1. The document presents a new methodological approach called the Index of Sustainable Development (ISD) to measure the sustainability of systems described by multidimensional sustainability concepts.
2. The authors apply the ISD to measure the sustainability of the German energy sector based on 15 sustainability indicators from the German Sustainability Strategy.
3. The ISD aggregates the indicators into a single index to determine the degree to which the development of the energy sector aligns with sustainability goals set by the German government, allowing for easier communication of sustainability status.
The objective of this study is to provide the reader with a critical appraisal of the Spanish Sustainable Development Strategy (SSDS), for which the Renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EUSDS) is also analysed in the fields where it is relevant to the former.
Following the background and the concept of sustainable development (SD) analysis in the SSDS, the fundamental assumption that economic growth is an imperative is extensively analysed, arguing that it is not feasible as a paradigm. Next, each of the seven priority areas and the Spanish performance in them are briefly referred
and appraised, with a higher emphasis in the “climate change (CC) and clean energies”, due to the strong specific weight in the SSDS that the previous section gives to it. A comment about the indicators used to monitor the evolution of the SSDS is given before the final conclusions.
National Adaptation Plans and Strategies (inter)national experiences-Martin K...climateclimate
This document summarizes a presentation on national adaptation plans and strategies given at a climate forum in Batumi, Georgia. The presentation covered topics such as starting the adaptation process, UN and EU adaptation guidelines, criteria for prioritizing adaptation measures, and integrating civil society organizations. Examples of vulnerabilities in Georgia related to temperature and precipitation changes as well as extreme weather events were presented. The relationship between vulnerability assessments and adaptation reports was discussed, noting that vulnerability hotspots can help indicate where to focus adaptation efforts.
The document summarizes the work of the Sustainable Development Commissioner of Quebec on auditing and promoting sustainable development. It discusses:
1) International approaches like the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness which emphasize national development strategies.
2) Quebec's Sustainable Development Act which established sustainability principles, an independent Commissioner role, and requires government strategies and action plans.
3) The challenges of operationalizing sustainability, establishing indicators and strategic assessments, and moving beyond GDP to better measure well-being.
Identifying and assessing harmful expenditures - Kai Schlegelmilch, GermanyOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Kai Schlegelmilch, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, at the 1st Workshop on Green Budgeting held at the OECD, Paris, on 20 June 2018.
Identifying and assessing harmful expenditures - Andrea Molocchi, ItalyOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Andrea Molocchi, Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, Italy, at the 1st Workshop on Green Budgeting held at the OECD, Paris, on 20 June 2018.
Global climate change threatens to disrupt the well-being of society, undermine economic development and alter the natural environment, making it an urgent policy priority for the 21st century. Governments around the world have reached consensus on the need to achieve large cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the coming decades, to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and to ensure the necessary financial and technical support for developing countries to take action.
This document presents a theory and methodology for developing indicators of sustainable development. It argues that a systems approach is needed to identify appropriate indicators. The key aspects are:
1) Sustainable development involves the coevolution of human and natural systems, which can be analyzed as six interacting subsystems.
2) Systems theory concepts like basic orientors (goals) and viability can help define what to measure through indicators.
3) A procedure is outlined to conceptualize the total system, identify representative indicators for each orientor, and potentially quantify indicator performance over time.
4) Examples apply the framework to develop indicator sets for various scales from cities to global regions. The goal is a manageable set of indicators that
This document discusses sustainability measurement and indicators. It defines sustainability indicators as tools that inform public policy by providing information on the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities. Popular frameworks for organizing indicators include the DPSIR system, which breaks environmental impact into driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, and responses. At the global scale, the UN has developed extensive sustainability measurement tools and indicators related to sustainable development. There are also many quantitative metrics and indices used to assess sustainability at various levels of organization.
The objective of this study is to provide the reader with a critical appraisal of the Spanish Sustainable Development Strategy (SSDS), for which the Renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy (EUSDS) is also analysed in the fields where it is relevant to the former.
Following the background and the concept of sustainable development (SD) analysis in the SSDS, the fundamental assumption that economic growth is an imperative is extensively analysed, arguing that it is not feasible as a paradigm. Next, each of the seven priority areas and the Spanish performance in them are briefly referred
and appraised, with a higher emphasis in the “climate change (CC) and clean energies”, due to the strong specific weight in the SSDS that the previous section gives to it. A comment about the indicators used to monitor the evolution of the SSDS is given before the final conclusions.
National Adaptation Plans and Strategies (inter)national experiences-Martin K...climateclimate
This document summarizes a presentation on national adaptation plans and strategies given at a climate forum in Batumi, Georgia. The presentation covered topics such as starting the adaptation process, UN and EU adaptation guidelines, criteria for prioritizing adaptation measures, and integrating civil society organizations. Examples of vulnerabilities in Georgia related to temperature and precipitation changes as well as extreme weather events were presented. The relationship between vulnerability assessments and adaptation reports was discussed, noting that vulnerability hotspots can help indicate where to focus adaptation efforts.
The document summarizes the work of the Sustainable Development Commissioner of Quebec on auditing and promoting sustainable development. It discusses:
1) International approaches like the Millennium Development Goals and the Paris Declaration on aid effectiveness which emphasize national development strategies.
2) Quebec's Sustainable Development Act which established sustainability principles, an independent Commissioner role, and requires government strategies and action plans.
3) The challenges of operationalizing sustainability, establishing indicators and strategic assessments, and moving beyond GDP to better measure well-being.
Identifying and assessing harmful expenditures - Kai Schlegelmilch, GermanyOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Kai Schlegelmilch, Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, at the 1st Workshop on Green Budgeting held at the OECD, Paris, on 20 June 2018.
Identifying and assessing harmful expenditures - Andrea Molocchi, ItalyOECD Governance
This presentation was made by Andrea Molocchi, Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea, Italy, at the 1st Workshop on Green Budgeting held at the OECD, Paris, on 20 June 2018.
Global climate change threatens to disrupt the well-being of society, undermine economic development and alter the natural environment, making it an urgent policy priority for the 21st century. Governments around the world have reached consensus on the need to achieve large cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the coming decades, to adapt to the impacts of climate change, and to ensure the necessary financial and technical support for developing countries to take action.
This document presents a theory and methodology for developing indicators of sustainable development. It argues that a systems approach is needed to identify appropriate indicators. The key aspects are:
1) Sustainable development involves the coevolution of human and natural systems, which can be analyzed as six interacting subsystems.
2) Systems theory concepts like basic orientors (goals) and viability can help define what to measure through indicators.
3) A procedure is outlined to conceptualize the total system, identify representative indicators for each orientor, and potentially quantify indicator performance over time.
