HQE2R Etat Des Lieux Des Indicateurs Européens

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HQE2 R is a project co- inanced by the European Commission within the

rogramme Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (City oftomorrow), which aim is to elaborate methods and tools destined to local

communities and their partners to help them in their urban renewal projects.

State of the art review

of indicators and

systems of indicators

December 2002

Catherine CHARLOT-VALDIEU, CSTB

Philippe OUTREQUIN, La Calade

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Sustainable renovation of building

or sustainable neighbourhoods

Contract n EVK4CT200000025

http://hqe2r.cstb.fr


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HQERSustainable renovation of buildingsfor sustainable neighbourhoods

Contract n EVK4 CT 2000 00025

State of the art review of indicators

and systems of indicatorsDecember 2002

Catherine CHARLOT VALDIEU CSTBE-mail: [email protected]

Philippe OUTREQUIN La CaladeE-mail: [email protected]

Under major contribution for the national parts by:

Cline MULLIER La Calade (France)

Celia ROBBINS, Martin SYMES UWE (United-Kingdom)Antonella GROSSI, Matteo GUALANDI, Sandra MATTAROZZI, Cinzia MAGA ICIE (Italy)Daniela GABUTTI QUASCO-COPRAT (Italy)Andreas BLUM, Munia TARABICHI, Holger MARTIN IOER (Germany)Xavier CASANOVAS, Oriol CUSIDO - CAATB (Spain)Noem GRANADO, Albert CUCHI - ITeC (Spain)Ove MORCK CENERGIA (Denmark)

HQE2

R is a project co-financed by the European Commission within the programme Energy, Environment andSustainable Development (City of tomorrow), which aim is to elaborate methods and tools destined to local

communities and their partners to help them in their urban renewal projects.


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ABSTRACT1

HQE2R is a European Union research and demonstration project which is developing a methodology

which will help urban communities to increase the sustainability of their neighbourhoods. Itinvolves coordinating the renovation of buildings with the introduction of socio-economic andenvironmental measures aimed at improving the quality of life.

This report is the first part of the projects Deliverable 9 on HQER-Sustainable development keyissues and indicators. It presents the state of the art and discusses the origins and use ofenvironmental indicators and the issues which have arisen in transforming these into indicators ofsustainable development. In this context the OECD and European Environment Agency indicatorssystems are fundamental: The OECD indicators system (PSR) assesses Pressures on the environmentfrom human activities, how these modify the State of the environment, and what Responses are made

by the community to these changes. A more elaborate approach has been adopted by the EuropeanEnvironment Agency. This (the DPSIR system) makes the socio-economic Driving forces of changemore explicit, and analyses the Impact of the resulting modifications of society and of its ecosystemsmore clearly. The term Sustainable Development describes economic, social and environmentalservices which do not compromise the natural, property and social systems on which they depend.Agenda 21, adopted by the 1992 UN conference in Rio de Janeiro, stipulated that good qualityinformation should be available at national, regional and urban scales which would support a dialoguewith enterprises and with local inhabitants in decision making processes. The European Commissionhas produced an Urban Audit which allows comparisons between urban areas in the Union. At thelevel of products (such as those used in building) an ISO standard (14031) has been published. This

part of the report, which gives examples of systems produced in the member states, argues that themain problems concerning the use of indicators are that it is difficult to create uniform methods ofmeasurement and that there are likely to be disagreements on the interpretation of their significance.

The appendices give details of the systems of indicators of sustainability currently in use both byinternational organisations and within the principal European Union member states.

The state of the art analysis lays the foundation of the development of the HQER key issues andsustainable development indicators system (ISDIS). This second part is currently under review,evaluating the case study experience and will be published in spring 2004.

1 Cf the executive summaries in other languages in Appendix 1

ll reproduction, all partial or integral representation of the pages published in this book, in any form and by anymeans, done without the authorisation of the editor or of the Centre Franais d'Exploitation du droit de copie (3

Rue Hautefeuille, 75006 Paris, France), is forbidden and constitutes a counterfeiting.

