Measuring Sustainability

1
Measuring Sustainability

• Dr Keith Jones
• Reader in Sustainable Buildings

2
Scope of the Problem

• The following slides outline the UK Government's
  approach to Sustainable Development - delivering
  UK sustainable development together.
• http//www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/index.h
  tm
• The past 20 years have seen a growing realisation
  that the current model of development is
  unsustainable. In other words we are living
  beyond our means. From the loss of biodiversity
  with the felling of rainforest's or over fishing
  to the negative effect our consumption patterns
  are having on the environment and the climate.
  Our way of life is placing an increasing burden
  on the planet - this cannot be sustained.

3
Scope of the Problem

• The increasing stress we put on resources and
  environmental systems such as water, land and air
  cannot go on for ever. Especially as the world's
  population continues to increase and we already
  see a world where over a billion people live on
  less than a dollar a day, more than 800 million
  are malnourished, and over two and a half billion
  lack access to adequate sanitation.
• A widely-used and accepted international
  definition of sustainable development is
  'development which meets the needs of the present
  without compromising the ability of future
  generations to meet their own needs' - Globally
  we are not even meeting the needs of the present
  let alone considering the needs of future
  generations.

4
Scope of the Problem

• Unless we start to make real progress toward
  reconciling these contradictions, we all,
  wherever we live, face a future that is less
  certain and less secure than we in the UK have
  enjoyed over the past fifty years. We need to
  make a decisive move toward more sustainable
  development both because it is the right thing to
  do - and because it is in our own long-term best
  interests. It offers the best hope for securing
  the future.
• The UK Government, Scottish Executive, Welsh
  Assembly Government and the Northern Ireland
  Administration have agreed upon a set of shared
  UK principles that provide a basis for
  sustainable development policy in the UK.

5
UK priorities

• The UK has four priority areas for immediate
  action, shared across the UK, these are
• Sustainable Consumption and Production
• Climate Change and Energy
• Natural Resource Protection and Environmental
  Enhancement
• Sustainable Communities
• The Government also recognises that changing
  behaviour is a cross cutting theme closely linked
  to all of these priorities.
• The principles and approaches are covered in more
  detail in and the UK Strategic Securing the
  Future - the UK Government's sustainable
  development strategy Framework

6
Shared UK principles of sustainable development
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What can be done?

• Sustainable development can not be delivered by
  Government alone. People can all help to deliver
  it by making even the smallest changes in our
  lives.
• http//www.wearewhatwedo.org/
• http//www.globalactionplan.org.uk/
• http//www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/delivery
  /global-local/Whatcancommunitiesdo.htm
• http//www.tuc.org.uk/theme/index.cfm?themesustai
  nableworkplace
• http//www.swapxchange.org/
• http//www.greenchoices.org/
• http//www.btcv.org/
• http//www.yearofthevolunteer.org/
• http//www.roughguide-betterworld.com/

8
Policy tools for delivery

• Sustainable development needs to be built into
  policy making at all levels. The Government
  provides a revised set of shared UK principles in
  the new Strategic Framework. There are also a
  number of tool kits to support policy makers in
  delivery, these are set out below
• http//www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/what/too
  ls.htm

9
Examples of Best Practice

• The Sustainable Development Commission have set
  up a database of case studies. http//www.sustaina
  ble-development.gov.uk/what/best-practice.htm
• Business
• World Business Council for Sustainable
  Development
• Environment
• Envirowise
• Commission for Architecture and the Built
  Environment - Parks and Public Spaces
• Energy Saving Trust
• Housing and Planning
• Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - Planning
  Guidance
• Design for homes
• Commission for Architecture and the Built
  Environment
• Regeneration
• Renewal.net
• Crimereduction.gov.uk

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Key priority areas

• As a result of the 2004 consultation to develop
  new UK sustainable development strategy the
  following issues have been highlighted as the
  main priority areas for immediate action.
• Sustainable consumption and production - working
  towards achieving more with less.
• Natural resource protection and environmental
  enhancement - protecting the natural resources on
  which we depend.
• From local to global building sustainable
  communities creating places where people want to
  live and work, now and in the future.
• Climate change and energy - confronting the
  greatest threat.
• In addition to these four priorities changing
  behaviour also forms a large part of the
  Governments thinking on sustainable development.

