Assigning results of the Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment (ToSIA) to products of a forest-wood-chain

A Tool for Sustainability Impact Assessment (ToSIA) has been developed for assessing sustainability impacts of forest-wood-chains (FWCs). Sustainability is determined by analysing environmental, economic, and social sustainability indicators for all the production processes along the FWC. Results of the tool can be analysed at an aggregated level for complete FWCs, but for some applications it is useful to assign the indicator results to products of the chain.This paper presents a procedure in ToSIA to assign sustainability impacts to multiple output products of FWC. The procedure was tested and demonstrated with an example FWC from Scandinavia that included furniture and bio-energy production. Two different allocation criteria, carbon-based and economic value-based, were applied with different options for assigning the impacts on the sub-products of the chain. Three indicators representing the three pillars of the sustainability were chosen to demonstrate the procedure: production costs (economic), employment (social) and transport intensity (environmental).The results indicated that the allocation criteria greatly affect the indicator results assigned to the different products of FWCs. The selection of the allocation criterion depends on the question approached and on the availability of the needed process related data. The data availability is assured for the carbon-based allocation within ToSIA, as following the carbon flows within the chain is mandatory for any ToSIA application. Economic values of products, on the other hand, are more closely linked to the aims of the production processes of the value chains and are thereby meaningful allocation criteria in many cases. The allocation procedure of ToSIA was proved to be flexible allowing different criteria and still consistent in allocation of the various sustainability impacts of the FWCs.     

Sustainability assessment of entire forest value chains: Integrating stakeholder perspectives and indicators in decision support tools

The optimization of value chains is an important process to promote sustainable development, since value chains are closely linked to the satisfaction of human needs and combine different driving forces for environmental change. This article presents a methodological approach for the participatory development of value-chain wide sustainability indicator sets and their integration into a decision support tool in the specific case study of the chain “construction and refurbishment with wood”. There are numerous indicator sets for sustainable development of forests and sustainable forestry available at different levels, ranging from local, regional and national to global scale assessments. Some efforts were also made to integrate later production stages of forest value chains (such as wood processing) in the assessment scope (e.g. for chain-of-custody certification). However, no indicator set has so far been available covering environmental, social and economic aspects for the entire value chain of building with timber. This gap was closed through applied sustainability research in the project “Holzwende 2020: Sustainable future markets for wood in the building sector”.     

Conceptualizing and incorporating social sustainability in the business world

One of the most important challenges faced by business managers today is the integration of sustainability into their core functions. The contemporary enterprise is forced to leap forward from the mere adoption of green practices toward rethinking, redesigning, and redeveloping business practices in a more sustainable way. Most of the initiatives in this attempt have so far emphasized primarily the economic and environmental aspects of sustainable development and overlooked the social dimension of sustainability. As more organizations commit to sustainability, there is an increasing concern to incorporate social sustainability throughout their business operations. To conceptualize and integrate the notion, some organizations use preexisting indicators to demonstrate the value and impact of sustainability, while others look beyond the measurement of impacts by constructing their own system of indicators. This paper draws on a comprehensive literature review to determine a broadly acceptable framework of social sustainability indicators to be conceptualized and integrated into the business world. Findings suggest that economic and environmental sustainability can be driven together with core social factors including fairness and equality, poverty, health, education, delinquencies, demography, culture, and employee engagement within an organization. These results offer insight into the emerging phenomenon of formulating sustainable business strategies for organizations based on social indicators to attain the ultimate sustainable outcomes. This study is among the first to identify social sustainability indicators from societal and corporate perspectives. It offers a comprehensive social sustainability framework that may be adopted by organizations in the business world.     