Only reproductions strictly reserved for the personal use of the copyist and analysis and short quotations justifiedby the scientific or informative character of the work where they are incorporated are allowed. (French Law of the1stJuly 1992 article L122-4 and L122-5, and the French Penal Code, article 425)

CSTB


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State of the art review of indicators and systems of indicators (deliverable 9 Foundations) HQE2R

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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................................. 3

INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................... 6

1. THE TWO MAIN SYSTEMS OF INDICATORS......................................................... 9

1.1 THE OECD [PRESSURE/STATE/RESPONSE (PSR)] SYSTEM ........................................ 91.2 THE EUROPEAN ENVIRONMENT AGENCY DPSIRSYSTEM........................................ 11

2. ENVIRONMENTAL OR THEMATIC INDICATORS.............................................. 13

2.1 THE PRODUCT LEVEL: ISO 14 000............................................................................ 13

2.2 THE DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL SCALES OF INDICATORS .......................................... 142.3 THE EUROPEAN LEVEL.............................................................................................. 15

2.3.1 Networks ................................................................................................................. 15A. The European association RESPECT and its environmental indicators ..................15B. The "Healthy Cities" programme of the World Health Organisation WHO................ 16

2.3.2 The Urban Audit by the European Commission (DG XVI) and Eurostat ............... 16

2.4 THE NATIONAL LEVEL............................................................................................... 172.4.1 IFEN in France....................................................................................................... 172.4.2 The environmental economic accounting approach in Germany ........................... 192.4.3 The German Environmental Index (Deutscher Umweltindex / DUX)................ 19

3. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS AT THE

DIFFERENT SCALES ................................................................................................... 203.1 THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT CONCEPT: DEFINITION, HISTORICAL

DEVELOPMENT AND MAIN EVENTS ............................................................................ 203.2 THE NATIONAL LEVEL............................................................................................... 22

3.2.1 Sustainable Development Indicators by the United Nations................................... 223.2.2 Eco-efficiency concept by WBCSD .........................................................................23

3.3 THE URBAN SCALE .................................................................................................... 233.3.1 European networks: the 10 composite indicators for sustainability by DG XI ...... 233.3.2 National or local programmes................................................................................ 24

A. United-Kingdom..........................................................................................................24

B. Denmark ............................................................ .......................................................... 27C. Italy..............................................................................................................................33D. Germany ........................................................... ........................................................... 38E. Catalonia / Spain................................. .................................................................. .......43F. France ........................................................ .............................................................. ....49G. The Netherlands............................................ ............................................................. ..53

3.4 OTHER LOCAL INITIATIVES: BRUSSELS CAPITAL AND IBGE..................................... 53

4. QUESTIONS RELATED TO INDICATORS: MEASURES, TIME PERIODS,

SUSTAINABILITY..................................................................................................... 54

4.1 PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS ...................................................................................... 54

4.2 ARE INDICATORS UNIVERSAL? .................................................................................. 554.3 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................ 56


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APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 57

APPENDIX 1: EXECUTIVE SUMMARIES IN NATIONAL LANGUAGES.................................. 58APPENDIX 2: THE CRISP EUROPEAN NETWORK........................................................... 65APPENDIX 3: THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS PRESENTED IN THE

STATE OF THE ART..................................................................................................... 69

Appendix 3A: List of the RESPECT environment indicators (mainly France)................... 70Appendix 3B: The Healthy Cities programme by WHO ..................................................... 71Appendix 3C: The Urban Audit list of indicators............................................................... 73

Appendix 3D: IFEN Sustainable Development Indicators - The nine modules and theirsub-modules......................................................................................................................... 76Appendix 3E: The Environmental-Economic Accounting Approach in Germany.............. 77Appendix 3F: Sustainable development indicators by the United Nations (CSD) ............. 78

APPENDIX 4: NATIONAL APPENDIXES............................................................................ 81Appendix 4UK: United-Kingdom......................................................................................... 82

4-UK1: The 15 headlines indicators of the United-Kingdom .............................................. 824-UK2: The 29 local indicators in UK.................................................................................904-UK3: Southwark, the LITMUS project indicators............................................................91

Appendix 4-DK: Denmark ................................................................................................... 924-DK1: The 15 key indicators for sustainable development in Denmark. ...........................924-DK2: The Danish urban regeneration experiment .................................................... ........92

Appendix 4-IT: Italy............................................................................................................. 944-IT1: The requirement of the sustainable building regulations BRICK (Bologna) ............944-IT2: The VALSIA indicators (Comune di Bologna) ........................................................ 954-IT3: The LEGAMBIENTEURBAN ECOSYSTEM indicators......................................974-IT4: The Tuscany Region indicators.................................................................................98

Appendix 4-D: Germany....................................................................................................1004-D1: Guideline for sustainable building (Leitfaden Nachhaltiges Bauen) .......................1004-D2: ImmoPass Rehabilitation of buildings issues and indicators................................1024-D3: Indicators for a sustainable development in North Rhine-Westphalia (Indikatorenfr eine nachhaltige Entwicklung in NRW).......................................................................104

4-D4: Guideline - Indicators for sustainable development in the context of the LocalAgenda 21 (Leitfaden - Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren im Rahmen der lokalen Agenda 21).1054-D5: Cities of the future (Staedte der Zukunft) ........................................................... .....1084-D6: Sustainable community (zukunftsfhige Kommune)...............................................109

Appendix 4-E: Spain.......................................................................................................... 112Appendix 4-NL: The Netherlands ...................................................................................... 120

Appendix 4-Brussels and IBGE ......................................................................................... 122

1.


