Sustainability measurement is a set of frameworks or indicators used to measure howsustainable something is. This includes processes, products, services and businesses.[1] Sustainability is difficult to quantify and it may even be impossible to measure as there is no fixed definition.[2] To measure sustainability, frameworks and indicators consider environmental, social and economic domains. The metrics vary by use case and are still evolving. They includeindicators, benchmarks and audits. They includesustainability standards and certification systems likeFairtrade andOrganic. They also involve indices andaccounting. They can include assessment, appraisal[3] and other reporting systems. The metrics are used over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.[4][2]
A set of well defined and harmonized indicators can help to make sustainability tangible. Those indicators are expected to be identified and adjusted through empirical observations (trial and error).[9] The most common critiques are related to issues like data quality, comparability, objective function and the necessary resources.[10] However a more general criticism is coming from the project management community: "How can a sustainable development be achieved at global level if we cannot monitor it in any single project?".[11]
Sustainable development has become the primary yardstick of improvement for industries and is being integrated into effective government and business strategies. The needs for sustainability measurement include improvement in the operations, benchmarking performances, tracking progress, and evaluating process, among others.[12] For the purposes of building sustainability indicators, frameworks can be developed and the steps are as follows:[13]
Defining the system- A proper and definite system is defined. A proper system boundary is drawn for further analysis.
Elements of the system- The whole input, output of materials, emissions, energy and other auxiliary elements are properly analysed. The working conditions, process parameters and characteristics are defined in this step.
Indicators selection- The indicators is selected of which measurement has to be done. This forms the metric for this system whose analysis is done in the further steps.
Assessment and Measurement- Proper assessing tools are used and tests or experiments are performed for the pre-defined indicators to give a value for the indicators measurement.
Analysis and reviewing the results- Once the results have been obtained, proper analysis and interpretation is done and tools are used to improve and revise the processes present in the system.
The principal objective of sustainability indicators is to inform public policy-making as part of the process ofsustainability governance.[14] Sustainability indicators can provide information on any aspect of the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities.[15] Building strategic indicator sets generally deals with just a few simple questions: what is happening? (descriptive indicators), does it matter and are we reaching targets? (performance indicators), are we improving? (efficiency indicators), are measures working? (policy effectiveness indicators), and are we generally better off? (total welfare indicators).
One popular general framework used by TheEuropean Environment Agency uses a slight modification of theOrganisation for Economic Co-operation and DevelopmentDPSIR system.[17] This breaks up environmental impact into five stages. Social and economic developments (consumption and production)(D)rive or initiate environmental(P)ressures which, in turn, produces a change in the(S)tate of the environment which leads to(I)mpacts of various kinds. Societal(R)esponses (policy guided by sustainability indicators) can be introduced at any stage of this sequence of events.
A 2024 study introduced aSpatial Cooperative Simulation (SCS)"framework that models the co-evolution of land use, population, and economic land data to better predict and plan for sustainable regional development. This framework demonstrated improved accuracy in predicting sustainable urban development for China's Greater Bay Area.[18]
A study concluded that social indicators and, therefore, sustainable development indicators, are scientific constructs whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making.[19] TheInternational Institute for Sustainable Development has similarly developed a political policy framework, linked to a sustainability index for establishing measurable entities and metrics. The framework consists of six core areas:
TheUnited Nations Global Compact Cities Programme has defined sustainable political development in a way that broadens the usual definition beyond states and governance. The political is defined as the domain of practices and meanings associated with basic issues of social power as they pertain to the organisation, authorisation, legitimation and regulation of a social life held in common. This definition is in accord with the view that political change is important for responding to economic, ecological and cultural challenges. It also means that the politics of economic change can be addressed. They have listed seven subdomains of the domain of politics:[20]
Due to the large numbers of various indicators that could be used for sustainability measurement, proper assessment and monitoring is required.[24] In order to organize the chaos and disorder in selecting the metrics, specific organizations have been set up which groups the metrics under different categories and defines proper methodology to implement it for measurement. They provide modelling techniques and indexes to compare the measurement and have methods to convert the scientific measurement results into easy to understand terms.[25]
United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development
The UNCommission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has published a list of 140 indicators which covers environmental, social, economical and institutional aspects of sustainable development.[28]
In the last couple of decades, there has arisen a crowded toolbox of quantitative methods used to assess sustainability — including measures of resource use likelife cycle assessment, measures of consumption like theecological footprint and measurements of quality of environmental governance like theEnvironmental Performance Index. The following is a list of quantitative "tools" used by sustainability scientists - the different categories are for convenience only as defining criteria will intergrade. It would be too difficult to list all those methods available at different levels of the organization so those listed here are at the global level only.
