Measuring Sustainability

So, we know sustainability is important. We know we are depleting the resources and something needs to be done, and we have already begun on our path. We know we should reduce- reuse- recycle as much as possible. But how do we measure one policy is better than the other? 

Recently, I was watching random TED Talk by one Catherine Mohr. In her talk [1] she gives a very simple- but effective- correlation between using a cotton towel for cleaning a small speck as against using a paper towel. She shows with numeric values how it can be rather the simple act can consume so much energy. Ofourse I told to myself, that cotton towel is better, but she explained that when we leave the water running to clean the spec, it consumes a lot more energy than the embodied energy of the paper towel. This is just a small example, but imagine when we blow up the example hundreds of times; to a large scale application like food consumption, building construction, transport etc– to a nation as a whole,   we realize that the implications are much larger and longer lasting.

So, how do we measure sustainability? When you ask Google, the first answer it tries to explain in a simplistic words from Wikipedia: Sustainability measurement is the quantitative basis for the informed management of sustainability.[1] The metrics used for the measurement of sustainability (involving the sustainability of environmental, social and economic domains, both individually and in various combinations) are still evolving: they include indicators, benchmarks, audits, indexes and accounting, as well as assessment, appraisal [2] and other reporting systems. They are applied over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. [3] [4]

Currently the UN has made this analysis of indicators and countries where these are applicable. It is still a working document but most of the data can already be used to determine some key indicators. Analysis was undertaken to identify commonalities among countries both in terms of indicator themes – or broad issues related to sustainable development – and in terms of specific indicators. Based on indicator sets from 22 countries, including two countries outside Europe (Australia and Canada), and two international institutions (European Union and United Nations) these countries include Australia, Austria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, European Union, United Nations.  11 broad indicator themes emerged. The themes are shown in Table 1 , along with the number of national and international indicator sets in which each is found. Note that only themes appearing in 10 or more indicators sets are shown. A further 12 themes were evident, although not as commonly used. [6]

Thus, this measurement is a set of benchmarks and indices that are defined in metrics of environmental factors such as water cycle, carbon cycle, phosphorus cycle, nitrogen cycle sulphur cycle and oxygen cycle.  It further goes into auditing and reporting the “state of environment and eventually into accounting that defines “green accounting”, “sustainable Value” and “sustainability economics”.

Table 1: Most common sustainable development indicator themes in policy-based sets

Considering the same countries/institutions as in Table 1, 27 specific indicators were found to be common to 10 or more national indicator sets (Table 3). The indicators were identified in terms of their broad similarity and not necessarily by the specifics of their expression.

Table 2: Most common sustainable development indicators in policy-based sets

Based on indicators where 10 or more countries/institutions have adopted them.

References

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/catherine_mohr_builds_green?language=en

[2] "Sustainability Accounting in UK Local Government". The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants. Retrieved 2008-06-18.

[3] Dalal-Clayton, Barry and Sadler, Barry 2009.Sustainability Appraisal. A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience. London: Earthscan.ISBN 978-1-84407-357-3.

[4] Hak, T. et al. 2007. Sustainability Indicators, SCOPE 67. Island Press, London.

[5] Bell, Simon and Morse, Stephen 2008. Sustainability Indicators. Measuring the Immeasurable? 2nd edn. London: Earthscan. ISBN 978-1-84407-299-6.

[6] United Nations Economic Commission For Europein cooperation with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat),  Measuring Sustainable Development, 2009, United Nations, New York and Geneva.

http://unstats.un.org/unsd/broaderprogress/pdf/Measuring_sustainable_development%20(UNECE,OECD,Eurostat).pdf