Sustainable development group Greenrock is pushing for an overhaul of the Bermuda Customs Tariff Act to encourage a more energy-efficient community.

Andrew Vaucrosson, Greenrock president, said yesterday the charity had submitted to Government "an extensive list of recommended changes to the 2006 Bermuda Customs Tariff Act and is pushing for the redrafting of that Act".

He said: "Energy conservation needs to go beyond consumer behaviour and must become embedded into our Government policy, our local economics, and the way we run our lives. Bermuda is unique to most countries in that we import everything and so we can easily create economic incentives through duty to stimulate positive consumption.

"We could levy higher duties on goods that are more harmful to our environment, that are not energy-efficient, and are not sustainable."

He said it was therefore important to revise the 2006 Bermuda Customs Tariff Act "to provide economic incentives to import proven energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly technologies and products".

"We would like the Government to make these products duty-free," he added.

At a meeting of the Hamilton Rotary Club yesterday, Mr. Vaucrosson urged residents to get behind the Island's sustainability revolution and become watchdogs on Government practice.

He said it was up to the public to ensure Government followed through on its Sustainable Development Implementation Plan.

Applauding Government for introducing the initiative under former Premier Alex Scott, he said that nevertheless, change had been "stymied by numerous leadership shake-ups and General Election fallout".

It was therefore "imperative for the community to ensure that Government does not falter on this promise to uphold these guidelines and to make this plan sustainable, despite the inevitable changes in politics".

Mr. Vaucrosson described sustainable development as "the art of developing solutions for challenges" taking their impact on society, the environment and economy into account.

He said the launch of the Sustainable Development Implementation Plan earlier this year was "a good start" but questioned whether the current leadership was "committed to following their own guidelines".

"Unfortunately, if you look at the last three years, there has been a series of actions which begs the question of whether this objective of transforming governance is actually being met by the current Government administration," he said.

Mr. Vaucrosson said he was concerned about "extensive use of Special Development Orders (SDOs) to approve construction projects" and criticised Government's "slow response to developing a National Energy Policy, despite numerous requests by outside parties to do so".

Mr. Vaucrosson used a quote from the UK Department of Trade and Industry dating back to May 1999. He said: "We are now going through a sustainability revolution that will rival the agricultural and industrial revolutions in the way it will transform society. Innovation and creativity will be needed to develop radical, new products and processes that are less damaging to the environment and generate new businesses and jobs."

He added: "I truly believe that Bermuda has the opportunity of making itself an idyllic place — the envy of other countries and islands, to live and work. However, this all depends on whether we can make the right sustainable lifestyle choices today."

To make a contribution to Greenrock, which is a registered charity, visit www.greenrock.org and click on 'Patron'.