Performance Measurement For Sustainable Development

Measuring Sustainable Development Goals Performance provides a quantitative and analytical framework for evaluating social, economic, and environmental policies aiming at the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs). Continuing their earlier work on multidimensional analysis, the authors demonstrate how nations can be ranked in terms of their performance in meeting a given set of SDGs, providing numerical calculation of SDGs deficit. Their calculations show that even before the arrival of the COVID-19 virus, there existed in several large Western nations undetected pockets of SDG deficits, such as in the care for the elderly, personal safety, and hygiene. Extending the calculations to cover COVID-19 data for 2020, it turns out that the same deficit nations also suffered excess death rates caused by the virus.This book offers a balanced and holistic paradigm for evaluating progress of the SDGs, assisting the convergence of national and international efforts toward economic development, social progress, and environmental protection. 2023 PROSE Awards - Winner: Category: Single and Multivolume Reference and Textbooks in Social Sciences: Association of American Publishers Includes novel tools, procedures, diagnostics, and metrics for evaluating the entire spectrum of SDGs in a wide variety of settings Ranks nations according to their social and economic performance, based on each nation's unique resource and output indicators Examines international efforts toward shaping a new Social Contract between global partners Delivers a new Calculus of Consent: Logical foundation for forging Geneva Consensus for Sustainable Development

A new field of integrated performance measurement is rapidly evolving, in which sustainability is defined in terms of contextually relevant economic, environmental, and social indicators. There is a corresponding international momentum for progress on sustainability-related performance measurement, with a requirement for the development of methodologies and indicator sets that are comparable across various scales and sectors. This publication is a compendium of indicator initiatives and publications which is intended to provide up-to-date and essential information needed by practitioners to establish partnerships and orient themselves in this field. The section on experts and initiatives is arranged geographically by continent, with separate subsections for Canada, the United States, United Nations, and other initiatives with a global mandate. Information given for each initiative or expert includes project and contact name, addresses (including electronic mail) and phone numbers, description of initiative, and publications if any. The bibliographic section is arranged alphabetically by author under topics including theory and methods of sustainable development indicators, ecosystem and ecoregion-based indicators, geographically based indicators, and livelihood system indicators. Includes author, subject, and organisation index, and a list of acronyms.

Performance Metrics for Sustainable Cities provides an overview of measurement systems and tools to enable communities to self-assess and benchmark their progress along a continuum of smart, intelligent, and sustainable development. It begins by explaining the importance of measurement and evaluation for cities and smaller communities, as well as future factors that will need to be considered and embedded into planning processes. Across 14 chapters, the book describes existing evaluation mechanisms that are being used for government funding decisions, awards of recognition, and new measurement systems to assess what makes a city smarter and more sustainable, such as broader sustainable goal targets (UN SDGs), green cities, fabrication cities, and compassionate cities. It presents examples of metrics used for important sustainability and liveability concepts for cities such as how to measure trust, engagement, compassion, circular economy, and so forth. The book ends with reflections on the feasibility of a holistic system of measurement and the implications of its implementation. This volume will be of great interest to students, researchers, and professionals of urban sustainability, planning, smart cities, and sustainable communities.

Environmental and social performance measurement and reporting by business has become a high-profile issue during the 1990s. It is increasingly being requested by stakeholders and required by governments. Companies too are finding that they need better environmental and social performance data for effective internal management. And there are a growing number of standardisation initiatives – such as the ISO 14031 guidelines on environmental performance evaluation or the CERES Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) template for sustainability reporting – that are aimed at making it easier for more companies to take action, and for stakeholders to compare their progress.Sustainable Measures collects together most of the key work and individuals concerned with the topic from around the world. Contributions include: environmental and social reporting by John Elkington and colleagues at SustainAbility; the GRI discussion draft; Roger Adams and Martin Houldin on the FEE study of environmental reporting; Janet Ranganathan of the World Resources Institute on sustainability measures; and Martin Bennett and Peter James on ISO 14031 and the future of environmental performance evaluation. There are also chapters examining current practice in Austria, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa, developments in electronic reporting, as well as case studies of Baxter, Kunert, Niagara Mohawk, Unox, The Body Shop and the UK water industry, and an analysis of leading social reports.The book is essential reading for all academics, campaigners, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in issues such as:The standardization and comparability of environmental and social performance measuresMeasuring and reporting on sustainable businessEco-points and other means of evaluating product impactsThe implementation of measurement and reportingBest practice in corporate environmental and social reportingNew means of communicating environmental dataEnvironmental performance evaluation in developing countries

Local officials are responsible for a number of important tasks that have a significant impact on the quality of life of most Americans. Arguably, the policy choices made by local governments in the United States more directly impact individual well-being than do the choices made at any other level of government. From zoning decisions to the creation of parks and the maintenance of sidewalks and trails, local governments are largely responsible for direct services to the public and can provide the necessary tools and skills to create an attractive and vibrant community. And yet one area of significant importance for both individuals and for the country as a whole, local sustainability, is a relatively new policy area for many American municipalities. For example, how many local governments are adopting sustainability policies and plans? How are those initiatives performing? Without an honest and robust examination of both the effectiveness and the efficiency of local sustainability policies, the success of the entire sustainability movement in the United States is uncertain. This book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of what constitutes local sustainability and why it matters. Focusing closely on environmental initiatives, economic development issues, and social equity concerns, each chapter offers both an account of the sustainability policies being adopted and a close exploration of the performance measurement activities of cities in that policy area. Readers are introduced to the metrics that American cities are using to measure the performance of their sustainability efforts, as well as benchmarks and comparison statistics that may be used to develop and evaluate the performance assessment efforts in their own sustainability programs. Students of public administration, urban planning, and political science – as well as public officials – will find this book useful to understand the complexity of sustainability and local government.

Progressing towards sustainable development raises important challenges to conducting performance evaluations in governments because there are neither generally accepted methods nor specific standards to be met at present. Sustainability Performance Evaluation System in Government, makes a conceptual contribution to public sustainability performance evaluation and develops a set of framework indicators with the help of the strategic and comprehensive approach “Sustainability Balanced Scorecard”. As a conceptual basis for the further research and application, this volume will be of great interest to researchers and practitioners at many levels of environmental / sustainability, public management and strategic control studies. Evaluators will find methodological approaches and applied tools for their work. Decision-makers and managers will find it valuable to manage the social, economic and environmental issues in a balanced and integrated manner. Governments will also find it helpful in assisting them in establishing an evaluation system towards sustainable development.

CD-ROM has title: Compendium of performance measures for NCHRP report 708 : a guidebook for sustainability performance measurement for transportation agencies.

Chapter “A Multi-functional Design Approach to Deal with New Urban Challenges” is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.