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Katonáné Kovács, Judit. "Environmental Indicators – Agri-Environmental Indicators." Acta Agraria Debreceniensis, no. 13 (May 4, 2004): 248–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.34101/actaagrar/13/3418.
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close relation. This means that policies related to the economy and the environment cannot be handled without each other. The United Nations Conference (Stockholm, 1972) was the first global conference to signal that environment concerns have increasingly become subject of mainstream socio-economic policies. The process started in the Seventies, laying emphasis on environment protection, plays an important role in the policy of international agencies. The use of environmental indicators is essential for monitoring the effects of environmental measures. The best way of evaluating sustainability if the results can be compared on a global level. International efforts are being made by the United Nations (UN), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Statistical Office of the European Commission (Eurostat) and other international agencies to develop a framework for environment statistics. This study deals with these frameworks, paying attention to agri-environment indicators. Hungary became a member of the UN in 1955, of the OECD in 1996, and will become a member of the European Union in 2004. The first summary in connection with environmental indicators of Hungary, taking the OECD Pressure – State – Response framework as a basis, was published in 1994. As a result, comparability of environmental indicators for Hungary with those used international are given.
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Gu, Xiao Wei, Qing Wang, Peng Fei Wang, Xiao Chuan Xu, Xiao Xu Wang, and Jian Ping Liu. "Measuring the Environmental Stress: Indicators and Application." Advanced Materials Research 518-523 (May 2012): 1561–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.518-523.1561.
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The sustainability of a nation’s social and economic development is fundamentally determined by how much the nation’s environmental system is strained by human activities, which is in turn determined by the pressure/burden created by human activities and the carrying capacity of the nation’s environment. Based on the material flows of an economy’s metabolism and the carrying capacity of the environment, two new aggregate indicators are proposed and formulated, one being the “total domestic environmental loading” which measures the gross environmental burden imposed on the domestic environment by human activities, and the other the “total environmental stress” which measures the intensity of environmental pressure on a nation’s environment. The indicators are applied to six nations, namely, China, Germany, Netherlands, Austria, Japan, and The United States, for a number of years. Results show that, during the years from 1990 to 2002, China’s total environmental stress ranged from 57 to 82 metric tons per global hectare, exhibiting a trend of first rise, then fall and then rise again. The tendency of rebound in China’s total environmental stress after 2000 is a warning sign of further environmental degradation and should be taken seriously. During the comparison period (1993-1996), the ranking of the six nations with respect to total environmental stress, in a descending order, is China, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, The United States, and Austria. The total environmental stress values of the 5 industrial nations either remained relatively stable or declined, indicating that the environmental stress of these nations exhibited various degrees of “decoupling ” from their economic growth. China’s total environmental stress, however, experienced a steady increase in the same period and has a tendency of increase after 2002.
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Willmann, Rolf. "Integration of sustainability indicators: the contribution of integrated economic and environmental accounting." Marine and Freshwater Research 51, no. 5 (2000): 501. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf99055.
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There is a need to integrate indicators relating to complex human–nature systems. This paper discussesthe scope and limitations of achieving such integration through the interim version of the system of integrated environmental and economic accounting (SEEA) published by the United Nations in 1993. It also briefly considers alternative or complementary approaches such as the National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts (NAMEA) developed in the Netherlands. Issues that arise when applying SEEA to the marine fisheries sector are discussed, and examples are given of indicators for the marine fisheries sector derived from the SEEA and NAMEA.
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García López, Javier, Raffaele Sisto, Javier Benayas, Álvaro de Juanes, Julio Lumbreras, and Carlos Mataix. "Assessment of the Results and Methodology of the Sustainable Development Index for Spanish Cities." Sustainability 13, no. 11 (2021): 6487. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13116487.
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In 2017, the United Nations adopted a global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator framework, calling on member countries to collect complementary national and regional indicators. Cities are crucial to channelling efforts towards sustainability through the use of these indicators. They provide an integrated approach to the city situation monitoring sustainability. However, more research is needed to understand how to adapt the goals, targets and indicators to specific municipal contexts. In 2020, the Spanish Sustainable Development Solutions Network launched the 2nd edition of the Spanish Cities Index. A set of 106 indicators allows for monitoring the implementation of the SDGs at the local level for Spanish cities. The objective is to perform a statistical audit to evaluate the consistency of the indicators and the impact of modelling assumptions on the result. The methodology used is an adaptation of the Handbook on Constructing Composite Indicator prepared by the European Commission. The indicator system is well balanced and covers the essential areas of the Sustainable Development Goals. The Spanish ranking is robust enough among the alternatives evaluated. However, some improvements are possible in the selection of indicators, e.g., removing redundant indicators and regional data. Finally, it is recommended to weigh goals based on municipal responsibility to adjust the results to the Spanish municipal context.
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Abdelgadir, Ayman K., Omer A. Abu Elzein, and Faris Hameed. "Social Priorities of Less Developed Countries Sustainable Housing (Case of Sudan)." Academic Research Community publication 3, no. 1 (2019): 27. http://dx.doi.org/10.21625/archive.v3i1.428.
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Sustainable development and sustainable housing indicators are a response to the trend of adopting sustainable development objectives, adopted by most countries, especially developed and less developed countries. It is difficult to implement indicators developed for a developing country context in other contexts with different social, economic and environmental conditions. Social sustainability is the most important priority regarding evaluating the housing development projects in the developed and less developed countries. Economic conditions is linked in many aspects to the social sustainability indicators. Environmental indicators are important, but the less developed countries in general has a very low environmental foot prints, this is because the industry sector is usually week comparing to the developed countries. This paper reviews the sustainable housing indicators, with a focus on United Nations reports and indicators developed for contexts similar to study area, without ignoring the most reputable indicators developed for developing countries context. The research came with a set of indicators reflects the social priorities of the new housing development in Sudan. A questionnaire participants decided the relative important of each indicator and also the importance of the parameters of each indicator. Developing a set of social priorities for Sudan will give extra efficiency in promoting and assessing sustainability in the study area. Description of the questionnaire results which reflects the national social sustainable housing development priorities are discussed. The researches came with a set of recommendations to enhance the social aspects for new housing development projects in Sudan. Using this set of priorities and recommendations will give extra efficiency in promoting and assessing sustainability in the study area.
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Valente, Bianca, Syntia Lemos Cotrim, Ana Carla Fernandes Gasques, Gislaine Camila Lapasini Leal, and Edwin Vladimir Cardoza Galdamez. "SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS IN INDUSTRIES: A BIBLIOMETRIC REVIEW." Journal on Innovation and Sustainability RISUS 9, no. 3 (2018): 38–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.24212/2179-3565.2018v9i3p38-52.
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Sustainable development gained prominence in 1992 at the United Nations Conference about Environment and Development, and was presented as a global strategy to ensure society’s access to natural resources. One proposed practice to monitor industrial performance is sustainability indicators, commonly divided into three dimensions: environmental, social and economic. The objective of this work is to present a bibliometric study on the scientific production of Sustainability Indicators (SI) in the Industries, from January 2007 to October 2017. Therefore, the methodology used was Proknow-C, with quantitative and qualitative approach, from the keywords: “Sustainability Indicators” and “Indicators of Sustainability” in the database provided by the Scopus platform. The papers selected for the composition of the final portfolio contribute to the construction of knowledge about the proposed theme, offering a broad view of Sustainability Indicators applied to industries. A total of 28 sustainability indicators were identified, of which 11 are related to the environmental dimension, which correspond to three aspects (water, energy and gases emitted), 7 in the economic dimension, framed in two aspects (present value in the plant and investment) and 10 in the social dimension, corresponding to the aspects of accidents, comfort / safety and training. The survey of the Sustainability Indicators allows establishing guidelines for the construction of a management system aligned with the sustainability dimensions in the industries
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Adão, Nilton Manoel Lacerda, and Edson Belo Clemente Souza. "O que os indicadores socioeconômicos IDHM e IPC nos revelam em distintas realidades urbanas: São Paulo (SP) e Fortaleza (CE)." Terr Plural 14 (2020): 1–13. http://dx.doi.org/10.5212/terraplural.v.14.2015238.063.
