Search

In this paper, we estimate the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which is a measure of sustainable economic welfare, for California for a five-year period, 2010–2014. This relatively short time period, which covers the recovery from a deep recession, allows us to examine how integration of environmental degradation, nonmarket activities, and inequality affects the GPI of California. The California GPI is only 52% of Gross State Product (GSP) – comparable to other GPI to GDP proportions – because the large negative environmental components offset the large positive social components and because many government expenditures, such as those related to defence and law enforcement, are excluded. Between 2010 and 2014, California GSP grew 9.2% and GPI grew 9.8%. We evaluate our estimation of the California GPI (CA-GPI) in two specific ways. First, we compare California’s GPI to an alternative indicator of social welfare, the Human Development Index (HDI) for California. Our comparison points out that the GPI is a more holistic measure of sustainable economic well-being, although the HDI is useful for evaluating educational attainment, life expectancy, or earnings across regions or demographic groups in the state. Second, we compare our estimation of CA-GPI to the California results from a recent GPI estimation for all fifty states for 2011, in order to evaluate how different methodological decisions and data selection affect the results. Our overall estimate is 13 percent higher, with the primary differences reflecting discrepancies in methodological assumptions or data sources in the calculation of a few key variables, including the value of time used for calculating nonmarket activities. These two estimates of CA-GPI allow us to analyze the sensitivity of two widely used approaches for calculating the GPI, and the sensitivity of using California-specific public data sources compared to national public data sources (scaled to California). The variation in the two California GPI estimations demonstrates the importance of standardizing the method and the data sources, with the goal of creating a viable alternative to the GDP for measuring economic performance. Comparison of the two GPI estimations shows how the use of region-specific data increases the accuracy of estimates, which is important for evaluating regional outcomes and trends over time. However, using data and method that prioritizes standardization is essential for cross-regional comparability, even though the trade-off is diminished regional accuracy. The paper concludes with a discussion of the uses of the GPI to evaluate policies, and suggests fruitful steps forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The paper focuses on the use and influence of indicators in European sustainable transport policy from a ‘knowledge utilization’ research point of view. The starting point is the contrast between the widely held idea that indicators are important tools for sustainable transport policy making, versus ‘knowledge utilization’ oriented research, which has often demonstrated that formal technical knowledge is used much less, or at least differently, than expected in policy and decision making. The paper looks at two cases of indicators applied for strategic policy making within the sustainable transport agenda. The first case concerns indicators tracking the fulfillment of national transport policy objectives in Sweden. The case explores the use and influence of an annual monitoring and evaluation report produced for this purpose, within a general ‘Management-by-Objectives’ regime. The second case deals with indicators applied for the Mid-Term Review of the European Commission's transport policy White Paper ‘Time to Decide’ (issued in 2001). The focus in this case is on a particular indicator based study conducted in 2005 by a group of consultants in close collaboration with European Commission staff. It is found that several indicators in both cases are actually used in policy processes, with evidence of use found in documents as well as interviews. However, ‘use’ does not automatically mean ‘influence’ on policies or processes in more than a superficial manner. Indicators seem to play a very limited direct instrumental role, while some signs of symbolic, conceptual and process roles are found. In the EU case we identify what is called a rationalization role of indicators, meaning that indicators inform and help to rationalize a change in the position towards key objectives. Several factors that characterize the indicators, the users, and policy context are found to contribute to understand the type of use and influence observed in both cases. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Malta is a member of the European Union (EU), but faces constraints unique to its status both as a small island nation and its geographical location on the periphery of the EU. Several initiatives to develop suites of sustainability indicators (SIs) have been attempted in the Maltese Islands over the past two decades but there has been little corresponding follow-up to examine the extent to which such SIs are used by practitioners and influence policy. This paper presents an assessment of the use and influence of SIs in Malta by drawing upon the results of two quite different means of enquiry: (i) a more traditional approach in the social sciences using semi-structured and one-to-one interviews conducted with key stakeholders involved with SIs in Malta, and (ii) an innovative participatory approach, called Triple Task (TT) implemented within a workshop context, where stakeholders were placed in teams and asked to explore the use of SIs. Based upon the results obtained with these two methods of enquiry the paper provides insights into the problems of adoption of SIs in Malta and makes the case that rather than being seen as mutually exclusive, a combination of the two approaches provides a powerful means of triangulation to what is a complex set of issues. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• A zoning method based on ecological indicators and economic indicators is applied. • Ecological and economic situations are highly correlated with topographic conditions. • The coupling coordination degree(CCD) between ecology and economy is calculated. • Economic development is highly positively correlated with CCD. • Targeted regional sustainable development strategies are put forward. The coordinated development of ecology and economy is one of the key issues of sustainable development. A full understanding of the relationship between ecology and economy is necessary for the coordinated development of the two. This paper takes Sichuan Province as the research area and county-level administrative districts as the research unit. Based on the medium value of the ecological quality index and economic growth index of each unit, Sichuan Province is divided into dual pressure zones (DPZ), economic backward zones (EBZ), ecological crisis zones (ECZ), and coordinated development zones (CDZ) and the coupling coordination degree (CCD) of each unit is studied. The results show that: (1) On the whole, the eastern part of Sichuan Province has a better level of economic development, and the southern part of the western region has a higher ecological quality. The ecological quality and economic growth pattern are highly correlated with topographical conditions. (2) The distribution characteristics of the four types of partitions are significantly different. The EBZ are more distributed in the western and southern of Sichuan Province, the ECZ are more distributed in the eastern, the DPZ and CDZ are relatively more sporadic. More than 90% of the partition changed zones are distributed in the eastern area. (3) The CCD of more than 95% units belongs to moderate coordination and high coordination. The overall CCD of the four types of zones has shown an upward trend from 2010 to 2015. Based on the results, Sichuan Province should follow the path of clear waters and green mountains are as good as mountains of gold and silver, and targeted sustainable development suggestions for DPZ, EBZ, ECZ, and CDZ are put forward. This paper provides guidance for formulating regional sustainable development strategies, especially in areas with unbalanced development due to congenital topographical conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Construct the green development performance system of industrial enterprises from the micro perspective. • Simulated the green development performance index of industrial enterprises with the functional data analysis method. • Analysis the regional difference of the index. • Verify the stability and reference value of the index. This paper constructs an enterprise green development performance system by integrating green development concept and enterprise performance measurement. Based on the panel data of 458 industrial listed enterprises in China from 2011 to 2018, this paper simulates the green development performance index of industrial enterprises by using the functional data analysis method and functional entropy weight method. There are four main conclusions. First, the change in the green development performance index of industrial enterprises is U-shaped, which shows an upward trend overall. Within a range of [0.006–0.05], the minimum value is 0.006, and considering the strength and trend of future policies there is no maximum value. The higher the value is, the higher the level of green development of industrial enterprises. Second, according to the weight and fitting curves, we can find that the importance and development level of social performance are at the highest, and the importance level basically floats around 0.5, far higher than the average level. The importance of economic performance and the development level of innovation performance are at the lowest respectively, and there is a big gap with the average level. Third, the shape and trend of the index generated by the average weight and the subjective weight of social performance are basically consistent with the index generated by the objective weight. This shows that the index is not sensitive to the weight and has certain robustness and representativeness. Finally, according to the location of enterprises, they were divided into three categories: middle, east and west. The boost Trap method was used to conduct FANOVA (Functional ANOVA) with the P value of 0.314. The results showed that the index did not differ significantly between regions at the significance level of 0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the indicator commonly used to measure economic growth and sustainable development. However, this indicator can be very inefficient for evaluating development. The most prominent alternative indicator is the Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW). Indeed, this index can be used to control for the way that countries use available resources, balancing ecological development, damages caused to the environment and income distribution between citizens. This paper compares a sustainable development approach, using the ISEW, with the traditional economic growth approach using GDP, and its relationship with energy consumption. The traditional hypotheses of the energy-growth nexus are tested through Panel-Corrected Standard Errors estimators, for a panel constituted by twenty European countries, with an annual data frequency for the time span 1995–2014. The results indicate a new negative feedback hypothesis for the alternative measure of development and a conservative hypothesis for economic growth with energy consumption. This study also finds various other effects on sustainable development by economic growth factors, such as Terms-of-trade and Rents from natural resources. These findings indicate that the economic growth approach, widely studied using GDP, has been wrongly interpreted by policy makers trying to achieve increased sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper provides an overview of the plethora of approaches