Methodologies for Tracking Local Sustainable Development

Abstract

Strategies that enable sustainability require methodologies for
baseline development, measurement and comparison. This article
considers methodologies used to track progress toward achieving the
sometimes subjective goals associated with sustainability programs.
Tracking systems are common for energy, water usage and carbon
management but are rare for larger systems. When they are found, they
typically use variables which lack statistical significance. While track-
ing systems devised to assess sustainability for national economies in
regard to environmental performance exist, they are rarely designed
for institutions, corporations and local governments. Local govern-
ments, in particular, often desire to know how their progress toward
sustainability goals compares with their peers. Qualitative and quanti-
tative variables, historical data, and peer group comparisons are used as
the basis for a sustainability index. This tool can be applied to existing
organizations and governmental entities.
Methodologies to track and rank governmental and organizational
sustainability are relatively new phenomena. The methodologies avail-
able involve data sets using all types of variables. Most involve identify-
ing indicators of sustainability and providing a means of comparison.
Linking measurements of energy usage to variables that measure the
impact of sustainability policies is one approach.