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This paper aims to analyze the possibilities and limitations of using synthetic indicators using two globally applied systems as a reference, the Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) and the City Prosperity Index-CPI. Therefore, aims to analyze two different urban realities: São Paulo (SP) and Fortaleza (CE), based on two indexes: The Municipal Human Development Index (MHDI) of the United Nations Program (PNUD) and the City Prosperity Index (CPI) started in 2012 by the United Nations Program for Human Settlements (ONU-Habitat). The MHDI is based on indicators in three dimensions: longevity, education, and family income, while the CPI measures the characteristics of the municipalities in terms of productivity, infrastructure, inclusion and social equity, quality of life, environmental sustainability, and governance and legislation. Comparative analysis of the results of indicators that reveal the limitations and potentials considered for the construction of improved systems indicators. It is noticed, from the analyzed properties, factors that go beyond the character of the indicator must be considered. Efficiency in the collection, acceptance of the target audience, and qualitative analysis must be considered in use for the adequate measurement of the actions developed in the municipal public management and for the understanding of the appropriate and social changes in the cities.
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Andries, Ana, Stephen Morse, Richard Murphy, Jim Lynch, and Emma Woolliams. "Seeing Sustainability from Space: Using Earth Observation Data to Populate the UN Sustainable Development Goal Indicators." Sustainability 11, no. 18 (2019): 5062. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11185062.
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In 2015, member countries of the United Nations adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the Sustainable Development Summit in New York. These global goals have 169 targets and 232 indicators based on the three pillars of sustainable development: economic, social, and environmental. However, substantial challenges remain in obtaining data of the required quality and quantity to populate these indicators efficiently. One promising and innovative way of addressing this issue is to use Earth observation (EO). The research reported here updates our original work to develop a Maturity Matrix Framework (MMF) for assessing the suitability of EO-derived data for populating the SDG indicators, with a special focus on those indicators covering the more social and economic dimensions of sustainable development, as these have been under-explored in terms of the contribution that can be made by EO. The advanced MMF 2.0 framework set out in this paper is based on a wide consultation with EO and indicator experts (semi-structured interviews with 38 respondents). This paper provides detail of the evolved structure of MMF 2.0 and illustrates its use for one of the SDG indicators (Indicator 11.1.1). The revised MMF is then applied to published work covering the full suite of SDG indicators and demonstrates that EO can make an important contribution to providing data relevant to a substantial number of the SDG indicators.
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Adamec, Jakub, Svatava Janoušková, and Tomáš Hák. "How to Measure Sustainable Housing: A Proposal for an Indicator-Based Assessment Tool." Sustainability 13, no. 3 (2021): 1152. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13031152.
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Housing drives urban development and has a significant potential for contributing to sustainability. However, ample sustainability indicator sets fail to include relevant indicators of sustainable housing—assessment seems to be an underdeveloped topic. We chose the United Nations Geneva Charter on Sustainable Housing as a conceptual foundation for the proposed assessment tool. It addresses recent challenges by four defining principles and related rationales, thus forming a theoretical basis of sustainable housing. We applied both theoretical research (desk-top analysis) and qualitative research (an expert panel) to develop a comprehensive framework for sustainable housing and complemented it with relevant indicators. The proposed housing sustainability assessment tool (HSAT) explicitly advocates a holistic approach that seeks to balance the environmental, social, economic and institutional dimensions of sustainability; simultaneously, it includes an integrated concept of the building–community–locality. Hence, this article does not seek to redefine the sustainable housing definition or concept but to contribute to the development of a highly relevant indicator-based system for its assessment. This will ensure that correct and unambiguous messages are sent not only to policymakers but also investors, urban planners and finally also the citizens—the housing clients.
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Dörgő, Gyula, Viktor Sebestyén, and János Abonyi. "Evaluating the Interconnectedness of the Sustainable Development Goals Based on the Causality Analysis of Sustainability Indicators." Sustainability 10, no. 10 (2018): 3766. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10103766.
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Policymaking requires an in-depth understanding of the cause-and-effect relationships between the sustainable development goals. However, due to the complex nature of socio-economic and environmental systems, this is still a challenging task. In the present article, the interconnectedness of the United Nations (UN) sustainability goals is measured using the Granger causality analysis of their indicators. The applicability of the causality analysis is validated through the predictions of the World3 model. The causal relationships are represented as a network of sustainability indicators providing the opportunity for the application of network analysis techniques. Based on the analysis of 801 UN indicator types in 283 geographical regions, approximately 4000 causal relationships were identified and the most important global connections were represented in a causal loop network. The results highlight the drastic deficiency of the analysed datasets, the strong interconnectedness of the sustainability targets and the applicability of the extracted causal loop network. The analysis of the causal loop networks emphasised the problems of poverty, proper sanitation and economic support in sustainable development.
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Haroon, Shaheera, Muhammad Wasif, Rameez Khalid, and Sana Khalidi. "Supply Chain Practitioners’ Perception on Sustainability: An Empirical Study." Sustainability 13, no. 17 (2021): 9872. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13179872.
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The sustainability of supply chains is now one of the major global issues due to the vision of the United Nations (UN). By 2030, it is the primary focus of the UN to attain all the seventeen sustainable development goals (SDG). Hence, the primary goal of this study is to examine how practitioners think about sustainable supply chains. Five hypotheses are established to assess the perceptions of supply chain professionals. Forty-two (42) indicators are gathered from the existing literature to establish the survey instrument to collect the responses from supply chain practitioners. Finally, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to evaluate the mediation effects. It is found that social aspects are significantly impacted by the environmental aspects, as compared to the economic aspects. None of these indicators play any mediation effect, as all three are equally important for the sustainable supply chains.
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Viet Hai, Pham, Nguyen Dinh Hoang Long, Nguyen Thi Diem Thuy, Le Hoang Anh, and Dao Nguyen Khoi. "Assessment of the current environmental status in the Phu Quy district, Binh Thuan province using sustainable development indicators." Science and Technology Development Journal - Natural Sciences 4, no. 1 (2020): first. http://dx.doi.org/10.32508/stdjns.v4i1.999.
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The objective of this study was to develop a set of sustainable development indicators on environmental aspects and apply them to assess the level of environmental sustainability in Phu Quy district, Binh Thuan province. The set of sustainable development indicators was built based on the screening of indicators from some previous studies, as well as developing new indicators to match the research area. The indicators were then be grouped into topics based on the United Nations' 17 sustainable development goals to 2030. In terms of environment, the set of sustainable development indicators includeed 6 topics (main components), 19 indicators (sub-components), of which 6 new indicators were researched and developed for the island and sea area. The result showed that the level of environmental sustainability of the Phu Quy district was good (0.846). In addition, the results showed that the local environmental aspects attained levels of sustainability. Accordingly, main components including clean water - sanitation (MT1), habitat (MT3), natural disaster prevention (MT4) and ocean conservation - sustainable use (MT5) reached the good level of sustainability and tend to keep stable. While sustainable energy (MT2) and forest protection and development (MT6) are quite sustainable. However, the MT6 component tended to decrease that indicated the forest degradation and the impacts on environmental sustainability in Phu Quy district in the future.
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Vandecandelaere, Emilie, Luis Fernando Samper, Andrés Rey, et al. "The Geographical Indication Pathway to Sustainability: A Framework to Assess and Monitor the Contributions of Geographical Indications to Sustainability through a Participatory Process." Sustainability 13, no. 14 (2021): 7535. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13147535.
