How does sustainability improve people’s health and wellbeing?

Sustainable development provides a framework for addressing the major health issues facing us today – including mental health, obesity, health inequalities and climate change – while at the same time safeguarding the health of future generations.

There are many links between health and environmental, social and economic wellbeing:

• improving health has significant economic benefits - the cost to the UK economy of poor mental health, for example, is £77 billion a year; high quality environments make a positive contribution to health
  
  
• contact with the natural environment, for example, improves both mental and physical health and wellbeing
  
  
• climate change will have significant health and health equality implications, including negative impacts such as an increase in heat-related deaths, increased cases of skin cancer and cataracts, injuries and infectious diseases caused by flooding, increased respiratory disease, insect-borne disease and food poisoning.

How can local authorities and their LSP partners demonstrate and deliver a sustainable development approach?

Local authorities, Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and other LSP partners all have a role to play in taking a sustainable development approach to health and wellbeing. Things to consider include:

• Are health-related organisations working with planning authorities to create places which encourage increased levels of walking, cycling and play, facilitate greater social cohesion, and provide access to green space, all of which benefit health and help to reduce health inequalities?
  
  
• Are LSP partners working together to encourage physical activity, healthier diets and cohesion by providing and supporting allotments, city farms and community gardens? The East Lancashire PCT, for instance, has created a community garden at its East Howard Street Community Centre (PDF file, 2 pages, 307 KB).
  
  
• Are NHS organisations working with the LSP to reduce environmental inequalities in the area? For example, inequalities in air quality, energy efficiency, access to transport, housing quality, access to green spaces and access to fresh food?
  
  
• Are NHS organisations working with the LSP to identify the health risks associated with climate change and increase resilience to them? For example, is the PCT involved in developing a climate change adaptation plan for the area?
  
  
• Are mental health promotion activities linked in with efforts to improve complementary initiatives to improve the local environment, such as the BTCV’s Green Gyms programme?
  
  
• Are local NHS organisations actively using the Good Corporate Citizenship Model to assess their own progress in achieving sustainable development, including achieving carbon reductions through their own estates and operations?

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