Research and data in the Scottish Borders: Place

Why is it important to have statistics about our environment?

Local Authorities set their outcomes and objectives within the context of the Scottish Government National Performance framework, which states that we value, enjoy,  protect and enhance our environment

Scottish Borders plays its part in the National Performance Framework by working towards making our region the best place in Scotland for every Scottish Borders citizen to live, regardless of their protected characteristics. For this, we need robust information to measure how we are performing as a society and within our communities.

Scottish Borders policy framework 

Our 2022-23 Plan is key to our policy framework on how we plan to deliver services in the next few years.  It consists of six outcome priorities, which are informed by an evidence base, including the strategic assessment.  Data about our environment is referenced particularly in priority 1: "Clean, green future". You can see how we are doing in delivering this outcome in our quarterly and annual performance reports.

Our desired outcomes towards a "Clean, green future" in the Council Plan can be summarised as:

• delivering Net Zero by 2045
• preparing for the effects of extreme weather events driven by climate change
• increasing public understanding about the need for behaviour change and increased resilience
• a robust approach to the way we use energy in the Scottish Borders to reduce fossil fuels and greenhouse gases
• protecting the environment to the benefit of both people and nature

Policies and strategies that sit within the theme of "clean, green future" include:

• Aiming to reduce food miles and food waste in the Scottish Borders Community Food Growing Strategy 2021-26 
• Encouraging young people to promote sustainability in the Curriculum for Excellence
• developing an energy investment programme aiming for a low carbon future in the Borderlands Energy Masterplan

Data on environment, waste management and sustainability are built in to all our Corporate Priorities as a cross-cutting theme, indicating that it is central to everything we do.

Our Environment and Waste Management objectives are managed by the Executive Directorate, particularly within the regulatory and neighbourhood service areas. These services include:

• planning and building standards
• built and natural heritage
• environmental health
• trading standards
• legal and licencing
• roads maintenance
• street cleansing
• burials
• waste collection and disposal

Topic areas

There is a large amount of evidence from official statistics to inform our Environment and Waste Management development, across a wide range of topic areas.

Air quality

• the latest statistics on carbon emissions are available from the LGBF interactive Explore tool 

Waste management

• the latest statistics on generation and management of household waste, including waste category, are available from the Scottish Official Statistics Open Data Platform

Built environment

• information on listed buildings, Gardens and Designed Landscapes (GDLs) Conservation Areas, Scheduled Monuments and World Heritage Sites from a planning perspective is available on our Shared Historic Environment pages

Derelict and vacant land

• recent statistics on area (Hectarage) of vacant and derelict land are available from the Scottish Official Statistics Open Data Platform
• recent statistics on the proportion of the population living within 500 metres of a derelict site are available from the Scottish Official Statistics Open Data Platform
• statistics on the population living within 500 metres of a derelict site are also available at council and intermediate datazone levels, on the Health and Wellbeing profile of the interactive ScotPHO Online Profiles Tool

Access to the outdoors

• the latest statistics from the Scottish Household Survey on percentage of adults and their proximity to "green" and "blue" space are available from the Scottish Official Statistics Open Data server
• evidence from the 2019 Scottish Household Survey on topics such as people's attitudes towards accessing the outdoors are available 

Energy Consumption

• recent statistics on energy consumption by sector and type are available from the Scottish Official Statistics Open Data Platform

Official statistics are available on these topics for the Scottish Borders area. If you study or take part in a Scottish Borders community activity and would like help using these statistics, contact the Research and Information team.