Abstract
During these last few years, environmental issues have rapidly gained prominence on both the political and business agendas. Public interest in such environmental issues has risen since the initial interest in the 1960s and 1970s, but a particular feature of the recent revival of interest in environmental matters engenders the possibility to have a new approach to reconciling environmental protection with economic development. While sustainable development in operational terms was difficult, it has been quickly accepted at all levels of policymaking; from the international to the supra-national, national and local level. In all cases, a major emphasis has been placed on the local scale which is the most appropriate to lead sustainable development policies and initiatives, with a particular emphasis on local authorities as the major contributor to this process.
The LGMB, for example, has argued that local authorities have the best place to formulate a multi-level corporate strategy for the sustainable management of the local environment. Local authorities have responded to the challenges created by these policy statements by developing their own environmental strategies and initiatives. We will, therefore, in this essay, see which environmental strategies Bristol has developed and what initiatives have been established by the city to become a green capital. To tackle this subject correctly, we will divide the essay in four parts. We will begin with an explanation of the role of local authorities in the integration of economic development and environment. Then, we will look at the efforts undertaken by Bristol to become a real sustainable city and a green capital city; for this, we will focus our research on three important parts - transport, companies and environment. To begin, we will try to understand why the local level is the best to establish a policy of sustainable development and, secondly, the role of Local Authorities in the integration of sustainable development in the economy of cities.