4) Examples apply the framework to develop indicator sets for various scales from cities to global regions. The goal is a manageable set of indicators that
This document discusses sustainability measurement and indicators. It defines sustainability indicators as tools that inform public policy by providing information on the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities. Popular frameworks for organizing indicators include the DPSIR system, which breaks environmental impact into driving forces, pressures, states, impacts, and responses. At the global scale, the UN has developed extensive sustainability measurement tools and indicators related to sustainable development. There are also many quantitative metrics and indices used to assess sustainability at various levels of organization.
Corporate Social Responsibility review n.1 (december2014)Snam
1) The document discusses CSR and sustainability in business, highlighting studies that show a positive relationship between CSR commitment and financial performance.
2) It also discusses socially responsible investing (SRI) which takes into account environmental, social, and governance issues, such as climate change risk management. SRI assets are growing in Europe, led by France and the UK.
3) The final section discusses Italy's CSR Observatory website which contains over 2,000 business case studies in CSR categorized by issues like community partnership and environmental management. It also mentions the EU setting new 2030 targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency.
Assessing social and economic impacts of building materialsJeremy Gibberd
This document summarizes and evaluates methodologies for assessing the social and economic sustainability impacts of building materials. It reviews lifecycle assessment and other environmental methodologies, finding limited tools for social and economic measures. The paper explores applying existing standards like the Global Reporting Initiative and ISO 26000 to building materials in South Africa. It concludes that while current tools provide a starting point, no system fully supports standardized social and economic impact assessments for building products. A new index approach is proposed to fill this gap.
This document discusses frameworks and indices for assessing sustainability. It begins by introducing common types of sustainability assessment tools, focusing on indicators and indices. It then outlines several widely-used sustainability frameworks, including the Triple Bottom Line framework and pressure-state-response model. Next, it describes the process for constructing sustainability indices, including selecting indicators, standardizing data, assigning weights, and aggregating the results. It notes that indicator selection and weighting are often inconsistent due to a lack of standardized requirements. Finally, it argues that sustainability frameworks can effectively guide indicator selection for both standalone indicators and composite indices.
This document proposes a methodological approach for assessing the sustainability of development cooperation projects that involve built innovations. It begins by discussing the need for sustainability assessments and the lack of agreement on what sustainability means. It then reviews how sustainability is defined in the development sector versus scientific disciplines. The proposed approach uses nine impact categories based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to assess projects. It applies the concepts of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking to evaluate impacts over the full life cycles of the project and its built innovation. The goal is to provide a holistic analysis of both positive and negative social, economic and environmental impacts. The method is intended to be tested on a case study of improved cooking stoves in Bangladesh.
Global sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue, as evidenced by the
numerous conferences of the UN and its sister organizations with worldwide participation. The goal is a critical
inventory of the desirable goals, as well as the questioning of the current status quo and the procedure. There
are obvious gaps that will be briefly discussed
Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RECs) are proven
to be significant building blocks in the energy
transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable
energy. The process of forming these RECs is
professionalising, but scientific literature on Action
plans to follow is limited. This paper sets out to
research if there is value for design in tackling the
formation of RECs and if so, which design methods
should be used. Through a three case study
approach which compare the formation process of
these three Dutch RECs it is found that all three
follow the same process as laid out in the Action
plan. Since this action plan encompasses design
methods, it can be argued that indeed there is a
place for design in facilitating the formation of
RECs.
Facing the future: Sense-making in Horizon ScanningTotti Könnölä
The document summarizes a conference on horizon scanning and sense-making. It discusses how horizon scanning involves collecting observations of potential future developments and deriving policy implications. Sense-making is inseparable from scanning and involves perceiving, interpreting and constructing meaning from emerging trends. The case study described a horizon scanning exercise where 381 issues were identified, assessed, and synthesized into cross-cutting challenges to inform EU policymaking recommendations on sustainability, social changes, and governance.
This document discusses sustainable competitiveness among nations. It begins by summarizing two approaches to measuring competitiveness - the US Council on Competitiveness, which focuses on productivity outputs, and the World Economic Forum, which examines facilitating factors or inputs. It then discusses how sustainability refers to avoiding degradation of natural resources and social conditions. Sustainable development meets present and future needs through innovation. The UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The document argues sustainability requires ongoing innovation and technology upgrading. It supports the World Economic Forum's approach of examining sustainability impacts for individual technologies. It will measure sustainable competitiveness outputs through a joint productivity/sustainability index, and inputs through the Forum's 12 competitiveness pillars.
The Schumacher Institute submitted evidence to the Inclusive Growth Commission regarding the need to integrate sustainability objectives into policies aimed at inclusive growth. They note that the Commission's findings are almost completely silent on the need for economic development to be sustainable. Integrating sustainability is essential to ensure Britain works for everyone and the planet. The evidence discusses tools like the Planetary Boundaries framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals that can help policymakers address equity and environmental limits simultaneously. It also highlights examples of sustainable business models and resilience thinking that could guide more inclusive and sustainable economic development.
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT :AN Introductory Lecture Presentation for CollegeManuelJRadislao
This document discusses sustainable development from several perspectives. It begins by defining key terms related to sustainability and the environment. It then explains the three pillars of sustainability - environmental, social, and economic. Several objectives are outlined related to justifying the relationship between energy and environment, relating the pillars of sustainability to development categories, and examining challenges faced by different countries in achieving sustainable development. The document also provides historical context on the development of sustainable development as a concept over time. It analyzes China and Japan's approaches to sustainable development and renewable energy. Finally, it discusses the roles of different sectors - government, church, media, and academia - in working towards sustainable development goals.
Innovation and Sustainable Development: The Question of Energy EfficiencyIOSR Journals
This document discusses the relationship between innovation and energy efficiency as it relates to sustainable development. It begins by defining key concepts like sustainable development, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. It then examines how technological innovation and the use of renewable energy can help foster sustainable development by reducing environmental impacts and promoting socioeconomic development. Specifically, it explores how renewable energy and energy efficiency in agriculture can contribute to the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability in Tunisia.
The document summarizes the objectives and tasks of WP2 for the Converge project, which aims to develop the concept of convergence across social, economic, and ecological systems in the context of globalization. WP2 will establish definitions and baselines around convergence and divergence, review sustainability frameworks, evaluate global trends, and identify opportunities to enhance convergence. It outlines the deliverables and draft work plan through month 24. It also introduces key concepts like Contraction and Convergence for climate change and discusses existing sustainability frameworks like The Natural Step and Five Capitals approach.
Topic 2-Carbon Footprint & Sustainability David DingusDavid J Dingus
This document discusses methods for calculating a carbon footprint as a measure of sustainability. It defines key concepts like sustainable development and carbon footprint. It then examines various methodologies for calculating a carbon footprint, including basic per capita estimates, supply chain/process analysis, input-output analysis, and multi-regional input-output analysis using databases like WIOD. The document argues that MRIO analysis using household consumption data provides the best approach because it can account for trade flows and identify the impacts of key factors like trade, socioeconomics, geography, and consumerism on sustainability.