A characterization of sustainability with indicators

Economists favor the use of criteria to characterize sustainability. In practice, policy-makers use indicators, i.e., measurements based on the current economic state and decisions, representing given sustainability issues. In this paper, I introduce a criterion characterizing sustainability with indicators and thresholds acting as constraints. I interpret the thresholds as minimal rights to be guaranteed to all generations, and define sustainable trajectories as those satisfying all the constraints at all times. The new criterion is a “generalized” maximin criterion. The approach is applied to a simple production-consumption economy with non-renewable resources. To derive some policy recommendations on the use of indicators to deal with sustainability, I discuss the implications of such a criterion in terms of trade-off between sustainability thresholds, efficiency, and time-consistency. In particular, the resulting problem is time-inconsistent, and sustainability thresholds may be revised over time. Following the time-inconsistent policy based on indicators, with dynamic revision of the thresholds, may, however, result in a sustained utility path, and even in utility growth.     

Perceived importance of sustainability dimensions in the Portuguese metal industry

The growing interest of stakeholders regarding the contribution of organizations to Sustainable Development is influencing organizational behavior and strategic planning. The purpose of the present paper is to analyze the perception of the importance of organizational sustainability dimensions in a relevant economic sector: the metal industry. Survey data was collected from a sample of 211 Portuguese industries, and non-parametric statistical tests were used to validate five research hypotheses regarding the importance of the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of sustainability. The results obtained demonstrate awareness of the sampled industries regarding all sustainability dimensions, recognizing that their importance has been increasing over the years, and prospecting that this importance will continue to increase in the future. The industries in this sample revealed different degrees of perceived importance for the different sustainability dimensions: the highest importance was given to the economic dimension, and culture was considered the least important sustainability dimension. However, the perception of the respondents is that these differences will be less relevant in the future. The results also show that companies with certified management systems reveal a higher perceived importance regarding sustainability dimensions. Also, industries with higher values of annual turnover, number of employees and export sales tend to give higher degrees of importance to sustainability dimensions. Considering the economic, environmental and social impacts of metal industries at an international level, the awareness of this industrial sector regarding the importance of sustainability is a relevant step to the commitment towards Sustainable Development.     

Genuine saving rate: An integrated indicator to measure urban sustainable development towards an ecocity

The construction of an ecocity is gradually gaining attention as an indicator of sustainable development. Genuine saving rate (GSR), which takes account of various impacts of economic activities including depletion of natural resources, costs of environmental pollution and long-term environmental damage, can be used as an integrated indicator to measure the status quo and potential of sustainability for an ecocity. This paper discusses the concept of an ecocity; and analyses the time-series of GSR in Suzhou between 1991–2001 as a case study used to develop a standard method of measuring sustainability. The status quo and trends in urban sustainability in six case study cities in China are then evaluated and compared. The results show the current status: Suzhou (23.6%), Guangzhou(18.9%), Ningbo (14.7%), Yantai (13.1%), Yangzhou (11.7%) and Sanming (7.9%). The study demonstrates that GSR provides not only a linkage by which local governmental departments for resources management, environmental protection, finance and planning can be connected directly, but also an effective analytical tool for the planning and construction of an ecocity as well as decision-making support for local governments.     

Sustainability indicators for environmental performance and sustainability assessment of the productions of four fine Italian wines

Increased awareness of the importance of environmental protection and the introduction of international standards like ISO 14001 stimulated development of environmental sustainability indicators as a means to measure systems environmental performance. Here, a thermodynamic approach, emergy analysis (Odum, 1988) was used to obtain sustainability indicators able to analyse and quantify the productive and ecological performance of four famous Italian wine productions: Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano, and Barbera d'hti. The application to agricultural production was motivated by the growing need for productive and environmentally sound development in modern agriculture, in which the resource base, the environment, is preserved. The choice of wines, more precisely, grape production, is due to their importance for Italian agriculture and the economy. All the wines demonstrated a good long-term environmental sustainability, especially in view of their high quality and in comparison with the average Italian wine production. Emergy analysis proved a powerful tool for assessing environmental performance of these systems, and its use could easily be extended to other wine productions to obtain a form of environmental performance classification of this product. Systematic use of emergy analysis to assess environmental performance of different processes and products, not necessarily in agriculture, could be useful for environmental certification.     

