Sustainability Indicators as a Communicative Tool: Building Bridges in Pennsylvania

Sustainability is a laudable goal, but difficult to define and to implement because of the complexity of interlinked human and natural systems, and the uncertainty inherent in such complex systems. Resilience shows promise as a relevant and measurable attribute of sustainability, which itself defies measurement. Identification and assessment of conditions that are desirable, as well as those that are undesirable, are necessary in order to determine both the degree of progress toward sustainability and the removal of impediments to such progress. Communications incident to the identification and selection of indicators of resilience and sustainability are of potentially greater value than the indicators themselves and so should be given explicit consideration in the design of the indicators development process. Moving towards sustainability requires an iterative, continuing (open-ended), collaborative process. Academic institutions can assist in this process through activities that connect across political, social and discipline boundaries. Boundary organizations are those that have achieved a level of trust among the relevant constituents to management of sustainability and can help convert academic findings that are objectively neutral into options and alternatives that may be politically and economically feasible. The Sustainable Pennsylvania Program is developing demonstration projects with both state and local governmental agencies with the objective of building both capacity and will for moving towards sustainability.