TOO4TO Module 5 / Sustainable Resource Management: Part 3TOO4TO
Seven principles of sustainable resource management are outlined: 1) secure adequate supply of resources, 2) maintain ecosystem functions, 3) provide for basic institutions, 4) minimize risks from resource dependence, 5) contribute to fair distribution, 6) minimize problem shifting, 7) drive higher resource productivity than GDP growth. The EU has implemented various policies and strategies towards sustainable resource management including the Thematic Strategy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The ultimate goals are to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts and resource use.
1- Introduce your environmental issue and your purpose of analysis.docxmonicafrancis71118
1- Introduce your environmental issue and your purpose of analysis of the impacts the issue has created and what is being done to help this issue (solutions).
2- Develop a background paragraph of the issue - the history of its development, its current situation, and its size and scope.
3- Develop a paragraph for each impact this environmental issue has on the world, explaining the impact and providing evidence of this impact from sources. (3 parghs)
4- Develop an analysis paragraph for each solution that is being used or developed – explaining the solution clearly, and discussing how this will impact the problem, discussing the impact and limitations of the solution.
5- Develop a clear conclusion summarizing your analysis process and insights gleaned from your analysis.
Reporting on long-term value creation by Canadian companies: A
longitudinal assessment
Petra F.A. Dilling a, *, Peter Harris b
a School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, 701 W Georgia St., Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K8, Canada
b School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, 26West 61st Street, New York, NY, NY 10023, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 30 August 2017
Received in revised form
21 January 2018
Accepted 27 March 2018
Available online 27 April 2018
Keywords:
Long-term value creation
Integrated reporting
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Canadian extractive sector
Sustainability
Stakeholders
a b s t r a c t
In the wake of the global financial crisis, a new wave of stakeholder demands has developed calling on
companies to shift focus towards long-term value creation and moving away from a short-term earnings
emphasis. Aligned with these demands, urgent calls for more transparency and improved reporting on
both financial as well as non-financial reports have been made. The objective of this study was to analyze
longitudinal disclosure quality and quantity trends in reporting on long-term value creation of 19
publicly traded Canadian energy and mining companies. Content analysis was conducted in order to
assess disclosure on long-term value creation in annual financial and sustainability reports. The empirical
results show that the companies experienced a substantial increase in the reporting disclosure quality
and quantity. This was true for both disclosure in the annual financial reports as well as in the sus-
tainability reports. These results supported the hypotheses that Canadian public energy and mining
companies had increased their quantity and quality of long-term value creation disclosure in 2014 as
compared to 2012. Even though increases in disclosure quality could be observed (especially in the areas
of governance, responsible work practices, outside relationships and risk management), overall disclo-
sure quality (especially in areas such as connectivity between financials and sustainability sections,
materiality analysis, projects with high climate risk exposure, cost of energy, responsible work practices,
ince.
Consideration of Conformity Assessment for the Circular Economy.pdfDr. Monideep Dey
The post-COVID recovery offers an opportunity to reverse unsustainable economic trends and build back better, to promote sustainable consumption and production as laid out in SDG 12 and transition to a circular, more resilient and low-carbon economy. Nations are developing a circular economy in the context of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Call for Action on Adaption and Resilience. ISO, UNECE and other international standards organizations are developing a number of standards that are essential in supporting the climate agenda; they help adapt to climate change, quantify greenhouse gas emissions and promote the dissemination of good practices in environmental management.
A critical element to ensure the achievement of sustainable develop goals is the assessment of conformity and accountability that such goals are being achieved and in a manner consistent with all the SDGs. Although this document reports specifically on conformity assessment for the Circular Economy that is aimed to serve UN SDG12 – Responsible consumption and production, and also UN SDG-13, Climate action, many concepts and methods discussed here will be applicable more broadly in the implementation of all SDGs.
International Standards also play a crucial role in underpinning the global economy, and creating trust on all aspects of international trade. In the past, advanced economies have been the main participants in the development of international standards with participants from the transition and developing economies only playing a minor role. This paper emphasizes that issues important to developing and transition economies such as those for social and environmental concerns should be addressed in international standards for them to have broad benefit across all nations and to achieve the SDGs worldwide.
The document provides an overview of the OECD's work on environmental issues from 2013-2014. It discusses the OECD's peer reviews of countries' environmental performance, indicators and outlooks projecting future environmental trends. Specific areas of focus include climate change, biodiversity, water issues, eco-innovation, environmental policy tools and sectoral policies related to transport and agriculture. The OECD aims to promote sustainable economic growth that balances environmental, economic and social considerations.
These are the supporting materials used by the different speakers of the H2020 WHY project opening session. This evento was held on September 10, 2020.
Countries across the OECD have developed ambitious plans for STI policy to contribute to socio-technical transitions as the world recovers from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These plans contain a broad variety of policy goals and instruments designed to support STI in a changing global environment, to tackle new and growing challenges in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and to apply new tools and approaches to STI policy making, especially digital tools, that emerged in the context of the pandemic.
This document discusses the role of social and environmental accounting research in times of sustainability crisis. It argues that lack of humanity, short-term thinking, and misuse of concepts like sustainable development have contributed to the current crisis. Researchers are urged to critically reflect on sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporting to help transform attitudes and behaviors. The document also notes tensions between sustainability and CSR, with CSR potentially co-opting the sustainability agenda. It calls on academics to enhance sustainability education and explore ways to improve organizational accountability and transparency.
This document discusses how political psychology could pay more attention to social and psychological processes involved in responses to innovative laws, particularly those related to sustainability and environmental protection. It argues that different types of legal innovation exist and mobilize different acceptance and resistance processes. The document outlines conceptual tools for examining how people and groups receive legal innovation, drawing on social representation theory and environmental psychology. It proposes a typology of legal innovation based on three criteria: whether the law directly binds individuals or governments, its target (behaviors or intergroup relations), and whether it regulates private or public spheres. Examples are provided from sustainability laws to illustrate differences in acceptance and resistance processes for different types of legal innovation.
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1) The document discusses CSR and sustainability in business, highlighting studies that show a positive relationship between CSR commitment and financial performance.
2) It also discusses socially responsible investing (SRI) which takes into account environmental, social, and governance issues, such as climate change risk management. SRI assets are growing in Europe, led by France and the UK.
3) The final section discusses Italy's CSR Observatory website which contains over 2,000 business case studies in CSR categorized by issues like community partnership and environmental management. It also mentions the EU setting new 2030 targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency.
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This document summarizes and evaluates methodologies for assessing the social and economic sustainability impacts of building materials. It reviews lifecycle assessment and other environmental methodologies, finding limited tools for social and economic measures. The paper explores applying existing standards like the Global Reporting Initiative and ISO 26000 to building materials in South Africa. It concludes that while current tools provide a starting point, no system fully supports standardized social and economic impact assessments for building products. A new index approach is proposed to fill this gap.