that are available to measure welfare and sustainable development. Many methods exist but there is no consensus on the ‘correct’ approach. Furthermore, we also show that the wide variety of sustainable development indictor (SDI) sets which have been adopted also show significant differences. We argue that this is mostly because many of these studies do not use a theoretical approach. We argue that the ‘capital approach’, which is used in the sustainability debate, is the most promising method to enhance international harmonization. Support is mounting in the scientific, policy and statistical communities for this approach in which economic capital, human capital, natural capital and social capital are distinguished. Many applications of this method express these capital stocks in monetary units (the ‘monetary capital approach’). This paper argues that the ‘hybrid capital approach’, in which the capital stocks can also be measured in non-monetary units, is probably more likely to achieve consensus over a large number of countries and institutes. Also a number of challenges remain for the capital approach. We argue that ideally the indicators should be based on satellite accounts of the national accounting framework. Also the capital approach could be further expanded to current welfare, progress of societies, inequality, and the international dimension of sustainability. We conclude that if the hybrid capital approach is adopted it may become easier to make consistent, theoretically sound and policy relevant comparisons between countries. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the European Union the sustainable development is a fundamental and overarchingobjective enshrined in the Treaty and measuring progress towards sustainable development is an integral part of the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Eurostat produce a monitoring report every two years based on the EU set of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). The main objective of this paper is to create an aggregated index of the sustainable development from EU set of SDIs for each 27 EU country based on the PCA. The headline indicator economic growth was not involved because its increase is not expressly followed by positive change in other SDIs from social, economic and environmental fields. The aggregated SD index enables to get an overall picture about the position of each of the 27 EU countries and its development in terms of the sustainability over time as assumed in the EU Sustainable Development Strategy. Sweden, Denmark, Netherland, and Great Britain have repeatedly reached the highest value of aggregated SD index. The highest positive change in the aggregated SD index has occurred in countries with the lowest value of aggregated SD index. Moreover, we put this new aggregated index in relation with economic growth and found that there is a negative correlation between aggregated SD index and the economic growth for most of the 27 EU countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wastewater treatment facility is vital for sustainable urban development. In the course of removing contaminants and discharging ready-for-reuse water, wastewater treatment consumes resources and triggers environmental emission during its lifetime. A comprehensive framework to analyze the embodied ecological elements as natural resources and environmental emissions of wastewater treatment is presented in this work. The systems method as a combination of process and input–output analyses is applied and a set of indicators are accordingly devised. Two representative ecological elements, i.e., greenhouse gases emissions and solar emergy of alternative wastewater treatment systems, i.e., a traditional activated sludge wastewater treatment plant and a constructed wetland have been taken into consideration. For each ecological element, five indicators have been calculated and compared to assess the impact on climate change and resources utilizing style of the case systems. The framework raised in this paper is fully supportive for optimal decision-making among different wastewater treatment technologies, and could be transplanted to be applied to systems ecological accounting for other production systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Considering the on-going strive towards new, alternative indicators to measure our societal development pathways, and the fact that policy indicators remain largely enigmatic with regard to their patterns of embeddedness in institutional decision-making processes, it appears necessary to work towards reducing our lack of understanding of their interactions with policy-making. In the present paper, we focus on exploring the significance of composite indicators for policy making in the particular policy environment of the EU-institutions. Our research is underpinned by the conviction that such indicators are not systematically used directly, but have an indirect influence on policy making that needs to be better understood. Our analytical framework – in order to analyse the ways in which composite indicators enter policy processes – is characterised by the distinction between the ‘use’ and the ‘influence’ of indicators on the one hand, and on the other hand between 3 types of factors: indicator factors, policy factors and user factors. Our empirical results show that while most of the academic attention and political debate around indicators has tended to focus on ‘indicator factors’, such quality attributes actually mattered relatively little in our setting as determinants of indicator influence. This rejects the idea that the robustness of evidence would lie exclusively in its technical quality and in the independence of its producer, and instead calls attention to the processes of evidence-construction. Simultaneously, ‘user factors’ (beliefs and representations of policy actors) and ‘policy factors’ (institutional context) were crucial as explanatory factors of the policy mechanics we identified. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The concept of sustainable development from 1980 to the present has evolved into definitions of the three pillars of sustainability (social, economic and environmental). The recent economic and financial crisis has helped to newly define economic sustainability. It has brought into focus the economic pillar and cast a question mark over the sustainability of development based on economic progress. This means fully addressing the economic issues on their own merits with no apparent connection to the environmental aspects. Environmental sustainability is correctly defined by focusing on its biogeophysical aspects. This means maintaining or improving the integrity of the Earth''s life supporting systems. The concept of sustainable development and its three pillars has evolved from a rather vague and mostly qualitative notion to more precise specifications defined many times over in quantitative terms. Hence the need for a wide array of indicators is very clear. The paper analyses the different approaches and types of indicators developed which are used for the assessment of environmental sustainability. One important aspect here is setting targets and then “measuring” the distance to a target to get the appropriate information on the current state or trend. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Revisiting the way society defines and measures progress has been identified as one of the key levers in tackling the root causes of unsustainable development. The recent economic and food crises exposed a critical weakness in the ability of currently mainstream indicators of progress to provide early warning and take adequate preventive action. Since the early 1990s a growing number of organizations have been involved in the development of indicator systems around the key socio-economic and environmental concerns of sustainable development within their own context. In order to provide guidance and promote best practice, in 1997 a global group of leading measurement and assessment experts developed the Bellagio Principles. The Bellagio Principles have become a widely quoted reference point for measuring sustainable development, but new developments in policy, science, civil society and technology have made their update necessary. The Bellagio Sustainability Assessment and Measurement Principles (BellagioSTAMP) have been developed through a similar expert group process, using the original Principles as a starting point. Intended to be used as a complete set, the new BellagioSTAMP includes eight principles: (1) Guiding vision; (2) Essential considerations; (3) Adequate scope; (4) Framework and indicators; (5) Transparency; (6) Effective communications; (7) Broad participation; and (8) Continuity and capacity. The paper provides the rationale for the revision of the principles, their detailed description and guidance for their application. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: As the concept of sustainable development is more accepted and incorporated by institutions, it becomes necessary to evaluate the performance of the national economy based on new methods and not only on economic indicators. Despite the importance of sustainability to the preservation of natural ecosystems and services, there is no agreement in the world scientific community concerning a methodology to evaluate that concept. In the last decade, two scientific tools have been extensively used worldwide to measure the human impact on nature: Ecological Footprint and Emergy Synthesis. Papers trying to combine them, and to obtain more accurate results have appeared in scientific literature, of which approach is an important one. Unfortunately, some weak points of the original methods still remain in the new approaches proposed. The objective of this work is to discuss some weak points found in the Ecological Footprint and Emergy Synthesis and to use the positive aspects and potential improvements from both methodologies at a national level. Emergy deals with the notion that all energy that is used directly and indirectly in a process to deliver an output product, flow or service should be accounted for. A new definition for Biocapacity was introduced meaning “the natural area''s capacity of receiving renewable energy”, rather than “usable biomass” as proposed by the conventional Ecological Footprint methodology. The questions to be answered by the proposed methodology are how much land would be equivalent to consumption, if products were generated solely by the use of natural renewable resources (Emergetic Footprint), and how much land would be available in the system considering world''s average capacity of receiving renewable energy (Emergetic Renewable Biocapacity). A new category called “areas not occupied by humans” is included in the Biocapacity. It is composed of open ocean, deserts and frozen land (areas excluded from the conventional Footprint method). Footprint or consumption means the load imposed by humans on the environment and was grouped in categories: cropland, forestry, animal products and energy resources. Ecological Fooptrint using Emergy was used to assess Brazil as a case study, resulting in a Biocapacity of 62.2ghaperson−1 and a Footprint of 41.9ghaperson−1, using data from 2004. The positive aspects of the approach proposed are: (i) its ease of application at global and national scales; (ii) the indicator of consumption (Footprint) accounts for the direct and indirect energy used to generate products and services; (iii) a new category considering areas excluded from the conventional method was included in the Biocapacity calculation, which can be a valid step towards the evaluation and assessment of services provided by nature. On the other hand, the approach has as main limitations: (i) it is not possible to make comparisons between the Biocapacity and Footprint for each category; (ii) there is a need for a handbook with well-explained calculations of emergy intensity factors. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Considering the traditional indicator of Green GDP and EDP, which ignored the ecological content when used to assess the regional sustainable development level, we proposed a new indicator, “EcoDP”, which consists of five sub-indicators: eco-service domestic product, eco-disaster domestic product, eco-construction domestic product, eco-threat domestic product, and eco-protection cost input, to distinguish the traditional EDP; we also suggest that the “EcoDP” should rather be divided into two main types: the “EcoDP value-stocked” and the “EcoDP value-added”. An analysis is carried out of China''s “EcoDP” change from 1999 to 2008, providing the following figures for the past 10 years: eco-service domestic product rose by 0.11 trillion yuan; eco-disaster domestic product increased by ¥1.03 trillion; eco-construction domestic product dropped by ¥9.8 billion; eco-threat domestic product rose by ¥114.4 billion; eco-protection cost input grew by ¥431.1 billion; and then we discussed the reasons for this change in China''s “EcoDP” from the perspectives of ecosystem, environment, resources and energies. Finally, based on various uncertainties regarding the research methodology adopted, the paper considers how to conduct quantified research and assessment for regional sustainable development in a comprehensive way in the future, in terms of GDP, EDP and social domestic product, like HDI. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The assessment of sustainable development is a challenging task as its measuring is rather complex without a mature framework. In this paper, as a case study, a coastal city of China-Yantai was assessed for sustainable development in the period from 1998 to 2007. We used a methodological framework based on 36 indicators and three composite indices from the dimensions of environment, economy and society subsystems. The assessment results indicated that Yantai was almost in the potentially unsustainable development or intermediate sustainable development, except in 1998 and in 2007. Accordingly, the progress of sustainable development was divided into two stages in the light of the relative changes of three subsystems. Some relevant issues, such as natural capital, GPI vs. GDP in sustainable development assessment were discussed. Finally, an uncertainty analysis was also given in the assessment. In conclusion, the sustainable development in Yantai had experienced a shift from environment-based to social–economic-based in the past 10 years. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The paper presents an overview of the existing indicators of development and positions them within the environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development. It presents empirical evidence of sustainable livelihood security index (SLSI) at the district level in Gujarat. SLSI is a composite index having three component indices, i.e. the ecological security index (ESI), the economic efficiency index (EEI), and the social equity index (SEI). It finds that the SLSI based on its simplicity and flexibility, is one of the most comprehensive yet simple indices for measuring long-term livelihood security in rural areas. For instance, the eastern districts of the state, dominated by scheduled tribes’ population have very low EEI and SEI rankings, although they have high ESI ranking. These districts also have very low ranks in gender development index, education index, health index and housing index. Thus, the SLSI not only identifies the general priorities for development but also the nature and types of policies to be pursued in each study unit to enhance livelihood security. The SLSI facilitates consensus among different partisan groups like economists, environmentalists, and egalitarians by balancing their mutual concerns, could provide guidelines for achieving sustainable development. It can function as an educational and a policy tool for promoting a holistic perspective among planners, administrators, and development workers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

• Italian and Israeli wastewater quality standard were compared. • Sustainbility assessment was done considering Environmental, social and economic indicators. • Higher sustainability for Italian regulation was determined for wastewater reuse. • Higher sustainability for Israeli regulation was determined for discharge in rivers. The availability of deterministic models to achieve information regarding the main aspects affected by the implementation of regulations is of high importance for supporting decision-makers and policymaking. This is particularly true and of crucial importance when pursuing more sustainable development. The present study proposes a triple bottom integrated model for the evaluation of the main aspects of sustainability —environmental, social, and economic— based on an integrated sustainability index. The model was applied for comparing the wastewater regulatory systems implemented in Italy and Israel. The main results show that greenhouse gas emissions were about 0.60 kgCO 2eq /m3 for Israel and about 0.07 kgCO 2eq /m3 for Italy. Concerning freshwater eutrophication, the emissions related to the Italian scenarios ranged from about 2x10-3 kgP eq /m3 to 1.2x10-2 kgP eq /m3 for use on soil and discharge to river, respectively. For Israel, the same figures resulted 6x10-3 kgP eq /m3 and 1x10-3 kgP eq /m3, respectively. The impact on human health ranged from 0.5x10-5 DALY to 1.56x10-4 DALY depending on the emission limits and final destination. A comprehensive figure of sustainability was calculated by the proposed integrated sustainability index. The higher was this index the lower was the sustainability. Results for "discharge to river" were 8.91 for Israel and 9.15 for Italy whereas for "reuse on soil" the index was 24.7 for Israel and 19.9 for Italy. The methodological approach presented in this paper can be implemented to measure and enhance sustainability performance in water sectors, as well as in other environmental fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]