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Geographical Indications (GIs) are widely considered as tools to contribute to sustainability (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations—FAO, 2009; 2017), if established and well managed. While the literature may not always agree on the positive effects of GIs in all sustainability dimensions (e.g., economic, social, and environmental), there is evidence that engaging GI producers in a sustainability strategy can maximize their contribution to different components of sustainable development. FAO and oriGIn developed the sustainability strategy for GI (SSGI) to support GI producers and their associations so that they could engage in a place-based and participative approach in order to generate concrete progress and results. This paper presents original research for building both a framework and database for the selection and use of relevant sustainability indicators for GIs. A number of SSGI principles have guided the work throughout an iterative process for reviewing, selecting, and improving relevant indicators, while the Sustainability Assessment of Food and Agriculture (SAFA) has provided the structure to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other widely used and recognized sustainability frameworks. As a result of this work, a database of 372 robust sustainability indicators that are relevant to GIs have been characterized to facilitate their use by practitioners. The discussion highlights the importance of the place-based approach, and the participative, inclusive process that represents the key to empowerment and the ability to develop alliances. It also focuses on action, and the need to strengthen both internal and external communication.
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Krepl, Vladimír, Petr Kment, and Zdeněk Vališ. "Environmental Development in Central Asia: towards Sustainability?" Agricultura tropica et subtropica 46, no. 2 (2013): 73–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/ats-2013-0012.
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Abstract This article deals with the environmental development of the post-socialist countries of Central Asia, Mongolia, and Afghanistan. We aimed at such targets and indicators used in the seventh Millennium Development Goal that have been documented with consistent and comparable data from the United Nations, namely carbon dioxide emissions and energy use and improved water sources and facilities. The countries of interest cannot be considered as significant global CO2 emitters, however, the steady tendency towards industrialization and urbanization can be seen in the data. The data on proportion of the population using improved drinking water sources and sanitation facilities are optimistic even on a global scale. However, the regional specifics of Central Asia discover further significant dimensions of the water problem, especially water pollution.
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Kalaitzidis, Dimitrios. "Sustainable School Indicators: Approaching the Vision Through the Sustainable School Award." Journal of Teacher Education for Sustainability 14, no. 2 (2012): 168–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/v10099-012-0015-7.
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Abstract The Sustainable School Award is a project for schools that aims to integrate a sustainability perspective into all aspects of school life through sustainable school indicators. It complies with the implementation strategy of the International Plan of Action of the Decade for Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and the Strategy of United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). In this paper, we present the vision of a sustainable school and an attempt to connect theory and practice of education for sustainable development in order to approach this vision. A brief report on the first year of the implementation of the project in Greece is also presented.
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Linser, Stefanie, and Markus Lier. "The Contribution of Sustainable Development Goals and Forest-Related Indicators to National Bioeconomy Progress Monitoring." Sustainability 12, no. 7 (2020): 2898. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12072898.
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A sustainable and circular bioeconomy is a pathway to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 because the bioeconomy relates to a number of SDGs. We therefore focused on whether and how these SDGs are considered in national bioeconomy strategies, and on their indicator-based progress monitoring and assessment. This paper is based on eight countries that already have elaborated indicators in their national bioeconomy strategies. We analyzed the coverage of SDG issues in national bioeconomy strategies and the indicators used. We focused on how the different national indicators used to monitor the progress of the bioeconomy are related to the SDGs indicators and the already well established and widely applied intergovernmental regional or international forest-related indicators, as the forest sector is one of the key sectors for the development of a bioeconomy. Our material and methods are based on a document review and qualitative analysis of national bioeconomy strategies and their inherent indicator sets for progress monitoring. Based on our findings on the coverage of SDG-related issues of up to 14 out of the 17 SDGs in the bioeconomy strategies and of the high share of forest-related indicators within the bioeconomy indicators used, we derive recommendations for the further development of bioeconomy indicators. Our paper does not contribute to proposing the most suitable indicators, but it does encourage national and regional actors to carefully and holistically develop their bioeconomy monitoring systems using synergies from the already existing SDGs and forest monitoring processes.
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Xu, Xueyan, Jun Gao, Zhonghao Zhang, and Jing Fu. "An Assessment of Chinese Pathways to Implement the UN Sustainable Development Goal-11 (SDG-11)—A Case Study of the Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomeration." International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 16, no. 13 (2019): 2288. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132288.
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Urban sustainability is a crucial part of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and one of the core objectives of China’s national strategy to promote new urbanization and achieve integration in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD). This paper mainly focused on the 11th SDG, which is a universal call to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The full permutation polygon synthetic indicator (FPPSI) method was applied to synthetically evaluate the sustainable level of 26 cities in the YRD urban agglomeration from 2007 to 2016. The results showed that: (1) the synthesis indicators were increasing year by year, which implied that the sustainable development of the YRD has shown obvious progress in recent years. However, each city faced its own challenges to achieving the sustainable development goals. The sustainability level for the majority of cities was restricted by obstacles such as the per capita green area, air quality and commercial housing sales area; (2) Among the 26 cities, small and medium-sized cities were subject to the traditional strong sustainability indicators while large and mega cities were more affected by weak sustainability indicators; (3) Spatial differences were found for the overall sustainable development level of the YRD. The diffusion and assembly effect among cities had not yet been formed; however, the strong spillover effect of developed cities might influence the ability of other cities to achieve sustainable development goals in many aspects of the environment, economy and society. The results suggest the need for a stronger focus on improving regional developing patterns and strengthening coordination in the process of achieving the sustainable development goal of urban agglomeration in the YRD. Furthermore, according to the conditions of different cities, integrated policies are required to address all aspects of sustainability and to avoid unintended consequences.
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Krellenberg, Kerstin, Hannah Bergsträßer, Daria Bykova, Nele Kress, and Katharine Tyndall. "Urban Sustainability Strategies Guided by the SDGs —A Tale of Four Cities." Sustainability 11, no. 4 (2019): 1116. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11041116.
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The United Nations (UN) 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, signed in 2015 and backed-up with its seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), mentions cities as key players for evolving actively towards more sustainability. This underpins that living in the cities of the urban age is increasingly becoming the focus of sustainability discussions, which is particularly reflected in SDG 11 “Making cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”. As urban sustainability strategies are playing a key role for the development of cities, this article sheds light on four cities’ sustainability strategies. The case studies highlight shortcomings, in terms of integrated visions, clear targets, and indicators in existing urban (sustainability) strategies. The article discusses these issues in light of an analytical framework, and stresses challenges and opportunities that SDG implementation involves.
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Jucá, J. F. T., K. R. M. Barbosa, and M. C. Sobral. "Sustainability indicators for municipal solid waste management: A case study of the Recife Metropolitan Region, Brazil." Waste Management & Research: The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy 38, no. 12 (2020): 1450–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0734242x20941088.
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Municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Brazil faces major challenges in order to meet the requirements proposed by the National Solid Waste Policy, which has been in force since 2010 and complicates decision-making, especially in small municipalities. In this context, sustainability indicators are important support tools that help in setting out performance actions for municipal sustainable development. The main objective of this article is to evaluate the four sustainability dimensions (social, environmental, economic, and legal/institutional) using sustainability indicators for MSW management in the Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR) in Northeast Brazil. To do this, the progress of the region was evaluated against the principal goals and guidelines proposed by solid waste plans and by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It was found that some progress has been achieved in recent years, such as the closure of dumps, a reduction of the per capita MSW mass collected, and an increase in the coverage rate for solid household waste collection. However, selective collection and financial autonomy still fall well short of the region’s goals. According to the results of this study, municipalities in the RMR require more environmental education and joint actions involving government, the private sector, and the general population.