This document discusses frameworks and indices for assessing sustainability. It begins by introducing common types of sustainability assessment tools, focusing on indicators and indices. It then outlines several widely-used sustainability frameworks, including the Triple Bottom Line framework and pressure-state-response model. Next, it describes the process for constructing sustainability indices, including selecting indicators, standardizing data, assigning weights, and aggregating the results. It notes that indicator selection and weighting are often inconsistent due to a lack of standardized requirements. Finally, it argues that sustainability frameworks can effectively guide indicator selection for both standalone indicators and composite indices.
This document proposes a methodological approach for assessing the sustainability of development cooperation projects that involve built innovations. It begins by discussing the need for sustainability assessments and the lack of agreement on what sustainability means. It then reviews how sustainability is defined in the development sector versus scientific disciplines. The proposed approach uses nine impact categories based on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals to assess projects. It applies the concepts of life cycle assessment and life cycle thinking to evaluate impacts over the full life cycles of the project and its built innovation. The goal is to provide a holistic analysis of both positive and negative social, economic and environmental impacts. The method is intended to be tested on a case study of improved cooking stoves in Bangladesh.
Global sustainability is becoming an increasingly important issue, as evidenced by the
numerous conferences of the UN and its sister organizations with worldwide participation. The goal is a critical
inventory of the desirable goals, as well as the questioning of the current status quo and the procedure. There
are obvious gaps that will be briefly discussed
Renewable Energy Cooperatives (RECs) are proven
to be significant building blocks in the energy
transition away from fossil fuels towards renewable
energy. The process of forming these RECs is
professionalising, but scientific literature on Action
plans to follow is limited. This paper sets out to
research if there is value for design in tackling the
formation of RECs and if so, which design methods
should be used. Through a three case study
approach which compare the formation process of
these three Dutch RECs it is found that all three
follow the same process as laid out in the Action
plan. Since this action plan encompasses design
methods, it can be argued that indeed there is a
place for design in facilitating the formation of
RECs.
Facing the future: Sense-making in Horizon ScanningTotti Könnölä
The document summarizes a conference on horizon scanning and sense-making. It discusses how horizon scanning involves collecting observations of potential future developments and deriving policy implications. Sense-making is inseparable from scanning and involves perceiving, interpreting and constructing meaning from emerging trends. The case study described a horizon scanning exercise where 381 issues were identified, assessed, and synthesized into cross-cutting challenges to inform EU policymaking recommendations on sustainability, social changes, and governance.
This document discusses sustainable competitiveness among nations. It begins by summarizing two approaches to measuring competitiveness - the US Council on Competitiveness, which focuses on productivity outputs, and the World Economic Forum, which examines facilitating factors or inputs. It then discusses how sustainability refers to avoiding degradation of natural resources and social conditions. Sustainable development meets present and future needs through innovation. The UN adopted 17 Sustainable Development Goals in 2015. The document argues sustainability requires ongoing innovation and technology upgrading. It supports the World Economic Forum's approach of examining sustainability impacts for individual technologies. It will measure sustainable competitiveness outputs through a joint productivity/sustainability index, and inputs through the Forum's 12 competitiveness pillars.
The Schumacher Institute submitted evidence to the Inclusive Growth Commission regarding the need to integrate sustainability objectives into policies aimed at inclusive growth. They note that the Commission's findings are almost completely silent on the need for economic development to be sustainable. Integrating sustainability is essential to ensure Britain works for everyone and the planet. The evidence discusses tools like the Planetary Boundaries framework and the UN Sustainable Development Goals that can help policymakers address equity and environmental limits simultaneously. It also highlights examples of sustainable business models and resilience thinking that could guide more inclusive and sustainable economic development.
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This document discusses sustainable development from several perspectives. It begins by defining key terms related to sustainability and the environment. It then explains the three pillars of sustainability - environmental, social, and economic. Several objectives are outlined related to justifying the relationship between energy and environment, relating the pillars of sustainability to development categories, and examining challenges faced by different countries in achieving sustainable development. The document also provides historical context on the development of sustainable development as a concept over time. It analyzes China and Japan's approaches to sustainable development and renewable energy. Finally, it discusses the roles of different sectors - government, church, media, and academia - in working towards sustainable development goals.
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This document discusses the relationship between innovation and energy efficiency as it relates to sustainable development. It begins by defining key concepts like sustainable development, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. It then examines how technological innovation and the use of renewable energy can help foster sustainable development by reducing environmental impacts and promoting socioeconomic development. Specifically, it explores how renewable energy and energy efficiency in agriculture can contribute to the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability in Tunisia.
The document summarizes the objectives and tasks of WP2 for the Converge project, which aims to develop the concept of convergence across social, economic, and ecological systems in the context of globalization. WP2 will establish definitions and baselines around convergence and divergence, review sustainability frameworks, evaluate global trends, and identify opportunities to enhance convergence. It outlines the deliverables and draft work plan through month 24. It also introduces key concepts like Contraction and Convergence for climate change and discusses existing sustainability frameworks like The Natural Step and Five Capitals approach.
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This document discusses methods for calculating a carbon footprint as a measure of sustainability. It defines key concepts like sustainable development and carbon footprint. It then examines various methodologies for calculating a carbon footprint, including basic per capita estimates, supply chain/process analysis, input-output analysis, and multi-regional input-output analysis using databases like WIOD. The document argues that MRIO analysis using household consumption data provides the best approach because it can account for trade flows and identify the impacts of key factors like trade, socioeconomics, geography, and consumerism on sustainability.
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Seven principles of sustainable resource management are outlined: 1) secure adequate supply of resources, 2) maintain ecosystem functions, 3) provide for basic institutions, 4) minimize risks from resource dependence, 5) contribute to fair distribution, 6) minimize problem shifting, 7) drive higher resource productivity than GDP growth. The EU has implemented various policies and strategies towards sustainable resource management including the Thematic Strategy on Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe, and the Circular Economy Action Plan. The ultimate goals are to decouple economic growth from environmental impacts and resource use.
1- Introduce your environmental issue and your purpose of analysis.docxmonicafrancis71118
1- Introduce your environmental issue and your purpose of analysis of the impacts the issue has created and what is being done to help this issue (solutions).
2- Develop a background paragraph of the issue - the history of its development, its current situation, and its size and scope.
3- Develop a paragraph for each impact this environmental issue has on the world, explaining the impact and providing evidence of this impact from sources. (3 parghs)
4- Develop an analysis paragraph for each solution that is being used or developed – explaining the solution clearly, and discussing how this will impact the problem, discussing the impact and limitations of the solution.
5- Develop a clear conclusion summarizing your analysis process and insights gleaned from your analysis.
