"Some of the breakthrough ideas we've selected represent cutting-edge innovation and imagination; others are familiar but powerful ideas whose time has come," said Jonathon Porritt, chair of the SDC.
The 19 ideas were boiled down from an initial 285 suggestions submitted by businesses, academics, sustainability professionals and the general public. The solutions, ranging from policy change to grassroots action and technological innovation, are grouped into three broad categories: sustainable lives, sustainable places and sustainable economy.
Examples include re-localising food production and supporting local producers as a precondition for sustainable food, encouraging cycling for short journeys, using fast-growing algae to capture industrial emissions and issuing 'green bonds' to raise capital for energy efficiency projects.
Other breakthrough ideas count financing home energy-efficiency measures through a system where a third party finances the upfront costs and would be reimbursed via a charge on the property rather than the individual.
Personal carbon budgets - allocating individual citizens annual carbon allowances - were also mooted as a way forward. However, "turning this essentially simple idea into a firm policy proposal won't be easy," acknowledged Nick Eyre from the University of Oxford. Such a system would be extremely complex and require firm political leadership, the development of IT systems to follow-up transactions, and consideration of wider income distribution effects, the report notes.