A benchmark is a point of reference for a measurement. Once a benchmark is established it is possible to assess trends and measure progress. Baseline global data on a range of sustainabilityparameters is available in thelist of global sustainability statistics.
A sustainability index is an aggregate sustainability indicator that combines multiple sources of data. There is aConsultative Group on Sustainable Development Indices[29]
Many environmental problems ultimately relate to the human effect on those globalbiogeochemical cycles that are critical to life. Over the last decade monitoring these cycles have become a more urgent target for research:
Sustainability auditing and reporting are used to evaluate the sustainability performance of a company, organization, or other entity using various performance indicators.[33] Popular auditing procedures available at the global level include:
input-output analysis can be used for any level of organization with a financial budget. It relates environmental impact to expenditure by calculating theresource intensity of goods and services.
Alife cycle analysis is often conducted when assessing the sustainability of a product or prototype.[39] The decision to choose materials is heavily weighted on its longevity, renewability, and efficiency. These factors ensure that researchers are conscious of community values that align with positive environmental, social, and economic impacts.[39]
An important task for resource theory (energy economics) is to develop methods to optimize resource conversion processes.[41] These systems are described and analyzed by means of the methods of mathematics and the natural sciences.[42] Human factors, however, have dominated the development of our perspective of the relationship between nature and society since at least theIndustrial Revolution, and in particular, have influenced how we describe and measure the economic impacts of changes in resource quality. A balanced view of these issues requires an understanding of the physical framework in which all human ideas, institutions, and aspirations must operate.[43]
When oil production first began in the mid-nineteenth century, the largest oil fields recovered fifty barrels of oil for every barrel used in the extraction, transportation, and refining. This ratio is often referred to as the Energy Return on Energy Investment (EROI orEROEI). Currently, between one and five barrels of oil are recovered for each barrel-equivalent of energy used in the recovery process.[44] As the EROEI drops to one, or equivalently thenet energy gain falls to zero, the oil production is no longer a net energy source.[45] This happens long before the resource is physically exhausted.
Note that it is important to understand the distinction between a barrel of oil, which is a measure of oil, and abarrel of oil equivalent (BOE), which is a measure of energy. Many sources of energy, such as fission, solar, wind, and coal, are not subject to the same near-term supply restrictions that oil is. Accordingly, even an oil source with an EROEI of 0.5 can be usefully exploited if the energy required to produce that oil comes from a cheap and plentiful energy source. Availability of cheap, but hard to transport, natural gas in some oil fields has led to usingnatural gas to fuelenhanced oil recovery. Similarly, natural gas in huge amounts is used to power mostAthabasca Tar Sands plants. Cheap natural gas has also led toethanol fuel produced with a net EROEI of less than 1, although figures in this area are controversial because methods to measure EROEI are in debate.[citation needed]
Our principal constraints are cultural. During the last two centuries we have known nothing but exponential growth and in parallel we have evolved what amounts to an exponential-growth culture, a culture so heavily dependent upon the continuance of exponential growth for its stability that it is incapable of reckoning with problems of nongrowth.
