidencies, first of the G8 and then of the EU, will be climate change and Africa. We will need to address the environment impacts of our consumption patterns on other countries. Many of the products we now buy are from abroad, possibly produced by older, more polluting plants, by workers operating in poor conditions, and then travel long distances to reach us. If we are to tackle climate change and/or poverty in Africa, then we must work in partnership with developing countries and business to address these impacts.

And finally, as I indicated earlier, we recognise that changing behaviour begins at home; and as a Government, we need to improve our own environment management systems, and set an example through our procurement power. Public procurement accounts for 16% of GDP in the EU as a whole. If we do this right, we can send strong signals to other buyers and consumers, and drive down the costs of new, greener technologies. Our aim is to drive up our own and the EU's average performance to what is currently achieved in the best Member States.

All of these issues are central to delivering our World Summit commitment on sustainable consumption and production. We started this last year when we produced our framework which is entitled 'Changing Patterns', and as I said at the outset, next month I shall be making further statements about my department's 5 Year Strategy. And next year we will launch the UK's new sustainable development strategy, where 'doing things differently' will be an essential theme.