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Sustainability Indicators - a communitybuilders toolkit

This selected annotated bibliography of resources on sustainability indicators, has been developed from users contributions to communitybuilders.nsw.

There is so much interest in sustainability indicators and development on the communitybuilders.nsw website that we have decided to compile resources that many of you have sent to us, to share with other users. We have created this annotated bibliography of online references from your input and hope that you continue to contribute to this resource.

Acknowledgement: This bibliography has been compiled by Felicity Rooney for communitybuilders.nsw.

Sustainability indicators and development are constantly being defined and redefined.

One definition from the Brundtland Report 'Our Common Future' states:
'Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.'

Australia's National Strategy for Ecologically Sustainable Development 1992 (NSESD) defines ecologically sustainable development (ESD) as:
'using, conserving and enhancing the community's resources so that ecological processes, on which life depends, are maintained, and the total quality of life, now and in the future, can be increased'.

Sharon Pepperdine says in her article on Social Indicators of Rural Community Sustainability: An Example from the Woady Yaloak Catchment:
Since the notion of sustainability embraces ecological, economic and social issues and the complex interdependence between these dimensions, a broad approach needs to adopted at the planning and management level to shed light on this multi-dimensional picture.

This bibliography has been separated into Australian and International resources.

Australian Resources:

Australia's Implementation of Agenda 21
This is a review of progress made since the united nations conference on environment and development, 1992. You can read the information that was provided by the Government of Australia to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development, Fifth Session 7-25 April 1997 New York
http://www.un.org/esa/earthsummit/astra-cp.htm

Development of Headline Sustainability Indicators in Australia Paper submitted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Australian government completed the task of determining a set of headline sustainability indicators. The paper describes the framework used, the process undertaken and the results.
http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/2001/10/env/wp.15.e.pdf
(also see Sustainability Development Indicators Progress on Their Development below)

Ecologically Sustainable Development - Environment Australia
This web site aims to promote and support programs, services and policies for sustainable development in Australia and to provide links to useful sustainability information including:

What is Sustainable Development?
A Brief History of Sustainable Development
How Can We Achieve Sustainable Development in Australia?
Environment Resource Officer Scheme
Local Agenda 21 Program
National Sustainability Initiatives

http://www.ea.gov.au/esd/index.html

Ecologically Sustainable Development of Fisheries
Ecologically Sustainable Development (or ESD) is a dynamic concept that seeks to integrate short and long-term economic, social and environmental effects into the decision-making of government and industry. ESD was formulated over 10 years ago, but until recently has proved hard to implement effectively and demonstrate its achievement, in a practical manner. All Australian fisheries agencies and industry groups are committed to implementing the principles of ESD.
This website is part of a national initiative to implement ESD within the management of all Australian fisheries and aquaculture resources. It is aimed at assisting fishery managers, the industry, environmental groups and the wider community in understanding
http://www.fisheries-esd.com/c/home/index.cfm

Ecologically Sustainable Development - The last 10 years
An article by Merrill Findlay, author of the literary fiction "Republic of Women" (UQP, 1999).
"We were all a decade younger then. Bob Hawke was in The Lodge, Ros Kelly was Minister for the Environment, and Our Common Future, the 1987 report of the World Commission on Environment and Development (or Brundtland Report), had been published long enough for the words "Sustainable Development" to be on the lips of every senior bureaucrat and politician in every member State of the United Nations. Except Australia."
http://dazed.org/npa/npj/200010/Octfeatures-ESD1.htm

Environmental Sustainability Kit
The Environmental Sustainability Kit is a set of tools-ideas, procedures, and resources to help local leaders, residents, and businesses work toward making their own communities more sustainable.
http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/building_stronger/safer/env_sustain_kit.html

Improving Quality of Life in Newcastle - Indicators of a sustainable community.
Like many communities, Newcastle is striving to redress past practices that had a bad impact on the environment and on the social and cultural fabric of the City. Council, together with the community, is also working hard to put in place policies and processes which will guide the development and management of the City in a manner that preserves and enhances those characteristics of Newcastle on which the quality of life for Novocastrians is assessed.
http://www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au/about/sustainable/fullreport.pdf