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MEMORANDUM : THE HQE2R APPROACH

AND THE FINDINGS OF THE PROJECT

Je refuse lide quil y a dun ct la lumire et de lautre les tnbres, lhomme et la femme, moi etlautre, le bien et le mal. Je cherche un lieu o ces contradictions puissent tre rsolues. Cest une

qute sans illusion 2

- Murale, Mahmoud Darwich, dition Actes Sud

The objectives of the HQER project

Sustainable Renovation of Buildings for Sustainable Neighbourhoods or HQER is a project partlyfunded by the European Commission under the Fifth Framework R&D Programme. The projectstarted in September 2001 and will continue until the end of March 2004.

Co-ordinated by the CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Btiment), France, it combinesresearch and demonstration aspects with the co-operation of 10 European research partners anddemonstration partners (local authorities or social buildingowners) working upon 14 neighbourhoods3.

The objective of the project is to develop a new methodology or approach together with thenecessary methods and tools to promote sustainable development and the quality of life at theurban neighbourhood level. HQER aims at providing decision aid tools for municipalities andtheir local partners, focussing on neighbourhood inhabitants and users concerns. With its integratedapproach, it aims at providing a framework, which can be generally applied to European cities. The

project uses case studies as neighbourhood models for which the tools are elaborated and in which theapproach or the different tools can be tested.

The elements taken into account in the development of this approach towards sustainable developmentand its tools are:

Improvements in the quality of the buildings and non built elements, which are closely linked

with needs expressed by the actors concerned (users), especially as regard improvements incomfort and reductions in the costs-in-use and maintenance of residential and non-residential

buildings (energy savings, reduced water consumption, optimisation of the use of raw materials).

Improvements in the quality of life through urban development, which respects theenvironment: reduced urban sprawl, more effective use of public spaces, and the creation of cycle-ways, pedestrian areas and green spaces. Developing coherence and synergy between theneighbourhood levels and the conurbation. Encouraging work in partnership and building thecapacity of the local community to achieve meaningful participation.

Controlling costs and applying management methods, which allow all categories of actors to

share expenses.

Controlling urban sprawl and commuting by managing the economy and environmental impactof space use and also by managing mobility and the use of public transport at the scales of theneighbourhood, the town and the conurbation.

The aim of HQE2R project is thus to allow local authorities to implement regeneration action plansin their neighbourhoods and renovation of their buildingstowards sustainable development. It isa question of providing operational tools for a concrete analysis and evaluation, which are open to

public (and private) debate and to action.

2 I refuse the idea that there is a side for the light and another one for the darkness, the man and the woman, me and the

others, the good and the bad ones. I look for a place where contradictions can be solved. That is a quest without illusion.3 See the list of the partners in Appendix or at the end


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The HQE2R approach and the expected project results

Today cities are being rebuilt, buildings are being rehabilitated, and neighbourhoods revitalised. Toassure sustainability, this regeneration must go beyond technical solutions, taking social trends,changes in behaviour, environmental and economic development into account.

To define concrete action plans, sustainable development requires an iterative way of achieving adecision, because of the necessity of taking the various principles of sustainable development intoaccount all together at once. As the market law only takes into account economic factors, and

principally only in the short-term, sustainable development requires sustainable developmentprinciples: the integration of the long-term, global impact of decisions on environmental and socialfactors, with less hierarchical forms of participation than usual market practices.

The HQE2R methodological framework for sustainable neighbourhood analysis and

development is structured as an ideal regeneration neighbourhood projects into 4 phases: a decision phase, an analysis phase - identifying priorities, definition, discussion, an assessment of scenariosphase and finally the setting up of the action plan for the neighbourhood).

The methodological framework is furthermore based on 6 sustainable development principles at the

city scale, and then a system of 21 sustainable development targets under 5 main objectives (see thelist next page) and backed up by a set of 51 key issues with their 61 indicators for the neighbourhoodand its buildings (ISDIS system).