Participatory indicator development: what can ecologists and local communities learn from each other?

Given the growing popularity of indicators among policy-makers to measure progress toward conservation and sustainability goals, there is an urgent need to develop indicators that can be used accurately by both specialists and nonspecialists, drawing from the knowledge possessed by each group. This paper uses a case study from the Kalahari, Botswana to show how participatory and ecological methods can be combined to develop robust indicators that are accessible to a range of users to monitor and enhance the sustainability of land management. First, potential environmental sustainability indicators were elicited from pastoralists in three study sites. This knowledge was then evaluated by pastoralists, before being tested empirically using ecological and soil-based techniques. Despite the wealth of local knowledge about indicators, this knowledge was thinly spread. The knowledge was more holistic than published indicator lists for monitoring rangelands, encompassing vegetation, soil, livestock, wild animal, and socioeconomic indicators. Pastoralist preferences for vegetation and livestock indicators match recent shifts in ecological theory suggesting that livestock populations reach equilibrium with key forage resources in semiarid environments. Although most indicators suggested by pastoralists were validated through empirical work (e.g., decreased grass cover and soil organic matter content, and increased abundance of Acacia mellifera and thatching grass), they were not always sufficiently accurate or reliable for objective degradation assessment, showing that local knowledge cannot be accepted unquestioningly. We suggest that, by combining participatory and ecological approaches, it is possible to derive more accurate and relevant indicators than either approach could achieve alone.     

化学品足迹:概念、研究进展及挑战

化学品污染被联合国环境规划署列为影响人类生存与发展的全球重大环境问题之一。为实现可持续的化学品管理,需定量评价产品生命周期内由化学品排放造成的生态影响。然而,当前的化学品风险评价指标体系往往指向零碎的危害性或毒性终点,未能综合出整体性指标来定量表征生态系统所承受的损害,亦不能衡量人类活动排放的化学品总量与环境承载容量的相对大小。作为环境足迹一员,化学品足迹继承了"足迹"指标的特点,可定量表征生态系统受化学品影响的程度,并结合生态阈值及环境承载容量,有助于评价人类活动对环境可持续性的影响,有望成为公众、企业、决策者及利益相关者之间相互交流的重要工具。本文概述了化学品足迹的基本概念及其发展历程,介绍了现有的化学品足迹计算方法及其应用于不同空间尺度下的案例研究,讨论了化学品足迹研究中存在的问题与挑战,并对其应用前景进行了展望。     

A regional-scale sustainable development index: the case of Baja California Sur,Mexico

Sustainable development, as a multi-dimensional concept, is difficult to measure. Some efforts using indicators and indices have appeared in recent years, but most were developed on a national scale. Use of sustainability indicators has proven valuable for attaining better management of the environment by minimizing information gaps and maximizing community capabilities in terms of economic, social, environmental, and institutional sustainability dimensions. However, at least in the case of developing countries, the potential exists that national sustainability measures, based on national level indicators, may mask problems in sub-national zones with highly unsustainable conditions. This paper proposes a methodology to evaluate sustainable development at a local level, the use of which could be helpful in comparing different regions within a country or even among different countries. National sustainability indicators should result from a combination (whether additive or proportional) of regional sustainability indicators, as developed in this paper.     