SEA News
Newsletter on bioeconomic and social research on Sustainability and Economics in Agriculture
Editor: Dave Pannell, University of Western Australia. This website provides all issues of the SEA News with listing of their articles and research, for example:

What is the value of a sustainability indicator?
Sustainability Indicators for Natural Resource Management & Policy
Comments by Phil Price on sustainability, Landcare and regulation

Follow this link to SEA News
Social Indicators of Rural Community Sustainability: An Example from the Woady Yaloak Catchment
A report by Sharon Pepperdine from the Department of Geography & Environmental Studies, The University of Melbourne. Taken from the Abstract:
"An understanding of social issues is imperative for effective planning and policy development. Furthermore, integrating human needs in planning, along with environmental and economic considerations, is fundamental to foster sustainable development. In particular, social sustainability, or well-being, of communities is integral to any assessment of sustainability since it reflects, and impacts upon, ecological and economic sustainability.
Issues fundamental to the social sustainability of rural communities have been identified through a case study of communities in rural Victoria. This provides a comprehensive tool which can not only offer a framework to integrate social values to monitor trends in the social dimensions of sustainability more broadly, but also can be used as a locally meaningful guide to assist community planning in a rural context."
http://www.regional.org.au/au/countrytowns/strategies/pepperdine.htm

Strengthening Rural Communities Resource Kit
The Resource Kit is designed as a practical manual to assist in planning and undertaking a process of community renewal. It functions as a toolkit and reference manual for information about community sustainability and resilience, especially in rural and regional communities.
http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/rural_regional/resources/srctoc.html

Sustainability in Western Australia
The Sustainability Policy Unit from the Western Australian Government regularly updates this site with new information on sustainability issues relevant to Western Australia. The site includes discussion papers on sustainability and links to other sustainability websites.
http://www.sustainability.dpc.wa.gov.au/docs/SustainabilityInformation.htm

Sustainable Community Indicators
Resources on Community Sustainability Indicators that measure progress toward a sustainable economy, society and environment.
http://www.communitybuilders.nsw.gov.au/getting_started/statistics/indic.html

Sustainable Development
The Environment Gateway was officially launched on the 4th of June 2002. The Environment Gateway, developed by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment on behalf of the State Government of Victoria, helps to improve access to on-line environmental information by connecting users to a range of government and other relevant websites publishing environmental information, data and reports. The website has an excellent listing of resources on sustainability.
http:///#Top

Sustainable Development Case Studies
These 'executive summaries' of actual attempts to pursue some aspect of sustainable development were created by the students of an undergraduate senior seminar at Colby College. All are designed to be two pages or less and are fully referenced for those who wish to consult the original sources. The case studies can be accessed by clicking on the topic headings or by scrolling down through the subject areas.
http://www.colby.edu/personal/t/thtieten/cases.html

Sustainability Development Indicators in Australia: Progress on their Development
Paper submitted by G.Oakley, Australian Bureau of Statistics. The main sections in this paper cover:

some background on definitions
sustainable development indicator work for agriculture, forests and fisheries
ABS activities concerning indicators of sustainable development
an outline of some issues arising from an Australian conference which examined indicator of national progress.

http://www.unece.org/stats/documents/1997/09/env_meth/11.e.pdf
Sustaining Our Communities
The International Local Agenda 21 Conference was held in Adelaide from March 3-6, 2002. This conference provided a timely forum to discuss approaches to sustainable development and advise Australia's input to the Johannesburg Summit 2002. This website provides links where you can download the proceedings and papers from the conference.
http://www.adelaide.sa.gov.au/soc

Triple Bottom Line Toolkit

The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) is the international environmental agency for local governments.

The TBL Toolkit is an ongoing collaborative effort between ICLEI-Australia/New Zealand, the City of Melbourne and the local government sector. The first phase of the toolkit was initiated as a result of the Local Leaders in Sustainability Forum held in 2001, where the need to share practical examples of how TBL is being applied in local government was identified.

