A successful Scotland needs a healthy economy and a healthy society. Both depend on having a healthy, well protected environment. We have the opportunity to choose our future environment today.

The planet’s current ecosystem is our life support system: if we don’t protect it we risk our own survival. We must respect the limits of the planet's environment, resources and biodiversity.

We are putting this planet under huge strain and this is the planet our children and grandchildren will inherit. It is easy to believe that these issues are distant from most of us but they aren’t. Problems that affect the environment do happen on our own doorstep and not just in other parts of the world.

There are many environmental challenges ahead, from making Scotland more sustainable to tackling climate change globally, but we still have a lot of work to do to encourage others to face these challenges with us.

Creating a sustainable Scotland is an ambitious plan, but we can all do our bit. Developments in technology won’t be enough and we need to be aware of the consequences of what we do.

It is time for use to take action as nation. While we have come a long way, there is still much work to do on protecting and improving our environment.

A real milestone on the journey to making Scotland truly sustainable has been the publication of the Scottish Executive’s Strategy for Sustainable Development ‘Choosing Our Future’, introduced by Scotland’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister with the words: “We are determined to lead a government which is an exemplar of sustainability.”

The Strategy addresses social, economic and environmental issues and stresses that the ‘global threat of unsustainable development’ cannot be seen as ‘just’ an environmental problem.

You can view Choosing Our Future on the Scottish Executive’s website at www.scotland.gov.uk

Our March edition – issue 29 – of our bi-monthly SEPA View magazine also focused on the issue of sustainable development and choosing our future. You can view this issue and the more up to date issues here.