Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development

"The Environment Foundation was established in 1983 with funding from the international insurance industry in what was probably the City of London’s first major initiative designed to address the environmental agenda. Today, that start-up funding forms the major part of our modest endowment. But any formal link with the insurance industry has long gone.

"The Foundation’s central objective when it was established in 1983 was to protect and improve the environment. But over time it became increasingly apparent that this needed to be addressed in the broader context in which environmental decisions are made. As a result, the Foundation’s activities shifted to encompass the environmental, social and economic dimensions (the so-called ‘triple bottom line’) of sustainable development.

"We spent some time on efforts to persuade the Charity Commission that sustainable development could be accepted as a charitable objective in its own right. The Charity Commission had initially refused to accept an application to register us as a charity set up to promote sustainable development.

"In 2003, the Charity Commissioners reconsidered this position, taking the view that the promotion of sustainable development for the benefit of the public should now be accepted as charitable so long as it was confined to purposes and activities which are recognisable as charitable in law.

"Today, the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development’s core objectives relate to the promotion of sustainable development for the benefit of the public, and to advancement of the education of the public and promotion of study and research in subjects related to sustainable development."

"We would like to acknowledge the work of a number of other friends and collaborators who helped to launch our work on democracy and sustainable development. They include Keith Burgess, Tom Burke, Lucy and Sir Geoffrey Chandler, Dawn Emling, Sam Lakha, Jenny Pidgin, Tim O’Riordan, Sara Parkin, Mike Shanahan and Tim Smit." 


 * Halina Ward - head

Board of Trustees
Accessed February 2014:


 * Nick Aveling
 * Bronwyn Hayward
 * John Lotherington - chair
 * Graham Smith
 * Cat Tully
 * Malcolm Twigger-Ross
 * Andrea Westall
 * János Zlinszky

Contact
Web: http://www.fdsd.org