LSDC research and reports
The LSDC has written and commissioned research and reports on a wide range of sustainability issues that are critical to London. You can find our publications below.
Please contact us if you can't find what you're looking for or to send us any feedback on our reports.
Delivering Social Value through Development and Regeneration: An approach for London
Since 2019, the LSDC have been exploring the potential for a social-value approach to development and regeneration to deliver the Mayor's Good Growth agenda and build an inclusive, resilient and healthy city for all.
Published in August 2022, the Social Value report is the culmination of this work, which makes recommendations to enhance the role of community voices in local decision-making on the built environment; to improve data to support informed decision-making; and planning policy. The recommendations are aimed at all stakeholders involved in development and regeneration in the capital, including private developers, local authorities, the Mayor of London and community organisations.
Social Value Playbook
The report is accompanied by the 'Social Value Playbook', which presents case studies illustrating best practice in social value across the UK (and beyond).
The goal of the Playbook is to help catalyse delivery of the report's recommendations by developers, planners, and others. It does this by seeking to inspire, demonstrating potential mechanisms to put the LSDC's recommendations into practice across diverse communities and at different scales.
London's Just Transition
In January 2022, the LSDC held a virtual conference to explore what London's equitable journey to a net-zero carbon city could look like. This report is a summary of the conference, focused on 3 key themes: governance, communities and jobs and skills. The report summarises the ideas and thoughts that emerged and will inspire future work from the LSDC.
London's Progress towards meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set ambitious targets to create transformative social, economic and environmental progress by 2030 – they are the closest thing we have to a global sustainability strategy. But national governments cannot deliver the SDGs alone: local government, businesses, the public sector, community groups and others must all play their part.
The LSDC’s report - ‘London’s progress towards meeting the UN’s SDGs’ - is the first comprehensive assessment of London’s local contribution to the SDGs. It explores the collective contribution of local and regional government, businesses, communities and others, using 110 SDG indicators tailored to London’s context. It analyses the interconnections between a wide range of issues to show how the ‘co-benefits’ approach of the SDGs can help London make decisions on its green and fair recovery – and beyond.
London's progress towards the SDGs - full report
London's progress towards the SDGs - data annex
Social Value Insights paper
Social value is a way of understanding and quantifying the societal benefit of changes and interventions made when delivering public goods and services often through the development and regeneration of places. But the broader principles underlying how social value is measured, delivered and evaluated could usefully demonstrate how to put communities and London’s citizens at the heart of the COVID recovery.
This LSDC insights paper examines some of the challenges facing London and its communities as we recover from COVID, and identifies how social value approaches could help London build back better.
SDG Insights paper
The role of the SDGs in London’s fair and green recovery
The LSDC has published an insights paper on how the SDGs can help London’s fair and green recovery. We believe the SDGs can provide a strategic framework enabling decision-makers to take a joined up approach to issues including inequalities, healthcare, housing, jobs, the environment and more. Our paper makes five recommendations:
- London needs more affordable, high quality and energy-efficient homes: The UK government should devolve fiscal and regulatory powers, so London can scale up its programmes to retrofit existing homes.
- Enhance urban green spaces: Government should ensure sufficient funding, and the Mayor and boroughs should make permanent the Streetspace works to form a network of greener public realm.
- Invest in the green, ethical business of the future: Government should ensure any stimulus packages are accompanied by binding and measurable environmental targets.
- We need a Future Finance Facility to unlock green investment: The Mayor should continue to work in partnership with stakeholders to leverage private finance.
- The SDGS should support London’s recovery planning: Decision-makers should use the SDGs framework (adapted to London) to take integrated approaches, use indicator data in evaluations, and ensure sustainability issues are factored into all decision-making.
Financing for a Future London
Huge flows of global capital pass through the square mile every day - but London often misses out. The green finance flows issuing from the City of London are largely contributing to the decarbonisation of other metropolises across the world rather than our own. This will lead to London conceding a global leadership role unless reversed. The LSDC believes that there is an opportunity to invest taxpayers' money effectively to increase the scale and quality of green finance, leverage much larger private capital flows and in doing so deliver the investment needed to decarbonise London and create a thriving resilient and just future city in a climate changing world. In this latest report, Financing for a Future London, the LSDC calls for the establishment of an urgent taskforce comprised of key stakeholders from both the public and private sectors to look into the establishment of a London Future Finance Facility to help secure flows of investment, ensure a just transition, support London to become a global centre for the low carbon circular economy and demonstrate the impact of integrated climate and environmental financing.
