The sustainable development commission and Iceni Projects, have launched an online scorecard system which enables planners to assess the sustainability of proposed developments.
A scorecard judges the proposal against how well it meets the National Planning Policy Framework’s (NPPF) definition of sustainability.
It provides a free online resource to guide planners and developers towards creating schemes that are more sustainable and balance all three pillars of sustainability - social, economic and environmental.
The online tool was devised by a panel of industry professionals chaired by Nick Raynsford, former planning minister.
Anyone with an interest in sustainable development is welcome to use the resource, including community groups.
Dan Jestico, director for Sustainable Development at Iceni Projects, commented: ''Although the NPPF has a presumption in favour of sustainable development at its heart, assessing the degree to which a project complies with this is highly subjective. Thanks to the Sustainable Development Scorecard, everyone from architects to developers to local residents will be able to easily assess how sustainable a proposal really is. The Sustainable Development Scorecard means that for the first time, it will be possible to see to what extent a scheme really has a ‘golden thread of sustainability running through it''.
