Working principles
To realise our Vision we will need to recognise and address the unsustainable aspects of our lifestyles and communities. To do this, we will need understanding and leadership based on the following principles, developed from the guiding principles of 'Securing the Future', which should inform all our work:
- Putting people and communities at the centre of strategy development and policy decisions; engaging people in the decisions that affect their lives and their communities, promoting personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion, creating equal opportunity for all, and meeting the varied needs of our diverse communities in terms of gender, age, ethnicity, disability, faith, sexuality, and background, and in the various rural and urban communities in the West Midlands region.
- Valuing the environment and living within environmental limits, respecting the limits of the earth’s ability to provide resources and reabsorb pollutants in order to avoid serious or irreversible damage, and recognising the importance of the environment and biodiversity to well-being, health and economic vitality.
- Gathering and using sound evidence as the basis for policy-making, taking account of whole-life costs and benefits of our decisions and activities, including impacts that can’t easily be valued in money terms, and taking account of long-term impacts in the wider social, environmental and economic context, and adopting the “precautionary principle”, that is, where there is a possibility that an action might result in damage to human health or the environment, the action should be avoided or measures identified to prevent or limit damage and degradation.
- Taking account of the national and global implications of our activities, as well as those within the Region, and wherever possible adopting the “polluter pays” principle, that those responsible for environmental or social degradation should meet the costs of the consequences.
Email: admin@swm.org.uk | Tel: 0121 449 4406
