Indicators of Sustainability

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Indicators of Sustainability

• 4M14E
• November 2003

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What are Indicators?
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Properties of Indicators?

• Relevant
• Measurable
• Understandable
• Reliable and repeatable
• Based on data that is accessible.

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Properties of Indicators?

• Simple?
• Dimensionless?
• Always Numerical?
• Counter balanced?
• Predictive of distorted behaviour?
• Narrow/wide?
• Emotional/emotionless?

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Indicators of what?

• Social progress
• Environmental improvement
• Economic good

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Indicators of what?

• Social progress
• Life expectancy
• Happiness
• Crime
• Education
• Health
• poverty
• Inequality
• Political stability
• Need/satisfaction/Carpet sales
• Public involvement
• Employment
• Self realisation

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• Environmental improvement
• Air quality
• Biodiversity
• Loss of species/habitat/rate of extinction
• Landscape
• Water quality
• River quality
• Litter pollution
• Pollution reduction
• Health of species
• Forestation
• National parks
• Noise
• CO2 and GHG
• Waste volumes
• Resource exploitation
• Public awarenes

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• Economic good
• GDP/GNP
• Commodity/ value added
• House ownership
• Homelessness
• Import/export
• Wealth stratification
• Debt
• Average Household income
• Inflation
• Interest rates
• Working population ratio
• Subsidies

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Policy Framework
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Headline Indicators

• Economic Growth
• H1Economic output
• H2Investment
• H3Employment

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Headline Indicators

• Social Progress
• H4Poverty and social exclusion
• H5Education
• H6Health
• H7Housing
• H8Crime

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Headline Indicators

• Environmental Protection
• H9Climate change
• H10Air quality
• H11Road traffic
• H12River water quality
• H13Wildlife
• H14Land use
• H15Waste

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H1 Economic Growth
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H2 Investment

• http//www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/indicato
  rs/headline/h2.htm

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H3 Employment
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H3 Employment

• Relevance
• A high employment rate is one of the key
  objectives of sustainable development. Employment
  enables people to meet their needs and improve
  their living standards and is the single most
  effective and sustainable way to tackle poverty
  and social exclusion for those who can work.
  Improving employment opportunities will increase
  the productive potential of the economy, leading
  to benefits for society as a whole.

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Poverty and Social Exclusion
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H5 Education
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H6 Health
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H7 Housing
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H8 Crime
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H8 Crime
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H8 Crime
Relevance Everyone has a right to live in a
community that is safe. Crime imposes economic
costs, reinforces social exclusion and can hasten
the environmental decline of neighbourhoods. It
can make people reluctant to walk or take public
transport or go out after dark.
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H9 Climate Change
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H10 Air Quality
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H11 Road Traffic

• The key objective is to strike the right balance
  between transport's role in helping the economy
  progress and allowing people to travel wherever
  they need to go, while at the same time
  protecting the environment and improving quality
  of life. In the past traffic growth has been
  associated with economic growth, but the
  resulting volume of traffic leads to congestion,
  noise and air pollution and contributes to
  greenhouse gas emissions which cause climate
  change.

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H11 Road Traffic
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H12 River Quality
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H13 Wildlife
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H13 Wildlife
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H14 Land Use

• New development within existing urban areas
  contributes to the revitalisation of communities
  and enables people to live near to shops and
  employment, reducing the need to travel. Use of
  previously developed land wherever possible is
  also important for the protection of the
  greenbelt and countryside.

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H14 Land Use
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H15 Waste
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H15 Waste

• The types of waste we produce, all forms of waste
  management, and the transport of waste, have
  impacts on the environment. Waste is a potential
  resource and increased levels of reuse, recycling
  and energy recovery will contribute to
  sustainable development.

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H15 Waste
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Stimulating actions? - we need more specific
individual measures.