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Jan, Amin, Mário Nuno Mata, Pia A. Albinsson, José Moleiro Martins, Rusni Bt Hassan, and Pedro Neves Mata. "Alignment of Islamic Banking Sustainability Indicators with Sustainable Development Goals: Policy Recommendations for Addressing the COVID-19 Pandemic." Sustainability 13, no. 5 (2021): 2607. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13052607.
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This study aims to establish the link of key Islamic banking sustainability indicators with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) as a policy recommendation for sustainable development and to mitigate the distressing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit). To identify the key Islamic banking sustainability indicators, the authors selected the most cited sustainability measurement indexes in Islamic banking. Initially, the indexes were divided into 10 broader themes, and then the key Islamic banking sustainability indicators were shortlisted from each theme based on their high-frequency distribution. The shortlisted sustainability indicators were then ratified to be in line with Islamic philosophy based on “Maqasid al-Shariah” (objectives of Shariah) and were subsequently grouped into the three dimensions of economic, environmental, and social sustainability based on the axial coding method. Finally, the categorized sustainability indicators were aligned with the relevant UN SDGs through the axial coding method for policy formulation, and respectively 12 propositions were developed for policy formulation. This study labeled the methodological process of this study as the ECA method (exploration, categorization, alignment). The new ECA method offers a reverse extension in the “SDG compass” developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) for aligning business policies with the UN SDGs. The process of aligning Islamic banking sustainability indicators with the UN SDGs will provide a roadmap to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of economic, environmental, and social issues. Due to the diversity of the UN SDG framework, it covers multiples aspects for sustainable development. Therefore, considering the UN SDGs in terms of various banking instruments will mitigate the multiple distressing impacts of COVID-19 on the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit), it will also promote a sustainable development agenda.
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Manga, Sylvestre-José-Tidiane. "Post-Paris Climate Agreement UNFCCC COP-21: Perspectives on International Environmental Governance." African Journal of International and Comparative Law 26, no. 3 (2018): 309–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.3366/ajicl.2018.0235.
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This contribution presents a number of key assets on the road to a renewable energy global economy. Among these are science, technology innovation and green investment. The Paris Climate Agreement is also presented as a normative framework asset but the deal failed to establish measureable targets to follow up progress throughout its implementation process. This research points out the fact that such a failure is common to most environmental international instruments. The UNFCCC 21st COP which adopted the Paris Climate Agreement is indeed a demonstration once again of the incapacity of the COP mechanism to adopt suitable institutional arrangements to build up sustainability and resilience. It is suggested, however, that this very fact should raise among nations a collective conscience regarding the inadequacies of the current environmental institutions and forums. The international community is invited to seek a strong specialised institution with organisational status within the United Nations system to adopt decisions, environmental standards and sustainability indicators and to implement these autonomously for the sake of the preservation of life on earth for generations to come. To this end, this article shares the solution of resuming and concluding previous consultations and negotiations on reform of the international environmental governance within the United Nations system aiming at the creation of a World Environmental Organisation (WEO).
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Nicholls, Jill, and Adam Drewnowski. "Toward Sociocultural Indicators of Sustainable Healthy Diets." Sustainability 13, no. 13 (2021): 7226. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13137226.
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Balancing the social, economic and environmental priorities for public health is at the core of the United Nations (UN) approaches to sustainable development, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The four dimensions of sustainable diets are often presented as health, society, economics, and the environment. Although sustainable diet research has focused on health and the environment, the social and economic dimensions of sustainable diets and food systems should not be forgotten. Some research priorities and sociocultural indicators for sustainable healthy diets and food systems are outlined in this report. The present goal is to improve integration of the social dimension into research on food and nutrition security.
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Wilson, John P. "Making Information Measurement Meaningful: The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and the Social and Human Capital Protocol." Information 12, no. 8 (2021): 338. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/info12080338.
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Drucker’s saying that “What gets measured gets managed” is examined in the context of corporate social responsibility. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals have encouraged sustainability reporting, and a reporting tool, the Social and Human Capital Protocol, has been developed to assist measurement and provide information to support the achievement of sustainability. This information should be valid and reliable; however, it is not easy to measure social and human capital factors. Additionally, companies use a large number of methodologies and indicators that are difficult to compare, and they may sometimes only present positive outcomes as a form of greenwashing. This lack of full transparency and comparability with other companies has the potential to discredit their reports, thereby supporting the claims of climate change deniers, free-market idealogues and conspiracy theorists who often use social media to spread their perspectives. This paper will describe the development of environmental reporting and CSR, discuss the natural capital protocol, and assess the extent to which the Social and Human Capital Protocol is able to fulfil its purpose of providing SMART objective measurements. It is the first academic article to provide a detailed examination of the Social and Human Capital Protocol.
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Sibanda, Lindiwe M., and Sithembile N. Mwamakamba. "Policy Considerations for African Food Systems: Towards the United Nations 2021 Food Systems Summit." Sustainability 13, no. 16 (2021): 9018. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13169018.
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Achieving food and nutrition security and ending hunger is a complex and multi-faceted global challenge, which requires urgent attention, particularly in Africa. To eliminate hunger, the continent needs to transition to new sustainable, inclusive, and resilient food systems that deliver nutritious food and a healthy planet for all. This paper discusses challenges and opportunities highlighted during the “Food Systems Transformation to Address the SDGs” session convened by the African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) and partners at the 8th World Sustainability Forum (WSF2020) held in September 2020. The paper reflects on how African food systems need to change to achieve the food systems related and interconnected the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It also presents issues for consideration at the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit. Key considerations include (i) the realization that nutrition insecurity is not food insecurity, (ii) the need for Africa to actualize its potential, (iii) the need to demystify policy development processes; (iv) the need to invest in better measurements and indicators; and (v) the need to create nature-based climate-smart solutions
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Eissa, Noura. "Pandemic Preparedness and Public Health Expenditure." Economies 8, no. 3 (2020): 60. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/economies8030060.
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The motive behind this article is investigating alternative indicator measures for the effectiveness of public health expenditure on pandemic preparedness, to explain the reasons behind country variations in containing crises such as Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The purpose is to analyse the shortcomings in the relationship between global public health expenditure and pandemic preparedness. The research methodology includes a macro-analysis of global health spending patterns, empirical and theoretical literature on global health expenditure, global health security indexes, and country case studies pre- and post-crisis. The results show that gaps in pandemic preparedness were already existent pre-COVID-19, calling for a new mind-set in the way public health expenditure is structured. Healthcare sustainability indicators should transition from traditional measures such as economic growth rates, public health expenditure rates, revenue coming from the healthcare sector, and rankings in the global health security index, to new awareness indicators. Public health expenditure, a facilitator of pandemic preparedness, coupled with the resilience of healthcare systems, could be used in conjunction with the traditional factors, along with the time element of a quick response to pandemic through preparedness schemes, the progress towards achieving sustainable health through the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and investment in national healthcare capital to ensure efficient resource allocation. The policy recommendations are the restructuring of public expenditure to expand the absorptive capacities of healthcare institutes, eventually leading to sustainability and universal health insurance.
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MacPherson, Joseph, Carsten Paul, and Katharina Helming. "Linking Ecosystem Services and the SDGs to Farm-Level Assessment Tools and Models." Sustainability 12, no. 16 (2020): 6617. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12166617.
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A number of tools and models have been developed to assess farm-level sustainability. However, it is unclear how well they potentially incorporate ecosystem services (ES), or how they may contribute to attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Understanding how farm-level assessment tools and models converge on these new paradigms of sustainability is important for drawing comparison on sustainability performances of farming systems, conducting meta-analyses and upscaling local responses to global driving forces. In this study, a coverage analysis was performed for several farm-level sustainability assessment (SA) tools (SAFA, RISE, KSNL, DLG) and models (MODAM, MONICA, APSIM), in regard to their potential for incorporating ES and contribution to attaining the SDGs. Lists of agricultural-relevant CICES classes and SDG targets were compiled and matched against the indicators of the tools and models. The results showed that SAFA possessed the most comprehensive coverage of ES and SDGs, followed by RISE and KSNL. In comparison to models, SA tools were observed to have a higher degree of potential for covering ES and SDGs, which was attributed to larger and broader indicators sets. However, this study also suggested that, overall, current tools and models do not sufficiently articulate the concept of ecosystem services.
