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Backgrounder on Measuring Sustainability |
Why
measure sustainability?
We need
relatively easy ways of assessing progress toward sustainability. Over the past
half-century, we have been developing systems to measure changes in such fields
as economics, social issues, quality of life, environment and natural resources,
and health.
They all
rely on indicators, which are simply tools for condensing large amounts of
information into a format that can be more easily understood. Indicators help us
to see issues in a snapshot format. Where trend data is available, they let us
track changes over time.
Indicators
are useful in a series of steps in understanding and dealing with issues.
- They can help to identify,
define and communicate about issues, setting the scene for action.
- They can be used to forecast
the results of policy choices.
- When the policies are
implemented, indicators are needed to keep track of results, and report on
progress. Results can be measured against targets.
- When policies are being
evaluated, indicators report on performance, and the results need to be fed
back into the policy process so adjustments can be made.
Once
indicators have been adopted, they will guide the collection of data and
information, and information policies in general, by helping to identify
priority issues.
Evolution of
sustainability measuring systems
Sustainability
is about the ability of people and the environment to be able to continue to
function in a healthy manner indefinitely. Choices for sustainability depend
very much of the values of people and societies, which have much in common
around the world, but are often expressed in different ways.
Designing
sustainability measuring systems means understanding the values, goals and
aspirations of audiences. It means giving people useful feedback on issues they
know, and informing them about issues that are important but poorly understood,
such as the importance of ecosystem health for human health and well being.
Sustainability
measuring systems must face the challenge of capturing not only the details but
also the interactions among social, economic, institutional and environmental
factors. The most difficult job is to aggregate different types of information,
with different measuring systems, into a coherent and balanced message.
The roots
of sustainability reporting are largely in State of the Environment reporting,
which has been evolving as a discipline since the 1980s. Environmental reporting
systems have evolved frameworks, incorporating such factors as the Driving
Forces, Pressure, State, Impact and Response. Such reporting approaches show how
pressures, such as consumption of natural resources and releases of pollutants,
change the state of the environment and have impacts on ecosystems and humans,
leading to responses, such as policy changes or shifts in consumption patterns
that attempt to reduce the pressures and mitigate impacts.
A number
of reporting specialists are working on integrated sets of measures that include
ecological, economic and social factors in one package. The goal is to show the
interconnections among what are now seen as separate sectors.
Elements
of sustainability measuring systems
- Grounded in values of the
audiences.
- Requires a broad perspective.
- Measures interactions between
human activities and environmental changes.
- Provides messages that enable
people to understand interconnections and to make informed choices.
Attempts to measure
sustainability
As
sustainability reporting slowly evolves as a discipline, various groups have
produced their own approaches and measuring systems.
Genuine Progress Indicator
The Genuine Progress Indicator tries to build from Gross Domestic Product,
expanding the set of measures to include the economic contributions of the
family and community to the society and to measure the contribution of the
environment to human well-being. It seeks to present all this in monetary terms.
Ecological footprint
The footprint concept helps to communicate estimates of the human demands on
the environment by calculating the impacts of certain forms of consumption and
pollution. Although not a precise measurement, it provides a very effective
snapshot and allows comparisons among regions.
Barometer of sustainability
This approach uses a graph to show how well a given society is doing in
achieving sustainability. It does this by plotting various countries in terms of
human and ecosystem well-being and seeing where the two lines meet.
The Dashboard of Sustainability
A cluster of indicators is presented visually in a form resembling a
dashboard with the goal of letting people see measures of the status of the
environment, the economy, and the social well-being of a nation at a glance.
[For more information see Other Measuring Systems.]
Sources of
information on indicators
The
National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy is developing Canada’s
first national set of sustainability indicators for the federal government.
Their Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators Initiative has its own web
page.
The International Institute for Sustainable Development, a Winnipeg-based centre of expertise in sustainability issues, is an excellent source on sustainability reporting. They have the Measurement and Indicators for Sustainable Development program that that includes a wide set of examples of reporting in their Compendium of SD Indicator Initiatives. IISD is also a source for the Bellagio Principles which lay out guidelines for the whole of the sustainability assessment process including the choice and design of indicators, their interpretation and communication.
Other sources of information on
reporting, include:
The Global
Reporting Initiative, an international project to create a common framework
for voluntary reporting of economic, environmental and social impacts.
The OECD, which has been developing
an environmental
indicators program.
The
Sustainable Measures program,
a program run by an independent expert on sustainability.
The
IUCN
Monitoring and Evaluation Initiative
Note:
This paper drew from many sources,
including writings by:
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