Hammersmith and Fulham Local Agenda 21 Forum is a community forum which seeks to initiate and encourage local community-led activities for improving the environment.

These are principally considered under these headings:

1. Recycling/Waste Management

2. Air Quality/Transport

3. Sustainable Economy

4. Health/Disability

5. Biodiversity

6. The River Thames/Waterways

The principles developed at the Earth Summit in Rio back in 1992 drives Local Agenda 21 programmes such as ours throughout the country.

Our aim is to assist the community in this Borough to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle and ensure that the lifestyle of future generations is not disadvantaged by decisions we take today. This is from as broad a base as possible, encouraging as much participation as possible from all sectors of the community.

Our programme belongs to the community in Hammersmith & Fulham and our Constitution requires us to have representatives from groups linked with ethnic minorities, faith and health bodies, owner-occupiers and tenants, those with disabilities and those associated with transport issues, women, workers and employers as well as the local authority (London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham). In fact, the more who can get involved the better.

We believe that the most powerful way to influence communities is for individuals to encourage their neighbours to follow their lead. Community "champions" who show that sustainable ways of living are good, cheap, healthy and of benefit to all can have a massive influence on improving our way of life as local communities.

We believe that most people understand that current ways of doing things (throwing away piles of rubbish, polluting the air, wasting resources, exploiting the developing world, etc.) cannot be continued for ever and cause untold damage locally and globally. Local Agenda 21 offers alternatives. In particular, our initiatives should be initiated by the community rather than imposed upon the community by authorities. We believe this will have the greatest chances of success.

Our task is:

• to encourage each person that a single voice can be heard and, by using our Forum as a platform, change in the Borough can take place;
• to bring together the many sectors of our community, enabling them to recognise the benefits of consensus decisions;
• to encourage them to understand and value their particular culture, but also to stand outside it and be able and willing to judge it from another perspective;
• to work closely with the Local Agenda 21 Forums in neighbouring boroughs, principally through the London 21 Sustainability network.
• to warn that a decision taken by any one of us can impact adversely upon several others, in the Borough and elsewhere.

Our make-up as a Forum needs to reflect the local community. Whatever our status in the community, we have entered the 21st Century at the same moment, all together. And only together will we surmount its challenges.