Strategy & Performance

The Aalborg Commitments

Hampshire County Council (HCC) signed up to the Aalborg Commitments in 2004 to provide us with a sustainability performance framework. There are 50 Commitments split under the 10 themes:

1. Governance

2. Local management towards sustainability

3. Natural common goods (including energy, water, soils, air, biodiversity)

4. Responsible consumption and lifestyle choices

5. Planning and design

6. Better mobility, less traffic

7. Local action for health

8. Vibrant and sustainable local economy

9. Social equity and justice

10. Local to global (including climate change)

Baseline Review

Our first task was to carry out a Baseline Review (15kb) to audit our sustainability performance. HCC developed it's own evidence-based self-assessment methodology, ratified by the Audit Commission, which rated our performance by giving a score between 0-4 for each of the 50 Commitments. These in turn were averaged to give scores for each of the ten themes, and gave us an overall sustainability score for HCC of 2.02 out of 4. This indicates an acceptable corporate sustainability performance, punctuated by areas of excellence - but with room for incremental year-on-year improvement. The Baseline Review was agreed by Cabinet in September 2006.

HCC has set both short and long term targets for improvement.

Targets

The short-term target is to improve the overall score to 2.1 out of 4 by the end of 2008/09, with particular priority given to Aalborg Commitment #2.4 - "Ensure that sustainability issues are central to decision-making processes and that resource allocation is based on strong and broad sustainability criteria."

The county Council has prioritised 12 out of the 50 commitments for improvement within the 2008/2009 Corporate Business Plan.

HCC's long term goal, agreed by Full Council in November 2006, is

               "Within a decade Hampshire will prosper without risking our environment".