HEALTH047them presents opportunities to promote changes indevelopment, production and consumption patternsand preferences that support health and sustainability.There is mounting evidence that green economicactivity can have many clear and quantifiable globalhealth benefits, reducing the burden of disease overalland particularly among the poorest and the mostvulnerable, as well as more genuine long-term securityfor jobs, livelihoods and economies - in developed aswell as developing countries. This is what green growthreally means. nFully referenced version of this article can be found at theWHO site at http://www.who.int/globalchange/en/index.htmlABOUT THE AUTHORDr Maria P. Neira was appointed Director of theDepartment of Public Health and Environment atThe World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerlandin September 2005. Prior to that, she was Vice-Minister of Health and President of the Spanish FoodSafety Agency. She had previously held seniorpositions in WHO as Director of the Control,Prevention and Eradication Programme onCommunicable Diseases and as Coordinator of theGlobal Task Force on Cholera Control. Dr Neira beganher career as a field physician and medicalcoordinator working with refugees in El Salvador andHonduras and later as a public health adviser inMozambique and Rwanda. Dr Neira is a Spanishnational, and a medical doctor by training. Shespecialised in Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseasesand also obtained an International Diploma inEmergency Preparedness and Crisis Management.Among her many distinctions, Dr Neira has beenawarded the Médaille de l'Ordre national du Mériteby the Government of France and is a member of theAcademy of Medicine, Asturias, Spain.

f everyone in the world lived like anaverage European, we would need threeplanets to sustain us. This figure rises tofive, if the average North Americanlifestyle is taken as the norm. We only have one. This isthe simple message of One Planet Living, a globalinitiative based on ten principles of sustainabilitydeveloped by the entrepreneurial charity, Bioregionaland WWF. Sustainability is part of B&Q's heritage. Our journeystarted 20 years ago, when we found ourselves unableto answer challenges over the source of the timber inour garden furniture and resolved to change. Over theintervening years, we broadened the scope of our work,introducing a range of policies and initiatives up anddown our supply chain on timber, peat, paint and theemployment of older workers.In 2007, we aggregated all of this work and expandedit under our One Planet Home programme, based onBioRegional's One Planet Living initiative.Our One Planet Home approach is governed by twopriorities that are shared across the Kingfisher Group:to make sustainable living easy and affordable for ourcustomers; and to embed sustainability into all aspectsof our operations and our business thinking. To deliver this approach, we have taken action at alllevels. We have successfully campaigned to changeEuropean policy to ban the import and possession ofillegal timber. We have innovated to create a range ofeco-products that make sustainable choices easy forour customers. Kingfisher is pushing this approachGroup-wide, into markets where CR practices are stillin their infancy, such as China, Turkey and Russia. Our approach at B&Q has worked:n All 16,000 timber products stocked are sourcedfrom proven responsibly managed sources; n Our range of One Planet Home eco-productsaccount for over 12 per cent of total sales; n We have made substantial cuts to our absoluteCO2 impact through improved energy efficiency,waste recycling and transport efficiency; andn It is our ambition to reduce our total carbonemissions by 90 per cent by the end of 2023. We have also actively engaged customers, employeesand suppliers throughout, encouraging sustainablebehaviour even through these tough economic times.They are on a journey with us to achieve a moresustainable way of life. But we have also learned thatwe can only do so much. Sustainability is a sharedglobal challenge which requires global solutions. The challenges are complex and require action at alllevels and by all stakeholders: governments,businesses, investors, civil society and consumers.However, at most levels, there continues to be a gapbetween ambitions on sustainability and concreteplans and actions. Take forestry for example. Despiteworld leaders recognising that action was necessary atCOP16 and excellent campaigns by the FSC, the WWFand the Prince's Rainforest Project, 12-15 millionhectares of forest are still lost every year. Deforestationrates are not slowing down and reforestation rates arenot catching up.The world has so far failed to rise to the challenges ofsustainability. At COP17 and Rio+20 worldgovernments must demonstrate that they are trulycommitted to a sustainable, low-carbon world andresolve to change, like B&Q did 20 years ago. Thecommitment at COP15 to give £4.5 billion to forestrydevelopment projects to reach our shared goal of zeroONEPLANETLIVING- A SHAREDGLOBAL CHALLENGE048SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTIAN CHESHIRE, GROUP CEO, KINGFISHER PLCI