Read the Executive Summary report
Young Londoners' priorities for a sustainable city.
This report provides a unique insight into the challenges and priorities of young people in the context of the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). The SDGs provide a framework for cities to replace the old ways of tackling sustainable development in environment, economy or social silo's to anew more holistic approach which can help tackle some of the issues raised by young people in this research. In what is believed to be one of the biggest studies of its kind ever conducted in a global city, the research behind Young Londoners' priorities for a sustainable city was commissioned by the London Sustainable Development Commission and sought the views of more than 2000 young Londoners aged between 16-24. This report allows the Commission to consider the intergenerational impact on young Londoners of policy decisions made. The work forms part of the Commissions wider project to map London's performance against the SDGs to help drive further improvement in delivering sustainability across London.
Read the executive summary report
Women in Cleantech: Is cleantech entrepreneurship missing out on the Diversity Dividend?
This report summarises the findings of a research project we undertook this year to understand if, and by how much, the cleantech industry in London is missing out on ‘the diversity dividend’: the impact a diverse leadership team can have on the business’ bottom line. It explores the data, and lack thereof, on cleantech leadership and draws statistics from comparable data. It explores issues of institutional barriers, skills and education, language and communication, unconscious biases and what opportunities there are in a field so crucial to tackling the impact we are having on our environment and climate. The report also sets an Action Plan that we will take forward with partners to ensure that the cleantech community in London maximises the benefits of a diverse pool of talent and increases the participation of and leadership by women in cleantech entrepreneurship.
London's Quality of Life Indicators Report 2017
The LSDC’s fifth Quality of Life report draws on existing datasets to examine 32 key indicators to gauge progress for people living in the capital. These metrics provide evidence to help guide decision-makers in taking the actions needed to improve the quality of life of all Londoners: present and future, and to help London play its full role in meeting global sustainability goals.
The report sets out progress since the last Quality of Life reports; these can be viewed below. It collates existing data across the three, interrelated areas of sustainability: environmental, social and economic. In doing so, it provides a more holistic snapshot of London’s quality of life and how sustainably the city is developing.
Better Future: A Route Map to Creating a Cleantech Cluster in London
This report, published in 2016, summarises the case for creating a cluster of future orientated and problem-solving environmental enterprises in London to help speed up the growth of the low-carbon economy. Clusters allow innovations to flourish by grouping together individual organisations and facilities working in a shared field or sector – research institutions, business start-ups, laboratory and manufacturing spaces and so on – so that knowledge, expertise and technologies can be shared more easily. The report examines the location we identified as the best opportunity for making fast progress on a cleantech cluster for London, and includes our recommendations for next steps.
- Employment and the Circular Economy: Job creation through resource efficiency in London (2015, written in partnership with London Waste & Recycling Board, WRAP and the Mayor of London)
- Green Means Business: Future-proofing the London Economy (2014)
- Green Entrepreneurship in London: Barriers and opportunities (2013)
- Green Entrepreneurs: Workshop outcomes (2013)
- Quality of Life Indicators (2012)
- Sowing the Seeds: Reconnecting London's children with nature (2011)
- The impact of income inequalities on sustainable development in London (2010)
- Capital Consumption: The transition to sustainable consumption and production in London (2009)
- Quality of Life Indicators Report (2008-09)
- London Leaders: Annual Report (2010)
- London Leaders: Annual Report (2009)
- Virtuous Cycles: Demonstrating the benefits of a sustainable development approach (2008)
- A Greater London: Making it happen (2007)
- Securing the Future: The gaps and opportunities in London (2007)
- Embedding sustainable development into Local Area Agreements (2006)
- Quality of Life Indicators Report (2005)
- Making Your Plans Sustainable: A London guide (2004)
- The impacts of air transport on London (2004)
- Quality of Life Indicators Report (2004)
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