THE HQER APPROACH TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE

NEIGHBOURHOOD DEVELOPMENT

2. Strategic decisionfor sustainable

regeneration of theneighbourhood

7. Evaluation ofthe scenarios

against SDtargets (INDI,

ENVI, ASCOT)

6. Generation ofscenarios

(to identify optionsfor SD action)

4. Shared SDdiagnosis of theneighbourhood

(potential,dysfunction,cohesion)

3. Inventory based on the21 targets and the

integrated SD indicators

system (ISDIS)

Participation of residents and users

Partnership (public / private)

Local Governance

12. Monitoring andevaluation of the

project : SDmonitoringindicators

8. Action plan forthe neighbourhood

9. Urban planningregulations including

SD recommendations

11. Projects uponthe neighbourhood

with SDspecifications

10. Projects forSustainable Buildings(new & existing) with

SD specifications

5. Strategicpriorities for the

neighbourhood anddefinition of

objectives for SD

1. Identification ofproblems (social,

environmental, technical)that need actions

PHASE 1 : DECISION PHASE 2 : ANALYSIS

PHASE 3 : DECIDING UPON THE ACTION PLANPHASE 4 : ACTION and EVALUATION

Source: HQER Project (http://hqe2r.cstb.fr) SD: Sustainable Development





ENVI, ASCOT)







system (ISDIS)



Local Governance





SD recommendations




SD specifications



objectives for SD














ENVI, ASCOT)







system (ISDIS)



Local Governance





SD recommendations




SD specifications



objectives for SD










ENVI, ASCOT)







system (ISDIS)



Local Governance





SD recommendations




SD specifications



objectives for SD







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The HQE2R project results are specific tools for local communities and for their local partners (seealso the diagram below):

- The choice of6 sustainable development principles at the scale of the city and a definition ofsustainability for the neighbourhood scale.

- The definition of an overall methodological framework with 5 main global sustainable

development (SD) objectives, their 21 targets, 51 key issues or sub targets and then 61indisputable indicators at the neighbourhood and building scales (the ISDIS system).

- A shared SD diagnosis method for SD (with an integrated analytical grid for the previousinventory) adapted to the neighbourhood scale.

- Evaluation tools for scenarios or neighbourhood projects as decision aid tools for assessingdifferent scenarios before the final action plan for the neighbourhood is chosen (3 models withthe support of 3 analytical grids):

3 models:

- INDI (INDicators Impacts) a model of sustainable regeneration impact usingindicators and allowing the development of different environmental and sustainable

development profiles- ENVI (ENVironmental Impact)- ASCOT(Assessment of Sustainable Construction & Technology Cost), a model of

global cost of energy efficient technologies from an environmental point of view at thebuilding scale.

- Recommendations for improving participation in neighbourhood regeneration projects.- Recommendations for taking SD into account in urban planning documents (for each

partner country).- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development in the building process

- Recommendations for specifying sustainable development for non built elements

- Indicators for the different phases of a project state indicators, pressure indicators and thenmonitoring indicators.

Elaboration of

assessment andmonitoring indicatorsfor projects andneighbourhoods,

regarding SD

Recommendations tointegrate SD in urbanplanning documents

Elaboration of decision aid toolsto evaluate scenarios or potentialurban planning projects (design

contract for example)

Source: HQE2R project (http:hqe2r.cstb.fr) * See the scheme Theshared SD diagnosis method for setting priorities

Choice of 5 SDobjectives, 21 SDtargets, 51 SD key

issues and indicators (atthe neighbourhood andbuildings scales): the

ISDIS system



Recommendations to improve

and to promote inhabitants andusers participation:

- to identify and collect their needs

- to improve procedures andpractices

Development of a shared SDdiagnosis method enabling the

identification of territorial SDstakes*

Definition of 6 SDprinciples at the

city scale

RESULTS OF THE HQER PROJECT:an approach with methods and tools

for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration

-Recommendationsfor briefing

documents takinginto account SD for

new and existingbuildings

- Recommendationsfor non built

elementsSD Sustainable Development

Elaboration of

assessment andmonitoring indicatorsfor projects andneighbourhoods,

regarding SD

Recommendations tointegrate SD in urbanplanning documents



Source: HQE2R project (http:hqe2r.cstb.fr) * See the scheme Theshared SD diagnosis method for setting priorities

Choice of 5 SDobjectives, 21 SDtargets, 51 SD key

issues and indicators (atthe neighbourhood andbuildings scales): the

ISDIS system



Recommendations to improve

and to promote inhabitants andusers participation:

- to identify and collect their needs

- to improve procedures andpractices

Development of a shared SDdiagnosis method enabling the

identification of territorial SDstakes*

Definition of 6 SDprinciples at the

city scale

RESULTS OF THE HQER PROJECT:an approach with methods and tools

for sustainable neighbourhood regeneration

-Recommendationsfor briefing

documents takinginto account SD for

new and existingbuildings

- Recommendationsfor non built

elementsSD Sustainable Development


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INTRODUCTION

1. THE TWO MAIN SYSTEMS OF INDICATORS

Indicators are currently used by politicians, decision makers, researchers and analysts as tools toaid their decisions or their analyses.