Some economists describe the problem asuneconomic growth or afalse economy. At the political right,Fred Ikle has warned about "conservatives addicted to the Utopia of Perpetual Growth".[47] Brief oil interruptions in 1973 and 1979 markedly slowed – but did not stop – the growth of worldGDP.[48]
David Pimentel, professor of ecology andagriculture atCornell University, andMario Giampietro, senior researcher at the National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition (INRAN), place in their studyFood, Land, Population and the U.S. Economy the maximumU.S. population for asustainable economy at 200 million. To achieve a sustainable economyworld population will have to be reduced by two-thirds, says the study.[50] Without population reduction, this study predicts an agricultural crisis beginning in 2020, becoming critical c. 2050. Thepeaking of global oil along with the decline in regionalnatural gas production may precipitate this agricultural crisis sooner than generally expected.Dale Allen Pfeiffer claims that coming decades could see spiralingfood prices without relief and massivestarvation on a global level such as never experienced before.[51][52]
There is an active debate about most suitable sustainability indicator's use and by adopting a thermodynamic approach through the concept of "exergy" and Hubbert peaks, it is possible to incorporate all into a single measure ofresource depletion.The exergy analysis of minerals could constitute a universal and transparent tool for the management of the earth's physical stock.[53][24]
Hubbert peak can be used as a metric for sustainability and depletion of non-renewable resources. It can be used as reference for many metrics for non-renewable resources such as:[54]
Doug Reynolds predicted in 2005 that the North American peak would occur in 2007.[55] Bentley (p. 189) predicted a world "decline in conventional gas production from about 2020".[56]
Peak coal is significantly further out than peak oil, but we can observe the example ofanthracite in the US, a high grade coal whose production peaked in the 1920s. Anthracite was studied by Hubbert, and matches a curve closely.[57] Pennsylvania's coal production also matches Hubbert's curve closely, but this does not mean that coal in Pennsylvania is exhausted—far from it. If production in Pennsylvania returned at its all-time high, there are reserves for 190 years. Hubbert had recoverablecoal reserves worldwide at 2500 billion metric tons and peaking around 2150 (depending on usage).
More recent estimates suggest an earlier peak.Coal: Resources and Future Production (PDF 630KB[58]), published on April 5, 2007 by the Energy Watch Group (EWG), which reports to the German Parliament, found that global coal production could peak in as few as 15 years.[59] Reporting on this Richard Heinberg also notes that the date of peak annual energetic extraction from coal will likely come earlier than the date of peak in quantity of coal (tons per year) extracted as the most energy-dense types of coal have been mined most extensively.[60] A second study,The Future of Coal by B. Kavalov and S. D. Peteves of the Institute for Energy (IFE), prepared for European Commission Joint Research Centre, reaches similar conclusions and states that""coal might not be so abundant, widely available and reliable as an energy source in the future".[59]
Work byDavid Rutledge ofCaltech predicts that the total of world coal production will amount to only about 450gigatonnes.[61] Thisimplies that coal is running out faster than usually assumed.
Finally, insofar as globalpeak oil and peak in natural gas are expected anywhere from imminently to within decades at most, any increase in coal production (mining) per annum to compensate for declines in oil or NG production, would necessarily translate to an earlier date of peak as compared with peak coal under a scenario in which annual production remains constant.
In a paper in 1956,[62] after a review of US fissionable reserves, Hubbert notes of nuclear power:
There is promise, however, provided mankind can solve its international problems and not destroy itself with nuclear weapons, and provided world population (which is now expanding at such a rate as to double in less than a century) can somehow be brought under control, that we may at last have found an energy supply adequate for our needs for at least the next few centuries of the "foreseeable future."
... you would have to build 10,000 of the largest power plants that are feasible by engineering standards in order to replace the 10 terawatts of fossil fuel we're burning today ... that's a staggering amount and if you did that, the known reserves of uranium would last for 10 to 20 years at that burn rate. So, it's at best a bridging technology ... You can use the rest of the uranium to breed plutonium 239 then we'd have at least 100 times as much fuel to use. But that means you're making plutonium, which is an extremely dangerous thing to do in the dangerous world that we live in.