Reporting on long-term value creation by Canadian companies: A
longitudinal assessment
Petra F.A. Dilling a, *, Peter Harris b
a School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, 701 W Georgia St., Vancouver, BC V7Y 1K8, Canada
b School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, 26West 61st Street, New York, NY, NY 10023, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 30 August 2017
Received in revised form
21 January 2018
Accepted 27 March 2018
Available online 27 April 2018
Keywords:
Long-term value creation
Integrated reporting
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
Canadian extractive sector
Sustainability
Stakeholders
a b s t r a c t
In the wake of the global financial crisis, a new wave of stakeholder demands has developed calling on
companies to shift focus towards long-term value creation and moving away from a short-term earnings
emphasis. Aligned with these demands, urgent calls for more transparency and improved reporting on
both financial as well as non-financial reports have been made. The objective of this study was to analyze
longitudinal disclosure quality and quantity trends in reporting on long-term value creation of 19
publicly traded Canadian energy and mining companies. Content analysis was conducted in order to
assess disclosure on long-term value creation in annual financial and sustainability reports. The empirical
results show that the companies experienced a substantial increase in the reporting disclosure quality
and quantity. This was true for both disclosure in the annual financial reports as well as in the sus-
tainability reports. These results supported the hypotheses that Canadian public energy and mining
companies had increased their quantity and quality of long-term value creation disclosure in 2014 as
compared to 2012. Even though increases in disclosure quality could be observed (especially in the areas
of governance, responsible work practices, outside relationships and risk management), overall disclo-
sure quality (especially in areas such as connectivity between financials and sustainability sections,
materiality analysis, projects with high climate risk exposure, cost of energy, responsible work practices,
ince.
Consideration of Conformity Assessment for the Circular Economy.pdfDr. Monideep Dey
The post-COVID recovery offers an opportunity to reverse unsustainable economic trends and build back better, to promote sustainable consumption and production as laid out in SDG 12 and transition to a circular, more resilient and low-carbon economy. Nations are developing a circular economy in the context of the Paris Agreement, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the United Nations Call for Action on Adaption and Resilience. ISO, UNECE and other international standards organizations are developing a number of standards that are essential in supporting the climate agenda; they help adapt to climate change, quantify greenhouse gas emissions and promote the dissemination of good practices in environmental management.
A critical element to ensure the achievement of sustainable develop goals is the assessment of conformity and accountability that such goals are being achieved and in a manner consistent with all the SDGs. Although this document reports specifically on conformity assessment for the Circular Economy that is aimed to serve UN SDG12 – Responsible consumption and production, and also UN SDG-13, Climate action, many concepts and methods discussed here will be applicable more broadly in the implementation of all SDGs.
International Standards also play a crucial role in underpinning the global economy, and creating trust on all aspects of international trade. In the past, advanced economies have been the main participants in the development of international standards with participants from the transition and developing economies only playing a minor role. This paper emphasizes that issues important to developing and transition economies such as those for social and environmental concerns should be addressed in international standards for them to have broad benefit across all nations and to achieve the SDGs worldwide.
The document provides an overview of the OECD's work on environmental issues from 2013-2014. It discusses the OECD's peer reviews of countries' environmental performance, indicators and outlooks projecting future environmental trends. Specific areas of focus include climate change, biodiversity, water issues, eco-innovation, environmental policy tools and sectoral policies related to transport and agriculture. The OECD aims to promote sustainable economic growth that balances environmental, economic and social considerations.
These are the supporting materials used by the different speakers of the H2020 WHY project opening session. This evento was held on September 10, 2020.
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2. 2 Economics Research International
the difference between current conditions of a society and a the people’s living conditions. The Brundtland Commission
reference situation defined as sustainable [13]. Sustainability wrote in 1987: “Energy is necessary for daily survival. Future
indicator systems contain a certain number of indicators that development crucially depends on its long-term availability”
serve to measure the functioning and the interdependence [17]. Furthermore, the database for the energy sector was
of the analyzed system, and they enable us to measure and most suitable for demonstrating our new research method.
evaluate the consequences of this interaction. They can be We selected the 15 energy indicators (Table 1) from the
used to analyze ecological, economic, and social goals in the German Sustainability Strategy which can be allocated to the
overall system as well as in the subsystem. three pillars of sustainability: the environmental aspects of
As a result of the UN test phase, in which Germany the energy system are defined by eight indicators (air qua-
worked intensively with its UN partners, Germany also lity, emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide), SO2 (sulfur diox-
decided to develop a more pillar-oriented sustainability ide), NOx (nitrogen oxide), CO (carbon monoxide), dust,
strategy in preparation for the Johannesburg Conference NMVOC (nonmethane volatile organic compounds), and
in 2002. The new sustainability strategy was known as NH3 (ammonia). The social aspects are described by one
“Perspectives for Germany” [14] and contained a number indicator (employment in the energy sector), and six indi-
of indicators and targets for almost all indicators. Whereas cators (energy productiveness, energy raw material produc-
a lot of research has been dedicated to the pros and cons of tiveness, renewable energy as a share of primary energy
these concepts, to the shaping of the pillars, their indicators consumption, renewable energy as a share of electricity
and the adequate goals of sustainable development, quite production, transport intensity of passenger transport, and
surprisingly, research on standardized methods to aggregate transport intensity of goods transport) describe the eco-
the indicators to one index is lacking. nomic aspects of sustainability in the energy sector. For these
Therefore, the basic idea of our index (Index of Sustain- indicators, the Federal Government defines quantitative
able Development) is to help close this research gap and to goals in their sustainability strategy and these goals were used
define an aggregated index concept for the multidimensional for the analysis of the energy system.
sustainability concepts in order to generate clear measure- In the following, we will measure whether the develop-
ment results, such as the case with the GDP, in sustainability ment of the energy sector is sustainable according to the goals
science. We will also demonstrate that it is necessary to define set by the German government. To this end, we would like
the sustainability goals and the database and, in particular, to to draw conclusions from the economic theory of individual
define the calculation method explicitly. We have selected the welfare measurement.
German sustainability strategy for our analysis.