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Vasthare, Ramprasad, Shriya Dhaundiyal, and Sunaina Puri. "Measures of human development: a narrative." International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health 6, no. 2 (2019): 889. http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20190027.
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Human development is a direct function of human capability, understood through the different facets of the human development index. The impact of gender inequality, women empowerment, environmental and socioeconomic sustainability has also been described in this review. It brings forth and reinforces that national development is an assessment of not only per capita income but by other influential factors which affect development comprehensively, such as educational achievements and health. A thorough primary screening was done for articles on human development index using the data bases of PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar using the key words human development, United Nations, measures, indicators and index, followed by a secondary screening, with due concern to avoid overlap of information. The articles were categorized based on the subject of Human Development with due prioritization. Human development index has evolved periodically taking into consideration the developments, limitations and criticisms. It has become an important indicator of human progress and serves as a guide to state, societal, community and individual developments. India currently holds a rank of 130 denoting medium human development.
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Missingham, Roxanne. "Sustainable Development Goals." International Journal of Librarianship 5, no. 2 (2020): 13–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.23974/ijol.2020.vol5.2.167.
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Research libraries have provided a key to unlocking the knowledge of the centuries. The nature of their stewardship of knowledge has led to a focus on understanding the value and sustainability in terms of collections. The extraordinarily rich collections have made a great contribution to education and to the communities they serve. A new theory of change which underpins the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) highlights the contribution that activities can make to improve national and international economic, social, community and governmental health. This article analyses the nature of major research library activities in light of the SDGs methodology. Taking this broad framework to the work of International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) libraries provides new insights into the value and broader contribution of those libraries. The indicators assessed in the framework specifically relate to the outcomes of education and information within the societies they service. The case study suggests that the libraries make a significant and deep contribution both to the current national environments as well as in creating a framework for future returns on the investment to their universities.
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Al-Bahi, Ali M., Mohamed S. Abd-Elwahed, and Abdelfattah Y. Soliman. "Implementation of Sustainability Indicators in Engineering Education Using a Combined Balanced Scorecard and Quality Function Deployment Approaches." Sustainability 13, no. 13 (2021): 7083. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13137083.
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One year and a half after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, it became suitable to rethink the design of the engineering education systems to remain sustainable and resilient. The paper aims to identify the most important aspects of the system, as well as the most vulnerable ones and the extent to which the system meets the sustainability requirements of the society. The Balanced Scorecard approach is used to ensure that the system remains sustainable and resilient. The indicators to measure the aspects of this design are developed. A Quality Function Deployment approach is used to identify the extent to which a designed system satisfies the sustainability requirements of the society. The problem is formulated as an engineering design problem in which the customer requirements are presented using a sustainability Triple Bottom Line framework. The results indicate that a well-designed engineering education system is capable of addressing the majority of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) identified by the United Nations. The most important aspect of this system is its commitment to quality assurance and continuous improvement. Such a system is a key player to achieve the SDGs, particularly those of economic growth, quality education, good health and wellbeing, and industry innovation.
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Luukkanen, Jyrki, Jarmo Vehmas, and Jari Kaivo-oja. "Quantification of Doughnut Economy with the Sustainability Window Method: Analysis of Development in Thailand." Sustainability 13, no. 2 (2021): 847. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13020847.
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The doughnut economy is a new approach for the inclusion of planetary boundaries and social foundation in the development of societies. The Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations (UN) determine another view for development targets. The developed sustainability window approach provides a means for operationalization and quantification of the doughnut economy. The developed method calculates minimum economic development to guarantee sustainable social development and maximum economic development not to exceed environmental sustainability. The developed method, advanced suitability analysis (ASA) doughnut, is illustrated with case data from Thailand. The sustainability doughnut for Thailand has been calculated for both weak and strong sustainability criteria. It seems that strong sustainability is a too strict requirement regarding several environmental dimensions of development while the weak sustainability criteria are fulfilled. The developed method and tool are flexible and can be used for comparative analysis of different countries or regions, for dynamic analysis of sustainability development, for gap analysis of the required improvement of environmental or social efficiency, and analysis of degrowth possibilities. The selection of indicators for the analyses and their reliability is crucial for the validity of the results and usefulness in policy planning.
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Crecente, Fernando, María Sarabia, and María Teresa del Val. "Sustainable Entrepreneurship in the 2030 Horizon." Sustainability 13, no. 2 (2021): 909. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13020909.
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(1) Background: this paper analyzes the relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainability following the worldwide reference of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework set by the United Nations. Nowadays, these SDGs are the inspiration for many types of entrepreneurship that combine value creation with conservation and social protection. (2) Methods: using the indicators provided by Eurostat in its section called “Sustainable development indicators”, we have developed a dataset of 21 variables applied to the European Union (EU27) for the period 2013–2017. (3) Results: the results hold that these SDGs have favored a climate of change in the European economies towards more responsible behavior on the part of society, institutions, and their business fabric, creating new sustainable entrepreneurship. (4) Conclusions: the promotion of the SDGs has contributed to increasing the rate of entrepreneurial activity in the period 2013–2017.
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Sørup, Hjalte Jomo Danielsen, Ole Fryd, Li Liu, Karsten Arnbjerg-Nielsen, and Marina Bergen Jensen. "An SDG-based framework for assessing urban stormwater management systems." Blue-Green Systems 1, no. 1 (2019): 102–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/bgs.2019.922.
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Abstract Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management on top of handling water should, ideally, deliver a multitude of other services to society; they are often seen as a lever for transforming cities in a more livable, green, resilient and sustainable direction, and these measures should be acknowledged as part of the services delivered. In this study we assess the services that Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management deliver with reference to targets and indicators from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals; we also develop local, project level indicators that inform and are informed by the more broad Sustainable Development Goals indicators. We demonstrate through Danish cases ranging from lot to city scale that the proposed framework can help inform decision-makers about the sustainability of Nature-Based Solutions for stormwater management. Despite difficulties in matching local indicators to SDG indicators, this first attempt at an assessment framework provides insight on which services of a project help to work towards the Sustainable Development Goals and, if used in the planning phase, could facilitate the design of projects that work focused and informed towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
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Torchio, Marco Filippo, Umberto Lucia, and Giulia Grisolia. "Economic and Human Features for Energy and Environmental Indicators: A Tool to Assess Countries’ Progress towards Sustainability." Sustainability 12, no. 22 (2020): 9716. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12229716.
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Energy and environmental data represent fundamental information for the analysis of sustainable development. On the other hand, these aspects should be associated with economic and human dimensions in order to obtain a more holistic vision. From this perspective, some indicators are discussed and analyzed in this paper in order to assess the performance of a country. As regards the energetic aspects, the data of total primary energy supply and exergy losses were considered. The environmental aspects were taken into account by considering the greenhouse gas emissions and the particulate matter emissions. These energy and environmental data were put in relation to the GDP (gross domestic product) and HDI (human development index, a multidimensional index proposed by United Nations), respectively. So, two sets of indicators were introduced—the set E for economic properties and the set H for human aspects. A case study was conducted by analyzing a group of countries that meet two criteria: the same macro-geographical area and comparable numbers of citizens. The European area—in particular, its six most populous countries—was chosen. From the results obtained, it is possible to point out that some countries present different rankings depending on whether set E or set H is considered. Another important aspect discussed is the temporal evolution of the indicators (the interval from 1990 to 2017 was considered). Political decision-makers can be supported by the use of the indicators of set H in order to evaluate well-being related to their choices on actions related to the energy and environment. These indicators can be used both to analyze the trends of a country and to compare them with the performance of some other similar countries.