Comparative assessment of sustainable development in South American countries on the basis of the Sustainable Society Index

This study reports an overview of the economic, social and environmental performance of the main South American countries (SAC) as measured by the Sustainable Society Index. This is a well-known composite indicator, composed of 21 indicators, grouped in seven categories, covering environmental, social and economic wellbeing dimensions. Thirteen European countries recently incorporated into the European Union (NEUC) are considered as a reference. The study covers the period 2006–2016. The South American Region features significant natural resources and plays an important role in the global economy. However, there is concern about the long-term sustainability of social and economic development, given the high rate of economic growth based on the production of low added-value primary products. Sustainable development requires reasonable balance between economic, social and environmental performance, as well as a sustained and balanced increase in performance associated with those fundamental dimensions. Moreover, it is important to agree on minimum performance levels for all performance indicators, taking into account particular social, economic and environmental realities. SAC feature a clear imbalance in some categories affecting the economic, social and environmental wellbeing dimensions, showing either stagnation or significant decrease in recent years. It can be concluded that in the light of findings reported here, South American countries are far from being on the pathway towards sustainable development.     

Stochastic environmental research risk assessment

In a briefly approach, sustainability can be defined as the ability to achieve economic prosperity while protecting the natural systems of the planet, and providing a higher quality of life for its people. Nowadays it is a prime and very active area of research, fundamental for human development. Several concepts based on economics, social and environmental concerns have been considered in the development of sustainability indices. The sustainability concept is, not only but necessarily, dependent on “quantification of the environment health”, necessary to determine its effectiveness in achieving or increasing the environmental capacities of ecosystems, as well as to compare alternative plans and policies, to influence decision-makers.Environmental indices are a very important tool for the analysis of some environmental assessment factors, providing quantitative criteria and synthesizing the available information. A good index should be simple to use, transparent, and expandable across other issues. In particular, environmental indices are a useful tool for several audiences, to aid environmental decision making and to allow the media to keep score of and reduce complex information to a smaller, more easily retained, amount of information [Hardi, P., DeSouza-Huletey, J.A., 2000. Issues in analyzing data and indicators for sustainable development. Ecol. Model. 130, 59–65].The goal of this work is the development of environmental indices, based on stochastically simulated scenarios, using probabilistic approaches. This study was applied to assess the impact of particulate air contamination on the Setúbal Peninsula ecosystems (South of Lisbon, Portugal).     

An interregional ecological approach for modelling sustainability in a globalizing world—Reviewing existing approaches and emerging directions

In recent decades international trade has become a major source of supplying the need and wants of billions of people around the world. Virtually everyone now consumes resource commodities and manufactured products imported from ‘elsewhere’. In effect, globalization and trade enable consuming populations to support themselves on the output of distant ecosystems half a world away. However, while economic integration implies greater ‘connectivity’ within the global village, the spatial separation of material production (including resource extraction) from consumption eliminates some of the signals i.e., the negative feedbacks coming from supporting eco-systems from reaching those who depend on these ecosystems for their sustainability. At present, despite increasing global connectedness, most environmental studies and models apply to a single spatial scale: local, national or global; analysing diverse pressures on human well-being and ecosystems integrity. This paper argues that both economic globalization and global ecological change should force us to add an interregional scale for quantifying and modelling sustainability. Such an approach recognizes that, in a globalizing world, the sustainability of any given region increasingly depends, directly and indirectly, on the sustainability of many other regions. The following pages describe the interregional approach and illustrate some existing and emerging methods for quantifying, analysing and modelling interregional linkages. It then identifies some of what is still missing, and discusses some of the implications in a changing world.     

Clustering economic sectors in China on a life cycle basis to achieve environmental sustainability