Hubbert applied his theory to "rock containing an abnormally high concentration of a given metal"[65] and reasoned that the peak production for metals such ascopper,tin,lead,zinc and others would occur in the time frame of decades andiron in the time frame of two centuries like coal. The price of copper rose 500% between 2003 and 2007[66] was by some attributed topeak copper.[67][68] Copper prices later fell, along with many other commodities and stock prices, as demand shrank from fear of aglobal recession.[69]Lithium availability is a concern for a fleet ofLi-ion battery using cars but a paper published in 1996 estimated that world reserves are adequate for at least 50 years.[70] A similar prediction[71] forplatinum use in fuel cells notes that the metal could be easily recycled.
Phosphorus supplies are essential to farming and depletion of reserves is estimated at somewhere from 60 to 130 years.[72] Individual countries supplies vary widely; without a recycling initiative America's supply[73] is estimated around 30 years.[74] Phosphorus supplies affect total agricultural output which in turn limits alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.
Hubbert's original analysis did not apply to renewable resources. Howeverover-exploitation often results in a Hubbert peak nonetheless. A modified Hubbert curve applies to any resource that can be harvested faster than it can be replaced.[75]
For example, a reserve such as theOgallala Aquifer can be mined at a rate that far exceeds replenishment. This turns much of the world's underground water[76] and lakes[77] into finite resources with peak usage debates similar to oil. These debates usually center around agriculture and suburban water usage but generation of electricity[78] from nuclear energy or coal and tar sands mining mentioned above is also water resource intensive. The termfossil water is sometimes used to describe aquifers whose water is not being recharged.
Fisheries: At least one researcher has attempted to perform Hubbert linearization (Hubbert curve) on thewhaling industry, as well as charting the transparently dependent price of caviar on sturgeon depletion.[79] Another example is thecod of the North Sea.[80] The comparison of the cases of fisheries and of mineral extraction tells us that the human pressure on the environment is causing a wide range of resources to go through a depletion cycle which follows a Hubbert curve.
Sustainability measurements and indicators are part of an ever-evolving and changing process and has various gaps to be filled to achieve an integrated framework and model. The following are some of the breaks in continuity:
Global indicators- Due to differences in social, economical, and environmental conditions of countries, each country has its own indicators and indexes to measure sustainability, which can lead to improper and varying interpretation at the global level. Hence, there common indexes and measuring parameters would allow comparisons among countries.[81][82] In agriculture, comparable indicators are already in use. Coffee and cocoa studies in twelve countries[83] using common indicators are among the first to report insights from comparing across countries.
Policymaking- After the indicators are defined and analysis is done for the measurements from the indicators, proper policymaking methodology can be set up to improve the results achieved. Policymaking would implement changes in the particular inventory list used for measuring, which could lead to better results.[84][85]
Development of individual indicators- Value-based indicators can be developed to measure the efforts by every human being part of the ecosystem. This can affect policymaking, as policy is most effective when there is public participation.[81]
Data collection- Due to a number of factors including inappropriate methodology applied to data collection, dynamics of change in data, lack of adequate time and improper framework in analysis of data, measurements can quickly become outdated, inaccurate, and unpresentable. Data collections built up from the grass-roots level allow context-appropriate frameworks and regulations associated with it. A hierarchy of data collection starts from local zones to state level, to national level and finally contributing to the global level measurements. Data collected can be made easy to understand so that it could be correctly interpreted and presented through graphs, charts, and analysis bars.[86][84][81]
Integration across academic disciplines- Sustainability involves the whole ecosystem and is intended to have a holistic approach. For this purpose measurements intend to involve data and knowledge from all academic backgrounds. Moreover, these disciplines and insights are intended to align with the societal actions.[81][84][82][85][86]
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