2. Measuring Sustainability in the
1.2. Sustainability Strategy of the German Government. Based Energy Sector
on the multidimensional UN sustainability concept, the
German Federal Government defined in 2002 a quantitative 2.1. Comparing the Politically Defined and the Derived
sustainable development strategy for Germany [14]. In Sustainability Order. The sustainability order of a society can
preparation for the Rio+10 Conference in Johannesburg, the be derived from the observable market and societal actions
German Federal Government sought to fulfill its obligations of households, enterprises, and institutions and reveals their
entered into at the United Nations Conference on Envi- true preferences for sustainability, thereby allowing implicit
ronment and Development. At that conference, States had conclusions to be drawn about the significance sustainability
committed themselves to creating the necessary institutional has for society. This approach is related to the theory of the
conditions for the integration of sustainability concepts into individual welfare measurement, where a welfare measure is
national policies and compiling a national sustainability an instrument for drawing conclusions from the observable
strategy [15]. The Sustainability Strategy of the German market actions of the consumers about their unobservable
Government defines a sustainable order for Germany on the preference order [18–26]. This derived societal sustainability
basis of the following four key issues [14]: order has to be compared with the politically defined
sustainability order of, in our case, the German Federal
(1) intergenerational equity,
Government. The sustainability indicators therefore have the
(2) quality of life, function of measuring the difference between the derived
(3) social cohesion, observable sustainable order and the politically defined
order. The difference between these sustainable orders is
(4) international responsibility.
the sustainability gap, determining the degree to which the
The Government set up indicators and sustainability go- development of society is (un)sustainable.
als for these key issues. Twenty-one topics and 34 indicators However, it should be noted that the sustainability order
(see the Appendix) were chosen to measure the sustainability is always normatively defined and an objective assessment
of the Government’s policy [14]. This sustainable strategy free of values and ethical assumptions is impossible [27, 28].
was the first attempt by the German Federal Government to Sustainability always refers to the fact that state and society
define a quantitative sustainable order for Germany [16]. have to discuss and determine what they understand by
We will concentrate our analysis on the energy indicators “good” societal sustainable development and what meaning
of this sustainability strategy because of the importance of the three pillars of sustainability (economics, social, and
energy for sustainable development and the improvement of ecology) therefore have for sustainable development.
3. Economics Research International 3
Table 1: Sustainability energy indicators for Germany.
Sustainability indicators for Germany
1997 1998 1999 2000 2004 2006 2010 2015 2020 2050
(1) Energy and raw materials productivity
(1994 = 100)
Energy 120 160 200
Raw materials 117 158 200
(2) Emissions of the six greenhouse gases
covered by the Kyoto Protocol 81 79
(1990 = 100)
(3) Proportion of energy consumption from
renewable energy
in % primary energy consumption 2 4
in % electricity consumption 6 13 50
(4) Mobility
Transport intensity 1999 = 100
Passenger traffic 100 90 78
Goods traffic 100 98 95
(5) Air quality, 1990 = 100
Air Quality 54 52 30
NOx 54 52 30
SO2 54 52 30
CO 54 52 30
Dust 54 52 30
NMVOC 54 52 30
NH3 54 52 30
(6) Employment
Employment rate in % 65.4 70
Source: [14] IEF-STE 2011
2.2. Index of Sustainable Development (ISD): Measuring the where n defines the single indicator and N defines the
Sustainability in the German Energy Sector. Within the scope total number of all indicators. Every indicator In therefore
of the sustainability measurement, sustainability can be documents an aspect that the Federal Government considers
measured as a quotient of two linear functions, which relate as important for sustainable development in the energy
the indicator and its objective, set by the government, to sector.
the real development of this indicator, representing the Figure 1 presents our concept in an abstract manner. The
observable market actions of the consumers. For this analysis figures given do not represent real values but are used to
of sustainability measurements, we developed the index of clarify the concept.
sustainable development (ISD). As Figure 1 shows, the single indicators of the ISD
The ISD calculates the degree to which a society is measure the sustainability gap, that is, the difference between
in accord with the sustainability goals defined by the the “area” in Figure 1 defined as sustainable by the defined
government. The ISD combines the chosen indicators (In ) sustainability goals and the “area” of the derived, aggregated
the government has perceived as important for sustainable preferences of society. If these areas match, the defined and
development of the energy sector: the derived sustainability order coincide. However, they may
n
differ: society can lag behind the politically defined sustain-
ISD = In , n = 1, . . . , N, (1) ability targets (unsustainable area), or it may outperform
n=1 these targets. We call this a sustainability surplus. We ill
4. 4 Economics Research International
Concept of the indicator of sustainable development (In )
(In , ISD ≥ 1), the development is sustainable according to
110
Explicit sustainability
110 the government’s predefined order.
105 order of government Every element (In ) of the sustainability index reveals
Unsustainable
real area progress and challenges to a pursuit of sustainable develop-
100 100
Implicit sustainability
ment, and it demonstrates where political action is needed
95 order of society Sustainable to achieve sustainable development (orientation function of
surplus
90 90 the ISD). The ISD summarizes the single indicators (In ) to a
85 superordinate indicator and calculates the degree to which
80 80 sustainable development has been achieved or not in the
energy sector.
75
We chose this type of index because the various energy-
70 70 related indicators of the German sustainable development
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
strategy reveal a very heterogeneous picture of the develop-
Time period, t
ment of the German energy sector, and this heterogeneity
Figure 1: Concept of the indicators in the index of sustainable is difficult to aggregate and to communicate to the public.
development. Source IEF-STE 2011. (this figure does not represent An overall indicator makes clear to the public how all the
real values but makes the concept clear.) different aspects of the energy sector develop together. Thus
the overall sustainability index can be interpreted as a balance
sheet of the energy sector, which summarizes the different
aspects of the sector. The use of this index has the advantage
later address the importance of handling this surplus in the that the sustainability of a specific development can be
context of our ISD. analyzed in a three-step hierarchical procedure:
The two areas can be examined in relation to each
other with the definite integral above the respective area. (i) in the first step, one determines the development
Thus, it can be determined whether the development is of the single indicator and examines whether, for
sustainable for this indicator. Therefore, the development example, carbon dioxide emissions are in line with
of the sustainability indicator can be determined over time the sustainability objectives;
t = 1, . . . , T:
(ii) in the second step, one determines the development
T
f (t) of the single pillar;
t =1
Area 1 (iii) in the third step, one determines whether the total
In (t) = T , t = 1, . . . , T. (2) system is developing in a sustainable manner.
t =1 g(t)
Area 2 In every step, this procedure therefore delivers informa-
tion on the level of sustainability that has been attained and
The following equation elucidates the relationship between
offers political decision makers information on the analyzed
the (implicit) sustainability order derived from social activ-
system that could be used to develop measures and instru-
ities and the defined sustainability order of the German
ments, which counteract undesired unsustainable trends.
Federal Government:
In the following section, we will calculate the single
In (t) indicators of the three pillars of the German sustainability
concept according to the equation given above and thereby
T determine the change of the indicators over time.
t =1 XReal (t)
Real-Area
= T , t = 1, . . . , T 2.3. Measuring the Single Indicators. In the first step of the
t =1 XSD (t) analysis, we will examine whether every single indicator
SD-Area develops in a sustainable manner. In this context, the ques-
tion has to be answered of how an overfulfillment of sustain-
Real order implicit sustainability order of society ability goals should be interpreted. The sustainability concept
= .