• We need specific indicators in each area of
  possible action
• to find out where we are
• against where we want to go
• so as to decide our next steps

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• Sustainability is an ideal end-state. Like
  democracy, it is a lofty goal whose perfect
  realization eludes usas the process of
  attempting to achieve sustainability will
  continually reveal new challenges and
  questions...a definitive definition is
  impossible.
• Any indicator framework, therefore, needs to be
  flexible and adaptable to those changing
  definitions. It needs to grow as our
  understanding grows, while continuing to serve
  its purpose as a simplifier and guide to
  complexity. It needs to maintain a trail of
  continuity from year to year and decade to
  decade. Most important, it needs to speak to
  people in ways understandable both to the
  rational mind and the intuition.
• (Atkinson, A. (1998) The Compass of
  Sustainability Framework for a comprehensive
  information system).

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• We need more effort in standardising on sector
  indicators and less on inventing new ones
• On many environmental impacts, the data is not
  easily available, and complex to calculate -
  steadily learning
• The indicator criteria (say CO2 emissions) should
  be industry standard the divisor will be
  sector-specific (per m2 of office, per tonne of
  steel, per Mlitre of water..
• On some social (eg. staff) issues the KPIs are
  soft and hard to measure - but vital, so
  persevere
• We must not, to quote Charles Handy (1994)
  Presume that which cant be measured easily
  really isnt important - This is blindness

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• Measure all the things which matter - KPIs will
  drive behaviour
• Dont measure things which do not deliver
• Prioritise, where KPIs may drive in opposing
  directions - trade-offs
• Measure at the highest possible levels
• Sum different types and levels of KPIs separately

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Industry Standards

• BREEAM
• NEAT
• LEEDS
• EcoHomes
• Good Corporation.com
• KPI Zone

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Quality of Life Barometer

• DEFRA May 2003, periodical
• 150 indicators
• Development is decoupling

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DTi DEFRA Decoupling Indicators

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 1990-2002 (cf H9)
• SOx and NOx 1990-2001
• Rivers of poor or bad quality (cf H12)
• Commercial Industrial Waste 1998/99,
  household waste NOT recycled 1990/91 2001/02
  (cf H15)

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DTi DEFRA Decoupling Indicators

• Total Material Use 1990-2001
• Water abstractions
• Homes Built on land NOT previously developed

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DTi DEFRA Decoupling Indicators

• Electricity produced and fossil fuel use
• Motor vehicle km and emissions 1990-2001
• Agricultural Output Volume inputs of fertilisers,
  methane emissions, farmland bird index 1974-2000
• Manufacturing Output (GVA) energy consumption,
  emissions 1990-2001
• Household final consumption expenditure,
  emissions, waste not recycled

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CIRIA

• The Pioneers Club
• Sustainability Indicators implementation of
  targets and indicators (RP644)
• This initiative builds on CIRIAs recent
  publication, Sustainable construction company
  indicators (C563). Through consultation with the
  industry, CIRIA identified a series of indicators
  against which companies could measure the
  sustainability of their business and the
  activities they perform. Each indicator provides
  a snapshot of progress towards sustainable
  construction. Overall progress is assessed by
  considering the suite of indicators as a whole.

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CIRIA

• Both strategic and operational indicators have
  been identified and trialled. The strategic
  indicators are relevant to most construction
  companies and measure the systems and processes
  in place to improve performance - for example,
  the use of an environmental management system.
  Operational indicators measure the performance of
  the company in delivering more sustainable
  construction projects - for example tonnes of
  wastes to landfill per turnover.

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CIRIA

• The process of implementing the indicators has
  involved the participating companies in a range
  of activities, including the following key
  processes
• Identification of key sustainability issues
• Identification of appropriate performance
  measurement indicators
• analysis of data to determine key performance
  improvement requirements
• implementation of performance improvement
  initiatives
• preparation of information for a sustainability
  report.
• The project represents a learning process and the
  club approach has been an innovative approach to
  sharing knowledge whilst companies attempt to
  make their first tentative steps to collecting
  sustainability data.

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Forestry CommissionIndicators for Woodland

• A1. Woodland area
• A2. New woodland creation
• .
• A3. Loss of woodland
• A4. Tree species
• A5. Woodlands in landscape
• A6. Area of sustainably managed woodland
• A7. Management practices