How the Material Resources Strategy
was Developed

The Material Resources Strategy was developed through a series of workshops held over the period September 2003 to December 2004. There were six main workshops, each attended by between 100 and 200 people. In total, over 350 people participated in one or more of the events. Details of each session are available on the workshop index page.

The new wider whole life-cycle approach to materials required an in-depth knowledge of specific material sectors and business issues. To help fill information gaps and support the stakeholders, a number of industry ‘experts’ were approached to offer advice and inform the process. Their advice on what could be achieved, given the need for solutions which are both practicable and affordable, was invaluable. Where exact information and data were not available, decisions were reached by coming to a ‘best judgement’ taking account of the knowledge and experience of both stakeholders and experts and by using the most up to date and available information.

The stakeholders were invited to participate with ‘experts’ and council officers in more in-depth analysis and appraisals undertaken through a range of ‘off-line’ working groups. A total of 30 such meetings were held during the period June 2004 to January 2005.

In total, some 5000 hours of stakeholder input have been contributed to the development of this document.

Key steps in the process were:

• Agreement of the need for a new integrated approach reflecting the whole life-cycle of materials and products
  
• Agreement of the vision, aims and principles for managing material resources
  
• Systematically working through the aims to identify and quantify the range of potential solutions that could be feasible over the period to 2020, i.e.

‘Business as Usual’ having regard to any inescapable changes, e.g. new legislation

‘Stretching Best Practice’ taking account of what could be achieved in practice having regard to experience from elsewhere, including Europe

• Subjecting the identified options to an appraisal process to arrive at the ‘preferred stakeholder option’
  
• Drawing together conclusions and priorities, and checking that there was a general consensus that they met the initial aims
  

The appraisal process involved a strategic sustainability appraisal of ‘Business as Usual’ and ‘Stretching Best Practice’ options to give the preferred stakeholder option which forms the basis of the outcomes in this document. These were based on environmental, economic and social criteria agreed by stakeholders. There will be a statutory requirement, under the on-going work of the Minerals and Waste Development Framework, to undertake more detailed Sustainability Appraisals and Strategic Environmental Assessments and to test the various options.

The whole process of preparing More from Less has been carefully documented at all stages to show development in approach, information gathered, discussions held and decisions made. All documents are available on this website.

Background Documents:

Workshop Index

MRS Documents