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Smirnov, V. V. "Determining the conditions for sustainable development of the Russian economy." Economic Analysis: Theory and Practice 19, no. 11 (2020): 2093–115. http://dx.doi.org/10.24891/ea.19.11.2093.
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Subject. The article addresses conditions for sustainable development of the Russian economy. Objectives. The purpose is to link the limit of sustainability of the Russian economy with required conditions. Methods. The study draws on the systems approach, using the methods of statistical, neural network, and cluster analysis. Results. I describe scientific ideas about sustainable development of economy, which have been developed in theoretical and practical activities. The World Bank data on environment, social affairs and governance on 17 key sustainable development topics, covering environmental, social and management categories, are used to determine conditions for sustainability of the Russian economy. The neural network analysis of the importance of indicators’ rate of increment shows a hierarchy of priorities. The cluster analysis of indicators’ rate of increment identifies significant clusters. The analysis of key priorities of sustainable development of the Russian economy enables to reveal significant deviations in political stability and in access to electricity. Conclusions. Conditions for sustainable development of the Russian economy are determined by their proximity to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Identifying these conditions in the globalizing world creates an understanding of the real limit and opportunities of the country's development.
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Asche, Frank, Taryn M. Garlock, James L. Anderson, et al. "Three pillars of sustainability in fisheries." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, no. 44 (2018): 11221–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807677115.
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Sustainability of global fisheries is a growing concern. The United Nations has identified three pillars of sustainability: economic development, social development, and environmental protection. The fisheries literature suggests that there are two key trade-offs among these pillars of sustainability. First, poor ecological health of a fishery reduces economic profits for fishers, and second, economic profitability of individual fishers undermines the social objectives of fishing communities. Although recent research has shown that management can reconcile ecological and economic objectives, there are lingering concerns about achieving positive social outcomes. We examined trade-offs among the three pillars of sustainability by analyzing the Fishery Performance Indicators, a unique dataset that scores 121 distinct fishery systems worldwide on 68 metrics categorized by social, economic, or ecological outcomes. For each of the 121 fishery systems, we averaged the outcome measures to create overall scores for economic, ecological, and social performance. We analyzed the scores and found that they were positively associated in the full sample. We divided the data into subsamples that correspond to fisheries management systems with three categories of access—open access, access rights, and harvest rights—and performed a similar analysis. Our results show that economic, social, and ecological objectives are at worst independent and are mutually reinforcing in both types of managed fisheries. The implication is that rights-based management systems should not be rejected on the basis of potentially negative social outcomes; instead, social considerations should be addressed in the design of these systems.
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Geist, Helmut J. "Tobacco and Deforestation Revisited. How to Move towards a Global Land-Use Transition?" Sustainability 13, no. 16 (2021): 9242. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13169242.
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Articles 17 and 18 of the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control address the environmental sustainability of tobacco as a contested agricultural crop. They require regulatory land-use policies to be introduced and designed to enhance a sustainability transition to diversified farming practices and/or alternative livelihoods. Related activities of the UN Study/Working Group on Economically Sustainable Alternatives to Tobacco Growing are reviewed to assess and monitor the crop’s impact on natural resources with a focus on methods to identify tobacco-attributable deforestation (remote sensing, proxy values, secondary statistics, natural valuation, ecological/social surveys). It is posited that since 2007 no advances have been achieved in framing woody biomass destruction/degradation due to land extension and curing (i.e., drying green leaf using wood). Building on support by digital technologies and land surface monitoring systems, a novel post-2020 strategy is proposed to mainstream an extended set of indicators integratively, i.e., addressing biodiversity losses, soil carbon reservoirs and land degradation neutrality of tobacco as an agricultural crop. Thus, the point is emphasized that land stewardship requires political priority setting that makes the framing of land-use sustainability metrics more than a purely technical matter.
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Schnorr-Baecker, Susanne. "Well-being in urban and rural areas, challenges, general policies, and their monitoring: Some evidence for Germany before and during the COVID-19 pandemic1." Statistical Journal of the IAOS 37, no. 2 (2021): 495–515. http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/sji-210803.
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Major changes in society, the economy, the natural environment and the government haven taken place. The current pandemic demonstrates even more their social importance and positive or negative effects worldwide. In particular, an increasingly cross-generational awareness of sustainability, new information and communication channels and growing international interdependencies as well as comprehensive policies fostering well-being are gaining worldwide importance and pervade all activities. Germany has – as many nations worldwide – besides its national strategies committed to implement major strategies at United Nations’ and European Union’s levels. In the following, it will be examined which differences exist in the living conditions from a spatial point of view. Using selected indicators and current data mainly from the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, an urban-rural comparison is made for Germany at the lowest federal level ‘Kreise’ (NUTS 3 of the European spatial classification). Even if it is still unclear what the long-term consequences of the drastic measures of the current global COVID-19 pandemic will be, current trends will be briefly presented. Furthermore, this study presents the latest data mainly before the worldwide outbreak of the pandemic and thus will offer starting points for later analysis of opportunities and risks for urban or rural areas post COVID-19.
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Janoušková, Svatava, Tomáš Hák, Vlastimil Nečas, and Bedřich Moldan. "Sustainable Development—A Poorly Communicated Concept by Mass Media. Another Challenge for SDGs?" Sustainability 11, no. 11 (2019): 3181. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11113181.
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Thirty years after “Our Common Future” by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, sustainable development remains the only internationally and consensually recognized global development concept. The last major United Nations event—the Rio+20 Conference in 2012—endorsed it by proposing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their more specific targets and indicators (adopted in 2015). We claim that educators, politicians, and civil society organizations have failed to a large extent in making the sustainable development concept broadly appealing. Among the missing enabling factors are a good narrative (making an extremely complex sustainable development concept comprehensible to all, thereby raising public support), social norms (reflecting commonly held sustainability principles and goals), and sustainability indicators (providing clear information for steering policies as well as for daily decisions). In this paper we focus on the role of mass media (English-written printed newspapers) as an important information channel and agenda-setter, and analyze their modes of sustainability communication. We look into how these media communicate selected key sustainability themes, and how they make connections to the overarching concept of sustainable development. We hypothesize that the media predominantly informs people and sets the agenda by communicating themes of current interest (e.g., gender inequalities), but misses the opportunity of framing them in the broader, overarching concept of sustainable development. This may be a significant sustainability faux (error)—great political intentions need efficient implementation tools, not just political resolutions. To this end, we need well-narrated and framed sustainability themes communicated through mass media to activate the social norms that potentially support societally beneficial conduct. By undertaking an extensive mass media analysis, this paper offers rare empirical evidence on sustainability communication by the global mass media during the last ten years, and identifies the main caveats and challenges for sustainability proponents. As sustainability communication does not yet have its own theoretical framework, SDGs seem to offer a suitable mechanism for this.
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Pateman, Rachel, Heidi Tuhkanen, and Steve Cinderby. "Citizen Science and the Sustainable Development Goals in Low and Middle Income Country Cities." Sustainability 13, no. 17 (2021): 9534. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13179534.
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Progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is monitored using a set of targets and indicators. Gaps in official datasets have led to calls for the inclusion of data generated through citizen science (CS) and allied approaches. Co-benefits of CS mean these approaches could also contribute to localising, defining, and achieving the SDGs. However, mapping of current and potential contributions is needed, as well as an understanding of the challenges these approaches present. We undertake a semi-systematic review of past and current CS projects and assess them against dimensions of CS—spatial, temporal, thematic, process, and management—and their value for the SDGs set out by Fritz et al. in 2019, focusing on low and middle income country (LMIC) cities as key environments in the battle for sustainability. We conduct interviews with project leaders to further understand the challenges for CS in these contexts. We find opportunities for projects to monitor and achieve a wide range of goals, targets, and indicators. However, we find fewer projects in low income countries when compared with middle income countries. Challenges include balancing local needs with national monitoring requirements and a lack of long-term funding. Support is needed for LMICs to achieve the potential of CS.
