I’m so glad the Sustainable Development Commission decided to go out with a bang, not a whimper. This week we held our final event, the Big Sustainability Summit, joining nearly 200 friends and colleagues to reflect on progress and, most importantly, plot and scheme for the future. Read more on the Big Sustainability website.

Together with our friends at Futerra, plans are afoot for a ‘People’s Sustainability Commission’ – a sort of crowd-sourced version of the SDC, which will provide government with the advice they need on sustainable development, whether or not they want to hear it! The BBC has reported this enthusiastically. Please join us and make it happen.

Meanwhile, for me and fellow Commissioners, it was a bittersweet moment, witnessing so much support for a doomed organisation. Chief Exec Andrew Lee has described himself as a vet putting a healthy animal to sleep, and the lacklustre, muddled ‘vision’ on sustainable development produced by Defra doesn’t give me confidence that sustainability is safe in this government’s hands. Have a look at the analysis by Roger Harrabin and Damian Carrington, and a coruscating blog by Jonathon Porritt; alternatively, pour a stiff whiskey and read Defra’s own document. It’s a fat lady’s songbook if ever i saw one.