To improve material efficiency, industrial structure optimization becomes a focal point in Chinese industrial and environmental policies. It is crucial to cluster economic sectors and determine their priority for industrial and environmental policy implementation. Integrating a set of criteria, a hybrid input-output model and the hierarchical cluster analysis, this study clusters China’s economic sectors and determines their priority on a life cycle basis. China’s economic sectors are clustered into three clusters. Industrial structure changes (industrial policy) should encourage the development of sectors in cluster 1 and limit the development of sectors in cluster 2. Technology development and materials recycling (two environmental policies) should mainly focus on sectors in clusters 1 and 2. Future industrial policies in China should limit the development of two sectors named Manufacture of metal products and Extraction of petroleum and natural gas. Instead of limiting some industries by command-and-control, the best policy option is to remedy environmental standards and law enforcement. Enterprises belonging to the identified key sectors from the viewpoint of direct production impacts should be concerned to achieve enterprise sustainability. To achieve sustainable production chains, the identified key sectors from the viewpoint of accumulative production impacts should be concerned. For sustainable consumption, the identified key sectors from the viewpoint of consumption impacts should be concerned to transform consumption styles. Most of environmental pressure can be alleviated not only by technical improvements and material recycling, but also by the development of economic sectors in cluster 1.     

Predicting national sustainability: The convergence of energetic,economic and environmental realities

The “constraint space” dictated by energetic, economic and environmental realities on scenarios for future organization of humanity and nature is explored from the perspective of the energy and resources driving economies. Net energy of energy sources is presented as an index (Emergy Yield Ratio; EYR) that must be evaluated for energy sources to better understand their potential contributions to society, but more important, as an indicator of the changes needed in the future if lower net yielding sources are to be relied upon. An aggregate EYR was calculated for the USA economy and shown to have decreased by 38% since 1950, from 11/1 to 6.8/1. Several measures of efficiency at the scale of national economies are explored and the data suggest that the most efficient economies are also the most energetically intense (as measured by empower intensity). An index of environmental loading is suggested as a measure to evaluate environmental efficacy. An obvious outcome is that the smallest most energetically intense countries have the highest environmental loads, and those with large land area and/or continental shelves have the lowest ratios. An Emergy Sustainability Index (EmSI) is defined, computed for countries, and proposed as a multi-dimensional measure of long-term sustainability. The most sustainable economies are those with the highest EYR and lowest environmental loads.     

A decision-support system in ICZM for protecting the ecosystems: integration with the habitat directive

This paper describes a decision-support system based on landscape ecology and focused on the study of ecosystems’ health. System capabilities are illustrated with three cases of integrated coastal zone management (ICZM), in the Adriatic Sea (Italy): the lagoon of Venice and the Rimini and Ancona coastal areas. Indicators and indices are developed with a focus on sub-regional and local problems in coastal management, with a multi-scale approach based on landscape and seascape ecology. Land-use changes of the coastal areas were detected by analyzing two sets of satellite images. Indices combining satellite imagery, socio-economic and environmental indicators, and landscape and seascape maps were created, showing ecological changes, habitat loss and gaps in conservation policy. The approach used provides means for the identification of conflicts and for the assessment of sustainability. Results show that the lagoon of Venice plays an important role in mitigating and compensating the impacts of human activities, and needs to be protected and restored. The Rimini area shows high ecological footprint and development-intensity and low biocapacity. The Ancona area needs the protection of its natural coastal space from potential sources of anthropogenic impacts to maintain its sustainability. A model of environment changes is critical for formulating effective environmental policies and management strategies. The developed decision-support system provides a suitability map per each area analyzed, which can be used in order to maximize different policy objectives and reduce coastal conflicts.     

Hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology framework to support sustainability performance assessment and reporting

The conception, design, and implementation of sustainable development strategies in an organization aims at meeting and balancing economic, social, and environmental needs of internal and external stakeholders. While the principles and fundamentals of sustainability assist during the conception and design phases, the implementation process of management strategies – impacted directly or indirectly by internal and external factors – may identify areas of competitive advantages or challenges that would impede the projects and organizations’ performance targets. An organization is not an isolated entity and its performance is often compared against others in the market arena; therefore, assessment tools, benchmarking processes, and reporting strategies become essential for the understanding of the efforts made towards the implementation of plan, policies, and programs at the organization and project levels. A framework for a hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology is proposed in this paper. The framework integrates the Rank Xerox benchmarking process and the Wa-Pa-Su project sustainability rating system assessment methodology. The proposed hybrid process-criterion benchmarking methodology encourages the diversification in the development and implementation of sustainable and environmental rating systems in industry contexts (e.g., oil and gas, mining, heavy industrial, and energy) and aims for the improvement of existing sustainability performance assessment and reporting practices. It also assists the quantitative assessment process of advances and/or setbacks in sustainability performance and the implementation of continuous performance improvement programs.     