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Zheng, Bohong, and Komi Bedra. "Recent Sustainability Performance in China: Strength-Weakness Analysis and Ranking of Provincial Cities." Sustainability 10, no. 9 (2018): 3063. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10093063.
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Since the 1992 United Nations Conference on environment and development held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and the adoption by China State Council in March 1994 of the “China Agenda 21”, sustainability has become a major issue in China urbanization policies. After more than two decades of development practice with a breakneck speed of urbanization, how sustainable is the recent development process in China? This paper combines the frameworks of Cities Prosperity Index (CPI) and Sustainable Cities Index (SCI) and propose a China Urban Sustainability Index by Fuzzy Evaluation (CUSI-FE) as a monitoring tool in the light of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). With 5 years data covering 51 indicators, the model is tested to assess the performance of provincial cities in China during 5-years period from 2012 to 2016 (the year of the adoption of the SDGs). The results reveal that the overall sustainability level in China is barely average with lower performances in environmental sustainability. Indeed, a strength/weakness analysis, coupled with sensitivity analysis shows that the economic productivity and the large infrastructure development have had a strong energy cost and a sensible impact on environmental quality. Sustainable energy measures and industrial waste recycling are more likely to improve the sustainability of the cities, while the GDP growth will continue to contribute significantly also.
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Bonnet, Jean, Eva Coll-Martínez, and Patricia Renou-Maissant. "Evaluating Sustainable Development by Composite Index: Evidence from French Departments." Sustainability 13, no. 2 (2021): 761. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13020761.
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Since the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals by the United Nations, sustainability has been a key priority for European governments. While previous studies have investigated the associations between indicators of sustainable development, few have directly considered a multidimensional approach to assess and compare the performance of regions in terms of sustainable development. As such, a comprehensive assessment of regional sustainable performance is thus still needed. In this paper, the concept of sustainability relies on the construction of six composite indices (environment and natural resources, energy transition, sustainable mobility, economic dynamism, social cohesion and solidarity, and governance and citizenship) with the aim to provide an evaluation framework for empirically comparing the performance of the 96 metropolitan French Departments. Each dimension is explored by spatial autocorrelation analysis and Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) to classify French Departments providing five different regional profiles of sustainable development. The findings make it possible to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the departments in the implementation of sustainable development. This approach provides the bases for a systematic monitoring of sustainable development policies at the regional scale.
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De Simone, Lorenzo, Dorian Navarro, Pietro Gennari, Anssi Pekkarinen, and Javier de Lamo. "Using Standardized Time Series Land Cover Maps to Monitor the SDG Indicator “Mountain Green Cover Index” and Assess Its Sensitivity to Vegetation Dynamics." ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information 10, no. 7 (2021): 427. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10070427.
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SDG indicators are instrumental for the monitoring of countries’ progress towards sustainability goals as set out by the UN Agenda 2030. Earth observation data can facilitate such monitoring and reporting processes, thanks to their intrinsic characteristics of spatial extensive coverage, high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution, and low costs. EO data can hence be used to regularly assess specific SDG indicators over very large areas, and to extract statistics at any given subnational level. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is the custodian agency for 21 out of the 231 SDG indicators. To fulfill this responsibility, it has invested in EO data from the outset, among others, by developing a new SDG indicator directly monitored with EO data: SDG indicator 15.4.2, the Mountain Green Cover Index (MGCI), for which the FAO produced initial baseline estimates in 2017. The MGCI is a very important indicator, allowing the monitoring of the health of mountain ecosystems. The initial FAO methodology involved visual interpretation of land cover types at sample locations defined by a global regular grid that was superimposed on satellite images. While this solution allowed the FAO to establish a first global MGCI baseline and produce MGCI estimates for the large majority of countries, several reporting countries raised concerns regarding: (i) the objectivity of the method; (ii) the difficulty in validating FAO estimates; (iii) the limited involvement of countries in estimating the MGCI; and (iv) the indicator’s limited capacity to account for forest encroachment due to agricultural expansion as well as the undesired expansion of green vegetation in mountain areas, resulting from the effect of global warming. To address such concerns, in 2020, the FAO introduced a new data collection approach that directly measures the indicator through a quantitative analysis of standardized land cover maps (European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative Land Cover maps—ESA CCI-LC). In so doing, this new approach addresses the first three of the four issues, while it also provides stronger grounds to develop a solution for the fourth issue—a solution that the FAO plans to present to the Interagency and Expert Group on SDG Indicators (IAEG-SDG) at its autumn 2021 session. This study (i) describes the new approach to estimate the MGCI indicator using ESA’s CCI-LC and products, (ii) assesses the accuracy of the new approach; (iii) reviews the limitations of the current SDG indicator definition to monitor progress towards SDG 15.4; and (iv) reflects on possible further adjustments of the indicator methodology in order to address them.
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Lisowski, Sergej, Markus Berger, Justus Caspers, Klaus Mayr-Rauch, Georg Bäuml, and Matthias Finkbeiner. "Criteria-Based Approach to Select Relevant Environmental SDG Indicators for the Automobile Industry." Sustainability 12, no. 21 (2020): 8811. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12218811.
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The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) cannot be met without the private sector. In order to contribute to the fulfillment of the SDGs, companies have to identify their influence and select relevant SDGs. However, so far no research has been conducted on the influence of companies or industries at the most concrete level in the SDG framework—the 247 SDG indicators. In this paper, a criteria-based approach to select relevant environmental SDG indicators for the automobile industry is developed. The three criteria—environmental impact, direct impact, and automobile impact—are defined. By means of a qualitative analysis, 31 influenceable indicators are selected and substantiated by an empirical analysis of the automobile industry’s impact. These indicators belong to 12 SDGs and demonstrate the broad influence of the automobile industry. The outcome of this study is a structured procedure for selecting relevant environmental SDG indicators. This procedure can be applied by companies and can also be adapted to other economic sectors. Finally, it is possible to quantify the level of influence of the selected indicators and thus measure the contributions of companies or economic sectors to the fulfillment of the SDGs.
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Huan, Yizhong, Haitao Li, and Tao Liang. "A New Method for the Quantitative Assessment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and a Case Study on Central Asia." Sustainability 11, no. 13 (2019): 3504. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11133504.
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Regarding the sustainable development goals (SDGs) formulated by the United Nations (UN), how to effectively measure, assess and compare the progress and trends of these SDGs in different countries was the problem we wanted to address. Based on past quantitative assessments, this paper proposed a new methodological framework for SDG assessment and analysis, and used two typical Central Asian countries, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, as the sample area to test the framework. Our study chose 209 indicators and indicator sets, including 429 specific indicators and collected relevant indicator data for the two countries from 2000 to 2017, then proposed a new direction for the unification of indicator data as well as methods for normalization. Afterward, the scores of each goal and SDG performance were calculated. This analysis was also done innovatively using the Chow Test to conduct further analysis of the SDG performance. According to the assessment, over those 18 years, Kyrgyzstan’s SDGs had been performing poorly, especially the economic SDGs, while the performance of Kazakhstan’s SDGs had remained in constant fluctuation. It could be said that the SDG performance in Central Asia as a whole was not very optimistic. It required the devotion of greater efforts in the gathering of different types of indicator data because there were still gaps in data collection between countries as well as the missing of time-series data, which could challenge the indicator selection and further restrict the follow-up assessment and analysis. The assessment framework presented in this paper can be applied for assessing the long-term performance of national SDGs of different countries, helping analyze the internal relationship dynamic among and within countries, underscoring specific issues of sustainable development, assessing policy and selecting development models and directions.
