Meeting local economic decision-maker's demand for environmental evidence: The Local Environment and Economic Development (LEED) toolkit

This paper reports on the Local Environment and Economic Development (LEED) toolkit—a process designed to include evidence about environmental change into local economic development decision-making. The toolkit organises evidence using an Ecosystem Services Framework and the economy's use of energy and material. It uses this evidence to discover threats and opportunities to local economic growth plans, which stem from the relationship of the local economy to the environment, and to recommend responses to them. LEED was promoted to the 39 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) in England, of which 15 made use of it. Experts have conducted a Red/Amber/Green status review of the LEP's Strategic Economic Plans. Their review shows that the proportion of the LEPs using the toolkit that moved from red, or amber, to a green, was almost double (19%) that of the LEPs that did not use the toolkit (10%). The research shows that an Ecosystem Services Framework can be used to make environmental evidence relevant to economic development planning, even if all the evidence cannot be fully proven or quantified. To be successful evidence must be presented in a way which connects with the decision-making framework in use.