A sustainability index for small island developing states

This paper proposes a novel approach to measuring the progress of small island developing states (SIDS) towards sustainable development (SD) as set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals 2030. Currently, these goals do not provide adequate guidance on how countries might measure their progress towards sustainability. We use these goals and a subset of their targets to develop an index with concrete targets, through the use of pertinent sustainability indicators, that SIDS should aim to achieve a sustainable society. In addition to the three categorical pillars of SD (social, economic and environmental), we included the category Climate Change and Disaster Management (incorporating Disaster Risk Reduction). The basis of our decision is that the UN and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have both recognized the vulnerability of SIDS to both environmental hazards. Our index scores a total 70 individual indicators for the four categories to track the progress of a SIDS towards a sustainable society. Using the Caribbean nation, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, as our SIDS case study, we report the average of the scores for each category to illustrate its progress towards sustainability. Overall Trinidad and Tobago is slowly progressing towards a more sustainably developed society. Our results show that the nation is only moderately successful regarding progress in three traditional pillars of SD, social, economic and environmental. However, Trinidad and Tobago scores poorly in the Climate Change and Disaster Management category and needs to improve in this area especially due to its vulnerability.     

Using conservation science to advance corporate biodiversity accountability

Biodiversity declines threaten the sustainability of global economies and societies. Acknowledging this, businesses are beginning to make commitments to account for and mitigate their influence on biodiversity and report this in sustainability reports. We assessed the top 100 of the 2016 Fortune 500 Global companies' (the Fortune 100) sustainability reports to gauge the current state of corporate biodiversity accountability. Almost half (49) of the Fortune 100 mentioned biodiversity in reports, and 31 made clear biodiversity commitments, of which only 5 were specific, measureable, and time bound. A variety of biodiversity-related activities were disclosed (e.g., managing impacts, restoring biodiversity, and investing in biodiversity), but only 9 companies provided quantitative indicators to verify the magnitude of their activities (e.g., area of habitat restored). No companies reported quantitative biodiversity outcomes, making it difficult to determine whether business actions were of sufficient magnitude to address impacts and were achieving positive outcomes for nature. Conservation science can advance approaches to corporate biodiversity accountability by helping businesses make science-based biodiversity commitments, develop meaningful indicators, and select more targeted activities to address business impacts. With the biodiversity policy super year of 2020 rapidly approaching, now is the time for conservation scientists to engage with and support businesses in playing a critical role in setting the new agenda for a sustainable future for the planet with biodiversity at its heart.     

The G-Index: a sustainability reporting assessment tool

The subject of sustainability reports, especially those related to GRI, has become an interesting topic to academics and practitioners. This paper seeks to propose an easy-to-use sustainability reporting assessment tool that is suitable to the GRI G4 guidelines. Our idea is to provide a tool that can be applied by an organization, based in GRI indicators, in a quick and easy way. The tool, called G-Index, represents the organizational sustainability performance. The index is a sum of four factors, and a questionnaire about the GRI elements raised the data to elaborate a Mudge diagram, which was used to define the weight values. Finally, the method for the evaluation tool was established, and a case study with the automotive sector was performed. The results showed us the G-Index represents a good option to assess the organization’s disclosure practices in sustainability reports based on the GRI framework. The report analysis presented some important facts, it is more common the disclosure of the Management Approach then the application of External Assurance. Furthermore, even the General Standard Disclosures of the GRI guidelines being mandatory, some companies do not fully disclose them, as shown in the GS factor, that makes up, the G-Index.