Public Health Wales launches new toolkit to help create a more sustainable future for all

A new, interactive toolkit, ‘Step Change for a Sustainable Planet’, has been launched today by Public Health Wales’ Health and Sustainability Hub.

The resource is designed to help organisations understand the global sustainable development goals, and identify where they can make a positive difference towards the sustainable changes the world needs. In view of the global pandemic, content also highlights how organisations can support a green recovery from COVID-19.

The toolkit is being published to coincide with the First Minister participating in a Regions4 Sustainable Development High-level Event on building a sustainable and resilient future, on the occasion of the 2021 High-level Political Forum. The resource has been designed to fully support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to achieve a better and more sustainable future for everyone, by focusing on: 

The background to sustainable development, including Wales’ ground-breaking approach through its Well-being of Future Generations Act 

Case studies on making sustainable changes across five levels: country, system, organisation, team and individual levels 

Practical and graphic resources to support step change, including materials by Public Health Wales and the Office of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales 

 Professor Mark Bellis, Executive Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre at Public Health Wales, said:

“This toolkit is a highly practical resource that global organisations can use to play their part in urgently creating a sustainable planet for current and future generations. As global citizens, we are witnessing how the twin challenges of climate change and COVID-19 are widening the inequalities and injustices which we were already tackling before the pandemic. In this light, we hope that this resource will help to mobilise renewed efforts to deliver the global goals.”    

The highly visual and accessible toolkit has been produced through Public Health Wales’ role in the ‘Joint Action Health Equity Europe’ (JAHEE) initiative to address health inequalities and achieve greater health equity across society. Importantly, the resource illustrates that whilst COVID-19 is having some negative impacts on the global goals, it is also possible to promote a sustainable recovery by building on the positive behaviours which we are seeing in the pandemic through a drastic reduction in human activity and increased engagement in nature and local communities.   

The toolkit, ‘Step Change for a Sustainable Planet’, can be accessed here: 

Step Change for a Sustainable Planet Toolkit

Further information on the High-level Event on building a sustainable and resilient future is available here:  

https://www.regions4.org/events/subnational-governments-leading-integrated-approaches/