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UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy
indicators

• The UK Government has established a new set of
  high-level indicators the UK Framework
  Indicators to give an overview of sustainable
  development and the priority areas shared across
  the UK.
• In addition to the shared UK Framework Indicators
  there are indicators, targets and performance
  measures in the individual strategies for the UK
  Government, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
  These will underpin the shared framework
  priorities while reflecting the respective
  priorities of each administration.
• Indicators for the UK Government Strategy include
  all 20 of the UK Framework Indicators and a
  further 48 indicators related to the priority
  areas.

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UK Government Sustainable Development Framework
indicators

• The link gives a summary of assessments for the
  20 UK sustainable development strategy Framework
  indicators. These give an overview of sustainable
  development and highlight priority areas shared
  across the UK. http//www.sustainable-developmen
  t.gov.uk/performance/framework.htm
• The link below gives a summary of assessments for
  the other 48 (non-Framework) indicators
  supporting the UK Government Sustainable
  Development Strategy. http//www.sustainable-devel
  opment.gov.uk/performance/otherinds.htm

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• Sustainable construction is monitored through
  Constructing Excellence. www.constructingexcellenc
  e.org.uk
• The demonstrations programme is at the heart of
  Constructing Excellence. This provides the
  opportunity for leading edge organisations, from
  every part of construction, to bring forward
  exemplars that demonstrate innovation and change,
  which can be measured, evaluated and shared.
  These can be site-based or organisational-change
  projects. There are more than 400 projects in the
  programme, with a total value of over 7bn. They
  examples of off-site construction,
  standardisation, the use of new technology,
  respect for people activities, partnering and
  supply chain integration, and other areas of
  process improvement. The demonstrations have
  developed a culture of performance measurement as
  the primary way to verify innovation and
  improvement.

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• Constructing Excellence has a commitment to
  sustainability. The Housing Forum formed a
  Sustainability Working Group in 2000 and produced
  a report in 2001. The Best Practice Knowledge
  stream (previously Movement for Innovation (M4I))
  also formed a Sustainability Working Group and a
  spreadsheet tool called the Sustainability Index
  was created, covering social, economic and
  environmental factors. However, with the industry
  grappling with the changes initiated its use was
  limited. The Sustainability Working Group next
  published an initial set of benchmarks for
  environmental performance indicators (EPIs) in
  2001 and these have been developed into the
  Environment Key Performance Indicators which were
  first published in 2003.

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• Work for the Local Government Task Force (LGTF)
  on a Sustainable Construction Action Plan
  highlighted the many roles and responsibilities
  local government can utilise to encourage,
  procure and produce more sustainable
  construction. More sustainable construction
  becomes a tangible prospect now that
• industry has become comfortable with using key
  performance measures
• Environment Key Performance Indicators are
  becoming mainstream, through incorporation in the
  DTI annual surveys and client specification
• Respect for People toolkits and Design Quality
  Indicator (DQI) have been launched.

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• To embed and mainstream sustainability into
  Constructing Excellence's own demonstrations, a
  checklist was compiled in late 2002. The
  checklist is based upon the Sustainable
  Construction Action Plan and the Sustainability
  Index, utilising the outputs of all the
  sustainability working groups, and considering
  the latest thinking and practice of sustainable
  construction. This checklist is being made
  available to all new demonstrations through the
  National Strategy Panel, to provoke thought and
  further innovation.