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Shih, Hsin-Yu, and Ying-Sheng Yao. "Indicators of Low-Carbon Management in the Leisure Industry: Research Using Examples in Taiwan and China." Sustainability 12, no. 10 (2020): 4326. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12104326.
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This study aimed to establish indicators of low-carbon management in the leisure industries in Taiwan and China to meet the demands of saving energy, reducing carbon emissions and slowing global warming. The Pushin Ranch in Taiwan and Lishan Farm in China were targeted as examples. Quantitative indicators were identified through interviews and questionnaire surveys with experts from the industrial, governmental and academic sectors, as well as data integration and statistical analysis using the Delphi method and a paired-samples t test. On the basis of 11 major sustainable tourism indicators proposed by the United Nations World Tourism Organization and the relevant literature, three dimensions were selected for investigation, namely organizational management and operation, ecotourism and social collaboration, along with five operational indicators and 42 assessment indicators. After the expert questionnaire and t test, a set of selection criteria was constructed based on the approval of more than 80% of the experts; 36 indicators were retained for Taiwan (Pushin Ranch met 17) and 29 were retained for China (Lishan Farm met 13). This allows industrial, governmental and academic units to establish management models and assessment indicators for the leisure industry to meet the demands of energy conservation and carbon reduction.
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Dushenko, Mariia, Clemet Thærie Bjorbæk, and Kenn Steger-Jensen. "Application of a Sustainability Model for Assessing the Relocation of a Container Terminal: A Case Study of Kristiansand Port." Sustainability 11, no. 1 (2018): 87. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11010087.
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Sustainable development, a new interdisciplinary paradigm, is attracting increasing attention from the global research community. It is an enhancement of sustainability principles. This study documents the findings from applying a sustainability assessment model framework by Koo and Ariaratnam (2008) for decision support in connection with the projection of major infrastructure investment in a port. The objective of this study is to support the decision-making process in a port development project and to verify the applicability of sustainability assessment using a sustainability assessment model for a terminal development project in an urban area of Scandinavia. The sustainability assessment model is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). A literature review of sustainability assessment models was conducted to find indicators for the AHP approach. Subsequently, a questionnaire was compiled and six decision-makers for projects in Scandinavian Ports in urban areas were selected for the case study. The hypothesis is that decision-makers of major infrastructure investment projects in publicly owned ports must adhere to sustainable development principles and support the United Nations sustainable development goals that are a call for action by all countries. When documenting a sustainable design of port projects, decision-makers use theoretical sustainability models to conceptualize features of a sustainable society. However, a major challenge for the decision-makers was that the sustainability assessment results did not show, as expected, the same results as those of three existing theoretical sustainability models. The results of the sustainability assessment model were scrutinised and benchmarked against existing theoretical sustainability models, namely: a sustainability stool, a 3-overlappingcircles model, and a 3-nesteddependencies model. The benchmark results indicate a disparity between the importance of what sustainability models describe and what is important in practice.
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Head, Josephine S., Martha E. Crockatt, Zahra Didarali, Mary-Jane Woodward, and Bridget A. Emmett. "The Role of Citizen Science in Meeting SDG Targets around Soil Health." Sustainability 12, no. 24 (2020): 10254. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su122410254.
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Healthy soils are vital for sustainable development, yet consistent soil monitoring is scarce, and soils are poorly represented in United Nations Sustainable Development Goals targets and indicators. There is a clear need for specific ambitions on soil health, accompanying metrics, and cost-effective monitoring methodologies. In this paper, we review citizen science methods and platforms which could compliment structured soil monitoring programmes and contribute to filling this knowledge gap. We focussed on soil structure, organic carbon, biodiversity, nutrients, and vegetation cover. Each method was classified as red, amber, or green (RAG) in terms of time requirements, cost, and data reliability. Toolkits were assessed in terms of cost and requirement for specialist kit. We found 32 methods across the five indicators. Three soil monitoring methods scored green on all criteria, and 20 (63%) scored green on two criteria. We found 13 toolkits appropriate for citizen science monitoring of soil health. Three of them are free, easy to use, and do not require specialist equipment. Our review revealed multiple citizen science methods and toolkits for each of the five soil health indicators. This should pave the way towards a cost-effective, joined-up approach on soil health, informing national and international policy and supporting the move towards farmer-led, data-driven decision-making.
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Chalemba, Leonard. "Application of Telecommunications Technologies to Agricultural Market Information Systems." International Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Information Systems 7, no. 3 (2016): 60–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.4018/ijaeis.2016070104.
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This review presents a comparison of the potential of offering agricultural market information services that incorporate information and communications technology (ICT) in Ghana and Malawi. A comprehensive analysis was done involving data on economic indicators related to telecommunications services provided by the statistics division of the United Nations, and the current initiatives on agricultural market information systems in the two countries. The review reveals that Malawi needs more work to be done to improve service delivery of its ICT-based market information system projects than Ghana. Main areas for improvement are mobile phone subscriptions by low-income smallholder farmers, Internet access by the same category of farmers, and sustainability of offering the services in question without heavy reliance on governments and international donor agencies. The recommendations drawn from this review do not only apply to Malawi and Ghana but also to other Sub-Saharan African countries.
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Nagy, Júlia, József Benedek, and Kinga Ivan. "Measuring Sustainable Development Goals at a Local Level: A Case of a Metropolitan Area in Romania." Sustainability 10, no. 11 (2018): 3962. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su10113962.
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Metropolitan areas became the breeding ground for economic, political, and cultural concentration as well as for creativity and innovation. Therefore, sustainability within the urban dimension plays a crucial role in the overall success to attain the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) and their targets under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015. Nevertheless, for cities, regions, or countries to monitor and measure their progress, there is a need for harmonized and reliable indicators. Consequently, the current study addresses sustainability on a local level by measuring the extent to which a Romanian metropolitan area achieves the SDGs agreed to in 2015 by the 193-member states of the United Nations. The paper analyses 16 out of the 17 SD (Sustainable Development) goals as the goal titled “Life below water” was not applicable. Relying on mainly quantitative data, we used the method of normalization and aggregation based on the arithmetic mean, which helped us to calculate the scores attained by each of the component localities of the metropolitan area within the SDGs and their overall SDG index. Next to this, the study combines the quantitative data analysis with a GIS (Geographic Information System) computer mapping technique. The results show that the municipality achieved the best results in the metropolitan area and a vertical development process from west to the east prevails. Measuring progress through a well-defined set of indicators and an optimization technique proved to be crucial in defining attainments’ levels within the metropolitan area.
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Karobliene, Vilma, and Vaida Pilinkiene. "The Sharing Economy in the Framework of Sustainable Development Goals: Case of European Union Countries." Sustainability 13, no. 15 (2021): 8312. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su13158312.
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The aim of this research study was to establish a framework for the relationships between the sharing economy and the Sustainable Development Goals (hereinafter, SDGs) set by the United Nations. There are 17 SDGs with 169 targets, which, in the scientific literature, are classified into sustainability dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. Thus, the objective of the current research was to perform an economic assessment of the sharing economy in the context of SDGs by analyzing European Union countries with a particular emphasis on their economic growth. Although the sharing economy has been analyzed from different aspects in recent scientific articles, the impact of this phenomenon on national economies in the framework of SDGs is lacking. Firstly, based on the latest research on the sharing economy from the perspective of sustainable development, a theoretical model of the sharing economy was developed in this study. Secondly, SDG indicators in the economic dimension and other key economic growth variables for European Union countries were collected. Thirdly, a cluster analysis was performed to determine the impact of the sharing economy on European Union countries in terms of SDGs in the economic dimension. The current study contributes to the existing research by analyzing the sharing economy from the perspective of sustainable economic development and highlights that this business model positively impacts countries’ economic sustainability in terms of SDGs.