Explict sustainability order of the government of the Federal Government does not offer a method for solv-
(3) ing this problem, as the Government does not define the area
above the sustainability target line (sustainable surplus; see
Or for a linearized function, as will be used in the following: Figure 1). In the following section, we offer two interpreta-
tions of how this area could be treated: sustainability surplus
T
t =1 (XReal + a(t))dt compensation and sine sustainability surplus compensation.
In (t) = T ≥ 1, t = 1, . . . , T. (4)
t =1 (XSD + a(t))dt
2.3.1. Sine Sustainability Surplus Compensation (SSSC).
Hence, the indicator In (t) measures the sustainability of a SSSC means that an overfulfillment of the sustainability goal
system over a certain time period t = 1, . . . T and not just is simply interpreted as meeting the sustainability target.
at a certain date. If the index is greater than or equal to one Therefore, an overfulfillment of a sustainability indicator
5. Economics Research International 5
cannot compensate for the underfulfillment of another j = columns, M = number of indicators n in a sustainability
sustainability target. pillar.
With the assumption of sine sustainability surplus com-
pensation, we obtain the following equation: 2.4.2. Equal Indicator Method. In the second procedure, all
indicators are treated equally whatever number of indicators
F(n) actual results
xn = = u. d. N, xn ≥ 1 −→ xn = 1, may be in one pillar. Therefore, the three pillars are not
SDG (n) sustainability treated equally if the number of indicators differs. For the
n = 1, . . . , N.
(5) calculation of the equal indicator method, we obtain the
following formula:
This means that all indicator values above 1 are interpreted
as 1: the indicator meets its sustainability target. F(n)
xn = u. d. N, xn ≥ 1 −→ xn = 1,
2.3.2. Sustainability Surplus Compensation (SSC). If SSC SDG (n)
is allowed, the overfulfillment of one indicator could be ⎛ ⎞ (8)
N
1
completely compensated by one or more underperforming ISD = ⎝ xn ⎠ · .
indicators. n=1
N
This concept can be described by the following equation:
For the calculation of the superordinate indicator ISD by the
F(n)
xn = u. d. N, xn ≥ 1 −→ xn = 1, n = 1, . . . , N. equal indicator method the sum of all single indicators is
SDG (n)
divided by the total number of single indicators.
(6)
In the following section we will carry out the calculations
Thus, both compensation methods (SSSC, SSC) define the for 15 indicators which we selected for the energy sector from
guardrails and the degree of freedom a system has in the the German sustainability strategy.
pursuit of sustainable development. If SSC is permitted, the
sustainability goal could probably be achieved more easily:
distinct improvements of one indicator can compensate for 3. Results of Sustainability Measurement
the weaknesses of a different indicator. This procedure is
Our linear regression model is based on data from German
implicitly oriented towards the concept of weak sustainability
institutions [29–34]. Based on this model analysis, the
[4], which allows compensation between nature, human
index of sustainable development (ISD) is calculated by
capital, and artificial capital as long as the capital stock is at
summarizing the single indicators to form an overall index.
least constant.
We use both the equal indicator method and the equal pillar
For the political implementation of the sustainability
method, and we make a distinction between sine sustainabil-
approach, the SSC means that the need for political action
ity surplus compensation (SSSC) and sustainability surplus
and control may be reduced and that the microcontrol
compensation (SSC). The results are summarized in Table 2.
of individual circumstances represented by the individual
For the first step of our calculation method, we can con-
indicators is not always necessary. The implementation of the
clude for the single indicators that five indicators (employ-
sustainability strategy does not necessarily require every indi-
ment, SO2 emissions, CO emissions, NMVOC emissions,
cator to meet its targets if there are sufficient indicators with
and fine dust) of the German energy system are developing
a sustainability surplus. For SSSC, the reverse will hold. This
in a sustainable way and that ten indicators (energy produc-
concept implicitly follows strong sustainability [4], where
tivity, energy raw material productivity, renewable energy on
artificial capital cannot substitute the natural endowments.
primary energy production, renewable energy on electricity
In the following section we combine the single indicators
consumption, passenger and goods traffic, CO2 emissions,
to the superordinate index of sustainable development. For
NOx emissions, NH3 emissions, and air quality) are not
this transformation we can use two different procedures: the
meeting the sustainability goals of the German Government.
equal pillar and the equal indicator methods.
In the second step, for the development of the three
2.4. Measuring the Index of Sustainable Development pillars of sustainability, we detected a basic pattern, despite
the heterogeneity of the results. The economic pillar does
2.4.1. Equal Pillar Method. In the equal pillar method the not develop in a sustainable way regardless of the calculation
three pillars are treated equally; however, many indicators the method, whereas the social pillar develops in a sustainable
pillar may have. Therefore the equivalence of the indicators way even with different calculation methods. The ecological
and the three pillars can only be achieved at the same time if pillar shows a more inhomogeneous picture. In the case
the number of indicators is the same for all three pillars. If the of the sustainability surplus compensation method, the
indicators are not equally distributed, this leads to a different ecological pillar develops in a sustainable way, whereas in
weighting of the three pillars by the assessment of sustainable the case of sine sustainability surplus compensation the
development with the index of sustainable development: ecological pillar does not develop in a sustainable way.
F(n) In the third step, we found a heterogeneous development
xn = u. d. N,
SDG (n) of the energy system.
3 M (7)
n=1 xn 3.1. Equal Indicator Method. Table 2 shows that, under the
ISDtotal = ,
j =1
3 assumption of sustainability surplus compensation and by
6. 6 Economics Research International
Table 2: Results of the index of sustainable development in the energy sector.
Calculation of the index of sustainable development in the energy sector
Equal indicator method Equal pillar method
SSC SSSC SSC SSSC
Economic
Energy productivity 0.881 0.881 0.881 0.881
Energy raw material productivity 0.520 0.520 0.520 0.520
Renewable energy
on primary energy production 0.895 0.895 0.895 0.895
on electricity consumption 0.930 0.930 0.930 0.930
Transport intensity
Passenger traffic 0.983 0.983 0.983 0.983
Goods traffic 0.925 0.925 0.925 0.925
Total 5.134 5.134 5.134 5.134
Total ISD economic 0.856 0.856 0.856 0.856
Social
Employment 1.330 1.000 1.330 1.000
Total ISD social 1.330 1.000 1.330 1.000
Ecological
CO2 0.920 0.920 0.920 0.920
NOx 0.970 0.970 0.970 0.970
SO2 1.550 1.000 1.550 1.000
CO 1.180 1.000 1.180 1.000
Fine dust 3.096 1.000 3.096 1.000
NMVOC 1.180 1.000 1.180 1.000
NH3 0.870 0.870 0.870 0.870
Air quality 0.960 0.960 0.960 0.960
Total 10.726 7.720 10.73 7.72
Total ISD ecological 1.341 0.965 1.341 0.965
Total 17.1899 13.8542 17.1899 13.8542
Total ISD 1.1460 0.9236 1.1755 0.9402
IEF-STE 2011
using the equal indicator method, the development of the indicator, then the development of the German energy sector
energy sector can be considered as sustainable, because the is not sustainable, as the equation shows:
ISD is greater than one:
ISDSSSC
EI
ISDSSC
EI
= ISDEf + ISDER + ISDRP + ISDRS + ISDPkm + ISDtkm + ISDEE
= ISDEf + ISDER + ISDRP + ISDRS + ISDPkm + ISDtkm + ISDEE
+ ISDCO2 + ISDNOx + ISDCO ISDSO2 + ISDDust + ISDAir + ISDCO2 + ISDNOx + ISDCO ISDSO2 + ISDDust + ISDAir
1 1
+INMVOC + INH3 · = 1.1460, +INMVOC + INH3 · = 0.9236.