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• Many of the past and current demonstrations
  address aspects of sustainability included in the
  checklist. Constructing Excellence wish to
  celebrate the innovations, and prove that the
  checklist provides an achievable framework, that
  future demonstrations and the whole industry can
  aspire to.
• This website examines each section and criterion
  of the checklist in the context of a construction
  project moving from
• planning
• design
• construction process
• finished product

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Sustainable Construction Indicators

• Each stage looks at economic, social and
  environmental issues and uses past and current
  demonstrations to show how the criteria can be
  met. This website does not feature every
  demonstration that has tackled sustainability,
  but the full range of such projects can be
  accessed in the Demonstrations' area of the
  website. Some of the demonstrations prove many of
  the checklist criteria, but to enable this report
  to show the breadth of achievement by the
  demonstrations, each demonstration is used to
  highlight only one criterion from the checklist,
  with a couple of exceptions. This structure helps
  users find the areas of interest to them, and it
  must be stressed that all areas are
  interconnected and impact upon each other.

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Review of Toolkits

• A research group led by the University of Dundee
  has been evaluating the usefulness of a range of
  sustainability toolkits.
• Environmental
• Social
• The researchers also held a series of workshops
  to

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Environmental Toolkits

• 147 environmental toolkits were identified.
• 41 were partially evaluated
• Problems with accessing information
• 25 were fully evaluated.
• Urban planning tools
• Macro level
• Design tools
• Building level
• Assessment tools
• LCA approach
• Infrastructure tools
• CEEQUAL project based

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Environmental Toolkits

• Each toolkit was assessed against a range of
  characteristics
• Flexibility adaptability to situation
• Upgrading longevity
• Compatibility input/output to other toolkits
• Aggregation/Disaggregation score breakdown
• Holistic does it cover whole building life
  cycle
• Multidimensional triple bottom line
• Inclusive range of stakeholders
• Scaleable from building through neighbourhood
  to city and beyond.
• The toolkits were also assessed for data issues
• Type quantitative/qualitataive
• Source calculated, estimated, secondary (eg
  location)

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Environmental Toolkits

• Findings (derived from the report)
• Urban planning and rating systems are the most
  developed.
• Very few toolkits covered all aspects of
  sustainability effectively.
• Input data is critical if the outputs are to be
  defensible.
• A full analysis of each toolkit can be found at
  http//www.sue-mot.org.uk/

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Social Toolkits

• Over 100 tookits identified
• 78 evaluated
• Clustered in broad categories
• Analysed according to
• What situations they applied to
• Scale site to international
• Stage of life cycle
• Sector public/private
• Issues education, crime etc
• Data quantitative/qualitative
• Analysis reductionist (eg reduces to money)
• Outputs descriptive/predictive, comparative etc
• Skills needed expert/non expert
• Presentation invisible, visible

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Social Toolkits

• Three main categories were identified

Describing and monitoring the status of
sustainability
Predicting and evaluating sustainability impacts
Modifying peoples perceptions and actions
towards sustainability
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Social Toolkits

• General findings
• There is no such thing as a good toolkit
• Must be considered in context/purpose
• Toolkits do not seem to be converging
• Approach, data, presentation
• Dealing with uncertainty
• Tools that require full detailed data do not
  necessarily produce more certain results but
  merely mask uncertainty.
• This causes problems with mathematical based
  models
• Few existing toolkits come close to assessing
  sustainability
• Inclusive, holistic, multi-dimensional, triple
  bottom line, political, technical legal etc

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Social Toolkits

• General findings cont
• Sustainability involves judgement about
  integration
• It may be impossible to develop a true
  sustainability toolkit.
• Social toolkits are the poor relation in the
  triple bottom line.
• Toolkits need to be useable and robust
• These are not always compatible
• Several toolkits required so much data and
  expertise to use that they were essentially
  unusable in practice.
• Again further details can be found at
  http//www.sue-mot.org.uk/

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SPeAR

• One toolkit that both groups studies was Arups
  SPeAR approach.

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Summary

• Measuring sustainability is not straight forward.
• Tools need to be holistic, flexible, robust,
  multi-dimensional, scaleable, appropriate,
  useable, practicable etc.