The Tools are divided into:

Reporting
Planning and Policy
Decision making

There are also case studies.
Follow this link to the Triple Bottom Line Toolkit (opens in a new browser window)

International Resources:

Creating systems solutions for sustainable development through industrial ecology
This is a paper on sustainability by Indigo Development that includes:\

the unsustainability of cities
communities as living systems
eco industrial parks
industrial ecosystems
municipal infrastructure
sustaining new towns

http://www.indigodev.com/Sustain.html
Earth Council
The Earth Council website has three programs:

The Earth Charter
International Ombudsman Centre for the Environment and Development
The National Councils for Sustainable Development

All three are sites that look at issues surrounding sustainability.
http://www.ecouncil.ac.cr/

Guidelines and Principles for Sustainable Community Design
A study of sustainable design and planning strategies in North America from an urban design perspective. This is a thesis by Robert Hsin submitted to the faculty of the School of Architecture at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
From the Abstract:
"The following study is an attempt to understand the broad scope of sustainable design. The vehicle used is a research and distillation of existing sustainable design theories, strategies, principles, and guidelines, with a focus on an urban planning scale. This thesis is a compilation of the most prevalent sustainable design themes which run through all the various existing information on this topic. From these common themes, a series of sustainable design guidelines and principles, covering the complete design spectrum of this topic is proposed."
http://edesign.state.fl.us/fdi/edesign/news/9607/thesis/thesis.htm

Santa Monica Sustainable City Program
"The City of Santa Monica recognises that we live in a period of great environmental crisis. As a community, we need to create the basis for a more sustainable way of life both locally and globally through the safeguarding and enhancing of our resources and by preventing harm to the natural environment and human health. We are resolved that our impact on the natural environment must not jeopardize the prospects of future generations."
The Sustainable City Program includes information and resources on guiding principles, indicators and sustainability policy areas.
http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/environment/policy

Sustainable Measures
This website is about indicators of sustainable community and the ways to measure how well a community is meeting the needs and expectations of its present and future members. One of the primary goals of the site is to explain what indicators are, how indicators relate to sustainability, how to identify good indicators of sustainability, and how indicators can be used to measure progress toward building a sustainable community. There is an excellent resource section which includes communities that are working on indicators, organisations that provide assistance to communities and groups working on sustainability issues, other useful web links and written materials.
http://www.sustainablemeasures.com/

Sustainable Production
The Lowell Centre for Sustainable Production in Massachussetts develops, studies and promotes environmentally sound systems of production, healthy work environmetns and economically viable work organisations.
http://www.sustainableproduction.org/

Sustainable Seattle
the aim of Sustainable seattle is to:

Promote sustainability and sustainable development at a local and regional scale
Solve fundamental development problems using a system-based framework that involves stakeholders and interested parties in the creation of sustainable solutions.
Inspire others to make sustainability work, helping them put sustainability into practice by developing and sharing ideas, tools, and frameworks as well as convening community-based projects.
Foster long-term social change through policy advocacy, education and civic action.

They provide lists of publications and resources on sustainability.
http://www.sustainableseattle.org/

Sustainability Reporting from the Toxics Use Reduction Institute, Massachusetts  - The Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI) researches, tests and promotes pollution prevention and alternatives to toxic chemicals used in Massachusetts industries and communities.
http://www.turi.org/content/content/view/full/2180

U.S. Department of Energy's Smart Communities Network
More and more cities, villages, neighbourhoods and regions are using sustainable development as a guiding principle not only for near-term projects, but also for planning their futures. On this website, you'll be able to:

Read about other communities that have discovered the benefits of sustainable development;
Locate technical and financial resources that can help your community plan and carry out sustainable development projects; and
Access model codes and ordinances other communities have used to implement sustainable development.

http://www.sustainable.doe.gov/

World Summit on Sustainable Development
The World Summit on Sustainable Development(also known as the WSSD, Earth Summit III or Rio +10) took place in Johannesburg, South Africa between August 26th and September 4th 2002... approximately 10 years after the Rio Earth Summit and 30 years after the Stockholm Earth Summit.
This website offers access to useful links on sustainable development, biodiversity and World Summit and aims to help the non-specialist to become involved in the discussion of local and international issues.
http://www.earthsummit.info/

World Wide Web Virtual Library on Sustainable Development
This site is a gateway to the Sustainability resources on the internet.
http://www.ulb.ac.be/ceese/meta/sustvl.html

United Nations Sustainable Development
The Division for Sustainable Development is dedicated to improving the well being of present and future generations through the promotion of sustainable development.
http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/

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Last modified: 07 Jun 2006