15 15
(10)
ISDSSC
EI > 1.
(9) In the case of the index value of 0.9236, the implicit order
of society achieved the explicit order of the government only
It can be concluded from an index value of 1.1460 that the with 92%.
implicit order of society has overfulfilled the explicit order
by about 14.6%. 3.2. Equal Pillar Method. If one applies the equal pillar
If one assumes that underfulfillment of an indicator can- method, a different picture emerges. If sustainability surplus
not be compensated for through overfulfillment of another compensation is allowed, then the energy system is on a
7. Economics Research International 7
Table 3: Sustainability indicators of the German government: intergenerational equity.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2004 2006 2010 2015 2020 2050
(I) Intergenerational equity
(1) Energy and raw materials productivity
(1994 = 100)
Energy 120 160 200
Raw materials 117 158 200
(2) Emissions of the six greenhouse gases
81.13 79
covered by the Kyoto Protocol (1990 = 100)
(3) Proportion of energy consumption from
renewable energy
in % primary energy consumption 2.1 4.2
in % electricity consumption 6.3 12.5 50
(4) Land use for housing and transport: increase
129 30
in ha per day
(5) Development of stocks of selected animal
98.2 95.4
species (1995 = 100)
(6) Public finance deficit: in % of GDP 1.6 1.3 0.5 0
(7) Provision for future economic stability: gross
22.6 22.5
capital formation in relation to GDP
(8) Innovation: private and public expenditure on
2.45 2.46 3
research and development
(9) Education and training
25-year olds having completed education 6 9.5
Those leaving secondary school without
9 4
qualifications
University entrance rate 30.2 40
Source: [14] IEK-STE 2011
sustainable development path: In this case, the implicit order of society has missed the
explicit order of the government.
1 1 1 We can therefore summarize that, if the sustainability
ISDSSC = ISDEcon + ISDSoz + ISDEco ,
EP
3 3 3 surplus compensation concept is allowed, it can be demon-
strated with both methods—the equal pillar and the equal
M1 M2 M3
1 i=1 Ii 1 i=1 Ii 1 i=1 Ii indicator—that the German energy system is developing in
ISDSSC =
EP + +
3 M1 3 M2 3 M3 a sustainable direction according to the sustainability goals
⎡ ⎤ set by the German Government. If sustainability surplus
3 Mj
1 j =1 i=1 Ii, j (11) compensation is not allowed, then we see that the energy
= ⎣ ⎦ = 1.1755 sector is developing in an unsustainable direction according
3 Mj
to both calculation methods.
1
ISDSSC = (0.856 + 1.33 + 1.341) = 1.1755,
EP 4. Conclusions: The Three Steps to
3
Measure Sustainability
ISDSSC > 1.
EP
We have shown that it is possible to aggregate sustainability
The implicit order of society has overfulfilled the explicit indicators to one single overall index. The ISD enables us to
order by about 17%. define in a single index whether a system or its subsystems,
If sustainability surplus compensation (SSSC) is not described by a multipillar indicator sustainability system, are
accepted, then the energy system is not sustainable: sustainable or not. A prerequisite for the application of ISD
is defined indicators and targets.
1 To exemplify the method we have applied, we answer
ISDSSSC = (0.856 + 1.0 + 0.965) = 0.9402,
EP the question of whether the German energy sector is
3 (12) developing in a sustainable manner. Our approach helps
ISDSSSC
EP < 1. to understand where political action is needed in order to
8. 8 Economics Research International
Table 4: Sustainability indicators of the German government: quality of life.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2004 2006 2010 2015 2020
(II) Quality of life
(10) Economic prosperity
GDP per capita in 1995 prices 23281 23950
(11) Mobility
Transport intensity 1999 = 100
Passenger traffic 100 90 78
Goods traffic 100 98 95
Proportion of freight transported by rail 15% 25%
Proportion of inland shipping 8% 14%
(12) Nutrition
Proportion of organic farming in % 3.2 20
Nitrogen surplus (kg/ha) 116.6 80
(13) Air quality
Concentration of air pollution 1990 = 100 54 52 30
(14) Health
Premature mortality (below 65)
Women 150
Men 300
Satisfaction with health
Men 6.6
Women 6.4
(15) Crime
Burglaries involving a break-in 140000 126000
Source: [14] IEK-STE 2011
Table 5: Sustainability indicators of the German government: social cohesion.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2004 2006 2010 2015 2020
(III) Social cohesion
(16) Employment
Employment rate 65,4 70
(17) Prospects for families
Full-time day-care facilities in the West German L¨ nder
a
0–3 years 2,2 30
3–6.5 years 16,3 30
6.5–12.5 years 3,4 30
(18) Equal opportunities
Comparison of gross annual earnings from fulltime
employment (women and men aged between 35 and 39, 76 85
West German L¨ nder)
a
(19) Integration of foreign citizens
Foreign school leavers without secondary school-leaving 17,1 17 16,7 16,1 9
Certificate
Source: [14] IEK-STE 2011
9. Economics Research International 9
Table 6: Sustainability indicators of the German government: international responsibility.
1997 1998 1999 2000 2004 2006 2010 2015 2020
(IV) International responsibility
(20) Public development cooperation (in % GDP) 0.27 0.33
(21) Open markets
EU imports from developing countries (EUR billion) 263 268 304 420
Source: [14] IEK-STE 2011
achieve sustainable development. However, as demonstrated Appendix
with the ISD, different calculation methods can result in a
different assessment of sustainability, as the assessment of Key Themes and Indicators of the German
the performance of a country would differ depending on Sustainability Strategy
whether it was measured by the GDP or the MEW.
Despite the heterogeneity of the results, a basic pat- For intergenerational equity, see Table 3. For quality of life,
tern is visible in the energy sector. The economic pillar see Table 4. For social cohesion, see Table 5. For international
does not develop in a sustainable way, regardless of the responsibility, see Table 6.
calculation method, whereas the social pillar develops in a
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