Importance of Sustainable Development Indicators Ted Heintz Department of the Interior Office of Policy Analysis

1
Importance of Sustainable Development
IndicatorsTed HeintzDepartment of the
InteriorOffice of Policy Analysis
2
Some History

• Sustainability, achieved through the processes of
  Sustainable Development, has emerged as an
  important goal over the last 20 years.
• In 1987, the Brundtland Commission Report, Our
  Common Future put forward the concept of
  Sustainable Development as development that
• meets the needs of the current generation
• while not compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their needs.

3
Roles of National Indicators of Sustainable
Development

• To provide information for decision making.
• high level decisions
• management decisions
• daily life decisions
• To provide feedback needed for sustainable
  development.
• developing a shared understanding of the
  consequences of millions of actions.

4
Indicators Provide Feedback that Steers Social
and Economic Action

• Promote social learning shared understanding and
  broader agreement about what needs to be done.
• Promote evolution of management processes by
  showing what works and what doesnt.

5
The process of indicator development is as
valuable as the indicators we produce.

• Experts, decision makers, and the public should
  work together in a participatory process.
• Indicator selection is a process that requires
  broader concensus on goals.
• We are what we measure. We need to measure what
  we want to be.
• We are more likely to become what we can agree to
  measure. We need to agree on what we want to
  become.

6
Roles of Performance Measures for Sustainability

• To provide accountability in the operation of
  government programs with objectives relevant to
  sustainability.
• To provide feedback in order to promote learning
  about what works and what doesnt.
• To measure the contribution of specific programs
  to national progress toward sustainability.

7
The National SDI Framework

• What We Are Trying to Assess?
• What is Sustainability?

8
Consistent with the Brundtland definition,

• Sustainability is the condition in which we are
  reasonably confident that
• As we are meeting the needs (and wants) of the
  current generation, we are also
• Passing along to future generations sufficient
  means for them to meet their needs (and wants).

9
(No Transcript)
10
Focusing on Future Generations by Measuring
Endowments

• The SDI Framework includes indicators for all our
  Endowments
• all of the stocks and productive capacities we
  draw upon to meet our needs and then pass along
  to the future.
• economic or produced capital and infrastructure.
• environmental or natural capital.
• social capital.
• We are the Trustees of our Endowments.

11
Long Term Endowments Liabilities
Economic Environmental Social
Capital Assets Surface Water Quality U.S. Population
Labor Productivity Acres of Major Terrestrial Ecosystems Children Living in Families with Only One Parent Present
Federal Debt to GDP Ratio Contaminants in Biota Teacher Training Level and Application of Qualifications
Quantity of Spent Nuclear Fuel
Status of Stratospheric Ozone
Greenhouse Climate Response Index
12
Focusing on Future Generations by Measuring
Endowment Changes

• The SDI Framework includes indicators for
  Processes
• including the Driving Forces that change our
  Endowments.
• depreciation and investment in produced capital.
• depletion and augmentation of natural resource
  stocks.
• degradation and restoration of natural systems.
• building social capital.

13
Processes
Economic Environmental Social
Energy Consumption(per Capita and per of GDP) Ratio of Renewable Water Supply to Withdrawals Contributing Time Money to Charities
Materials Consumption (per Capita and per of GDP) Fisheries Utilization Births to Single Mothers
Inflation Invasive Alien Species Educational Attainment by Level
Investment in RD ( of GDP) Conversion of Cropland to Other Uses Participation in the Arts Recreation
Soil Erosion Rates People in Census Tracts with 40 or Greater Poverty
Timber Growth to Removals Balance
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Identification Management of Superfund Sites
14
Focusing on Meeting Current Needs

• The SDI Framework includes indicators for Current
  Outputs and Results.
• economic goods and services that people use to
  meet their needs and wants.
• environmental services that meet peoples needs
  and wants.
• experiences people have through social
  relationships that met their needs and wants.
• The SDI Framework provides an opportunity to
  measure output and the resulting satisfaction of
  needs and wants separately

15
Current Results
Economic Environmental Social
Domestic Product Metropolitan Air Quality Nonattainment Crime Rate
Income Distribution Outdoor Recreational Activites Life Expectancy at Birth
Consumption Expenditures Per Capita Educational Achievement Rates
Unemployment
Homeownership Rates
of Households in Problem Housing
16
Performance Measures for Sustainability

• Measure Endowments you manage
• measure capacities or stocks directly.
• measure Driving Forces you cause that increase or
  decrease those capacities.
• Measure Endowments you affect
• measure Driving Forces you cause that increase or
  decrease Endowments you dont manage.
• Measure Current Outputs and Results you produce
• trends can reveal increases or decreases in
  Endowments