The Inclusive Wealth Index provides important insights into long-term economic growth and human well-being. The Index measures the wealth of nations through a comprehensive analysis of a country's productive base and the country’s wealth in terms of progress, well-being and long-term sustainability. It measures all assets which human well-being is based upon, in particular, produced, human and natural capital to create and maintain human well-being over time.
This book is a state of the art treatise on what has been done so far on measuring sustainability for decision making. Contributions will appeal to engineers and scientists engaged in technology development, assessment, and verification. Researchers working on engineering sustainability are likely to get ideas for further research in quantifying sustainability for industrial systems. Concepts described can be applied across all scales, from process technology to global sustainability; and challenges and limitations are also addressed. Readers will discover important insights about simulation-based approaches to process design and quantitative measurement techniques of sustainability for business and technology systems. Most of the examples and case studies are from chemical enterprises but the methodologies presented could be applicable to any system for which quantitative data for indicators are available, and the choice of the set of indicators of sustainability are comprehensive.
Since the Great Depression, researchers and statisticians have recognized the need for more extensive methods for measuring economic growth and sustainability. The recent recession renewed commitments to closing long-standing gaps in economic measurement, including those related to sustainability and well-being. The latest in the NBER’s influential Studies in Income and Wealth series, which has played a key role in the development of national account statistics in the United States and other nations, this volume explores collaborative solutions between academics, policy researchers, and official statisticians to some of today’s most important economic measurement challenges. Contributors to this volume extend past research on the integration and extension of national accounts to establish an even more comprehensive understanding of the distribution of economic growth and its impact on well-being, including health, human capital, and the environment. The research contributions assess, among other topics, specific conceptual and empirical proposals for extending national accounts.
Assessing and Measuring Environmental Impact and Sustainability answers the question “what are the available methodologies to assess the environmental sustainability of a product, system or process?” Multiple well-known authors share their expertise in order to give a broad perspective of this issue from a chemical and environmental engineering perspective. This mathematical, quantitative book includes many case studies to assist with the practical application of environmental and sustainability methods. Readers learn how to efficiently assess and use these methods. This book summarizes all relevant environmental methodologies to assess the sustainability of a product and tools, in order to develop more green products or processes. With life cycle assessment as its main methodology, this book speaks to engineers interested in environmental impact and sustainability. Helps engineers to assess, evaluate, and measure sustainability in industry Provides workable approaches to environmental and sustainability assessment Readers learn tools to assess the sustainability of a process or product and to design it in an environmentally friendly way
Urban Sustainability in the Arctic advances our understanding of cities in the far north by applying elements of the international standard for urban sustainability (ISO 37120) to numerous Arctic cities. In delivering rich material about northern cities in Alaska, Canada, and Russia, the book examines how well the ISO 37120 measures sustainability and how well it applies in northern conditions. In doing so, it links the Arctic cities into a broader conversation about urban sustainability more generally.
This paper presents a new methodological approach aimed at measuring progress towards sustainable agriculture in countries and across agri-food systems typologies, by measuring socio-economic and environmental dimensions with available national statistics, with sixteen indicators defined and constructed from FAOSTAT data. A trend analysis is carried out at country level over the time series 1961-2018, with country results aggregated by four agri-food systems typologies: traditional; land-intensive and capital-intensive mixed systems; and modern food systems. The analysis provides a novel framework for the analysis of progress in achieving sustainable agriculture by country and agri-food system type, that can be implemented effectively and allows for exploring solutions across development pathways.
Today's leading economists weigh in with a new "dashboard" of metrics for measuring our economic and social health "What we measure affects what we do. If we focus only on material well-being—on, say, the production of goods, rather than on health, education, and the environment—we become distorted in the same way that these measures are distorted." —Joseph E. Stiglitz A consensus has emerged among key experts that our conventional economic measures are out of sync with how most people live their lives. GDP, they argue, is a poor and outmoded measure of our well-being. The global movement to move beyond GDP has attracted some of the world's leading economists, statisticians, and social thinkers who have worked collectively to articulate new approaches to measuring economic well-being and social progress. In the decade since the 2008 economic crisis, these experts have come together to determine what indicators can actually tell us about people's lives. In the first book of its kind, leading economists from around the world, including Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Elizabeth Beasely, Jacob Hacker, François Bourguignon, Nora Lustig, Alan B. Krueger, and Joseph E. Stiglitz, describe a range of fascinating metrics—from economic insecurity and environmental sustainability to inequality of opportunity and levels of trust and resilience—that can be used to supplement the simplistic measure of gross domestic product, providing a far more nuanced and accurate account of societal health and well-being. This groundbreaking volume is sure to provide a major source of ideas and inspiration for one of the most important intellectual movements of our time.
The book contains the proceedings of the OECD Conference that was held in Rome in December 1999. It presents the wide range of initiatives and indicators that are already in place, and outlines the challenges that remain in measuring progress towards sustainable development.
The indicators used in the past to measure human societies' success have proven to be insufficient. Economic production indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and the Human Development Index (HDI) fail to reflect the state of natural resources or ecological conditions and both focus exclusively on the short term, without indicating whether national policies are sustainable over longer periods of time. The Inclusive Wealth Report 2012 presents an index that measures the wealth of nations by carrying out a comprehensive analysis of a country's capital assets, including manufactured, human and natural capital, and its corresponding values: the Inclusive Wealth Index (IWI). Results show changes in inclusive wealth from 1990 to 2008 and feature a long-term comparison to GDP for an initial group of 20 countries. This report provides policy-makers and planning authorities with a tool to assess the state of a country's productive base and its development over time.
While the concept of sustainability has been widely embraced, it has been only vaguely defined and is exceedingly difficult to measure. Sustainability indicators are critical to making the broad concept of sustainability operational by providing specific measures by which decision makers and the public can judge progress. Sustainability Indicators defines the present state of the art in indicator development. It presents a comprehensive assessment of the science behind various indicators, while placing special emphasis on their use as communications tools. The contributors draw on their experience as academics and practitioners to describe the conceptual challenges to measuring something as complex as sustainability at local, regional, national, and global scales. The book also reviews existing indicators to assess how they could be better employed, considering which indicators are overused and which have been underutilized. Sustainability Indicators will help planners and policy makers find indicators that are ready for application and relevant to their needs, and will help researchers identify the unresolved issues where progress is most urgently needed. All readers will find advice as to the most effective ways to use indicators to support decision making.
