today's facts & tomorrow's trends - SPREAD Sustainable Lifestyles ...

esulting in urban sprawl (Sanchez, Duhl 1999). This contributes to lower levels
of physical activity, with a direct knock-on effect upon our physical and mental
health and well-being.
Different types of transportation have different impacts on different socio-economic
groups. Poorer families, for example, tend to have lower mobility and
a lower environmental impacts as a result of their lower use of private cars.
Those living in urban areas – and particularly their children – are more exposed
to adverse environmental conditions caused by road transport, such as traffic
injuries and outdoor air pollution. They are also more vulnerable to the adverse
effects of traffic because they bear greater burdens of pre-existing illness or
other forms of vulnerability, like poverty, unemployment and unhealthy lifestyles
(UK SDC 2010).
Trends towards more sustainable health and society
Recent decades have seen an increasing incidence of, and mortality caused by,
non-communicable diseases. The acknowledgment of the importance of diet
and physical activity in combating such diseases has generated many health
promotion initiatives and government policy to support more healthy and sustainable
lifestyles.
Per capita environmental
impacts are considerably
higher for high income
groups than lower income
groups.
Health promotion has moved
beyond individual behaviour
and now addresses
underlying determinants.
Common goals and co-benefits have been identified between health promotion
and sustainable development that require further exploration. Health promotion
enables people to increase control over their own health and today has
moved beyond a focus on individual behaviour towards a range of social and
environmental interventions that address the determinants that underpin our
lifestyles.
Challenges to sustainable health and society
Challenges for more healthy and sustainable eating habits
Industrial agriculture uses intensive production methods that require large
quantities of non-renewable fossil fuel, fossil fuel-based fertilisers and pesticides.
This has a direct impact on the environment and increases health risks
through GHG emissions in addition to indirect impacts of food production, distribution,
consumption and recycling.
Marketing campaigns for highly processed food products, together with their
increased availability and low price encourage people to choose unhealthy
and unsustainable products. Other challenges to a more healthy diet relate to
awareness and knowledge, personal habits and attitudes, and cultural, geographic
and social norms and values.
In most countries, low income households spend a higher proportion of their
income on food than their more affluent counterparts. Poor households are impacted
most by food price fluctuations. A UK study found that 5% of people on
low incomes report skipping meals for a whole day (FSA 2007). A tight budget
is a barrier to changing or experimenting with a healthier diet (UK SDC 2010).
One key challenge, therefore, is to ensure that healthy and sustainable food is
accessible to all socio-economic groups. There is also a need to consider global
trends and developments, such as the growing demand for meat and dairy
products in some countries. Moreover, there is a need to identify the health and
sustainability benefits and disadvantages of local versus global food production
and supply systems.
Challenges to a healthier
and more sustainable
society:
• Unsustainable industrial
agriculture
• Marketing campaigns,
increasing availability
and low prices for highly
processed, unhealthy food
• Poorly insulated, energy
inefficient homes and
related health problems
• Effects of the economic
crisis on public budgets
for health promotion
and infrastructure
investments
• Current “silo approaches”
to policy making
Challenges and opportunities for sustainable lifestyles 71