Assessing sustainability: a technical fix or a means of social learning?

Abstract

The contextual nature of sustainability makes it extremely difficult to measure. Across the world each region has a specific environment and history that has shaped values and perceptions of the local community. In response, a wide range of tools has been developed that employ differing techniques to measure sustainability. These have a range of applications from global to site-specific scales. However, it is yet to be resolved whether assessments made using these tools reflect a technical focus with no close links to the knowledge and perceptions of stakeholders, community and management decisions, or whether the assessments reflect the knowledge and perceptions of local stakeholders and the community. In the southwest region of Victoria, Australia, a sustainability index called AIRS (An Index of Regional Sustainability) has recently been developed. This tool is based on indicators selected by stakeholders and considers relationships between the indicators. The aim of this paper is to report an ex-post evaluation of the AIRS sustainability assessment conducted at a subcatchment scale. The evaluation assesses AIRS's ability to assess regional sustainability and compares and contrasts the subcatchment assessments with the knowledge and perceptions of stakeholders and the community. A participatory approach that acknowledges key stakeholders was used for the evaluation process. Representatives from four stakeholder groups were interviewed to elicit their views of the AIRS assessment, its relevance, quality, applicability and priorities for future development. Strengths and weaknesses of AIRS are revealed and its contribution to social learning is highlighted.

Sustainability Reporting: An Approach to Get the Right Mix of Theory and Practicality for Local Actors

“…Complexity of sustainability; No agreed or consistent approach to development of locally relevant tools; Complex measuring process; Contested nature of some sustainability tools; Existing tools not locally relevant; Lack of transparency in some sustainability tools; No practical tools that can be used to direct policy and decision making; Lack of ownership; Confusion with performance indicators; Undefined aggregation methods [4,[19][20][21][22] One issue for local actors (i.e., decision makers and other stakeholders including local community) is the complexity and usability of current sustainability reporting tools. As our understanding of sustainability and how to measure it increases, sustainability reporting mechanisms have become increasing complex (Figure 1), from simple indicator based reporting to complex indices based on statistical analysis of the indicators' interactions and impact on sustainability.…”

“…However, these attempts to produce a holistic integrated sustainability index have produced indices that are increasing complex, lack transparency in how the index is produced, and fail to provide information on the community's sustainability in a way that is useful for informing decision making. For example, An Index of Regional Sustainability [4,5] which was based on locally relevant indicators, a scientifically robust multi-criteria analysis and embedded in sustainability theory, yet 6 years after it was developed it has not been adopted by local actors [22]. This means that these indices, although embedded in sustainability theory and scientifically sound, are not practical for use by local actors to determine what areas are in most need of change to improve the community's sustainability.…”

“…There are many reasons that local governments are not using sustainability reporting, including issues of capacity of local government [7][8][9][10][11], commitment to sustainability [7,[11][12][13][14], coordination of council departments, policy, tiers of government and agencies [7,[15][16][17], community support for sustainability [7,9,11,12,18] and specific issues related to sustainability reporting [19][20][21][22][23] (see Table 1). Local governments are overstretched and under resourced, particularly those in rural areas [7], and they lack the expertise, skills and knowledge to carry out sustainability initiatives including reporting [7,11].…”

Integrated co-operative governance in the context of sustainable development

“…These challenges include the more than 90 definitions of sustainable development (Becker, 2010), concepts which are very broad and there seems to be a lack of applicable, tested and validated comprehensive frameworks and/or models, with applicable and effective guidelines for implementation (Jabbour & Santos 2008). Moreover, sustainable development and the success of sustainability is a value judgment; some areas could only be assessed by inference from what is observable and not always through quantifiable measurement (Becker, 2010;Wallis, Kelly & Graymore, 2010). Globally, both managers and public policy-makers are researching approaches and/or frameworks to assist them (Wallis, Kelly & Graymore, 2010;Morrow & Rondinelli, 2002).…”

“…Moreover, sustainable development and the success of sustainability is a value judgment; some areas could only be assessed by inference from what is observable and not always through quantifiable measurement (Becker, 2010;Wallis, Kelly & Graymore, 2010). Globally, both managers and public policy-makers are researching approaches and/or frameworks to assist them (Wallis, Kelly & Graymore, 2010;Morrow & Rondinelli, 2002).…”