In every country, indicators are being developed in a thematic way by national organisations at anational level. For example, in France you can find:

- INSEE (Institut National de la Statistique et des Etudes Economiques), INED (Institut National desEtudes Dmographiques) and different statistical services of the ministries dealing with socialindicators;

- INSEE, Bank of France and different ministries (economy, environment and town and countryplanning...) developing economic indicators

- the same ones developing environmental indicators.

More generally, there are two systems of indicators, developed at the international level, on which anumber of organisations base their studies. These are the PSR and DPSIR systems and they arewidely used within international organisations and bodies. However they are principallyconcerned with environmental issues, even if the OECD and EEA policies are to develop sets ofsustainable development indicators.

1.1 The OECD4

[Pressure/State/Response (PSR)] system

OECD5 was in at the origin of work to finalise statistical or economic indicators. However theappearance of the sustainable development concept increased the need for defining indicators

reflecting the existing links between economic, social and environmental dimensions. Therefore, theOECD main objectives concerning indicators became:

1. to assess the progress made in realising and defining a common scope for sustainabledevelopment indicators at the national scale.

2. to study ways of making progress concerning some technical aspects of developing theindicators .

3. to progress the establishment of an integrated, concrete and limited set of indicators for analysingnational policies, in particular for monitoring and evaluation.

The OECD approach relies on the notion of causality - human activities exert PRESSURE on theenvironment,

- these pressures modify the STATE of the environment,

- and the community RESPONDS to these changes, with adaptations of its nationalenvironmental policy.

So, we obtain the following classification of indicators:

Pressure indicators (eg: CO2 emission in the air)

4

http://www.oecd.org/EN/home/0,,EN-home-567-nodirectorate-no-no-no-21--no-,00.html5 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development


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Pressure indicators directly describe the pressure of a human activity on the environment. It istherefore possible to use them to improve a situation.

State indicators (eg: water quality description, nitrate concentration,...)State indicators describe the situation at a precise moment. They can be determined to give anaccount of the state of the economy as well as of the environment. For example, state

indicators would try to measure the quality of the environment, the quality and quantity ofnatural resources, or the state of the economy.

Response indicators (eg: financing efforts)Response indicators represent the response of the whole of society in seeking to solve

problems.

For example: waste recycling, rising costs of fuel, use of public transport, etc..., can be consideredresponse indicators. It is difficult to quantify many of the reactions to a problem directly, but theirimpact can be seen in state or pressure indicators.

The sequence State-Pressure-Response can be a useful tool for establishing indicators or determining

their relevance as it represents a sort of "mini-model" of the phenomena studied. This system is wellknown: countries and organisations like the United Kingdom and the United Nations base theirresearch on this model.


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1.2 The European Environment Agency DPSIR system

The European Environment Agency (EEA) uses the DPSIR framework6 (Driving forces, Pressure,State, Impact, Response) in its reporting activities. The EEA Typology of indicators has been prepared

by TNO7.

According to the DPSIR framework, social and economic Driving forces exert Pressure on theenvironment and, as a consequence, the State of the environment changes, such as in the provision ofadequate conditions for health, resource availability and bio-diversity.

This leads to Impacts on human health, ecosystems and materials. These may elicit a societalResponse. This may feed back on the Driving forces, on the State or on Impacts directly, throughadaptation or curative action. In addition to looking at these elements, it is useful to look at the links

between the elements. For example, the relationship between Driving force and Pressure is the eco-efficiency of technology, with less pressure coming from the driving force if eco-efficiency isimproving. Similarly, the relationship between the Impacts on humans and ecosystems and the Statedepends on the carrying capacities and thresholds for these systems. Whether Society Responds toimpacts depends on how these impacts are perceived and evaluated; and the results of the response onthe driving forces depend on the effectiveness of the response.

6 The report Environmental indicators: "Typology and overview"http://themes.eea.eu.int/toc.php/improvement/reporting

7 Edith Smeets and Rob Wetering, TNO Centre for Strategy, Technology and Policy, the Netherlands. Projectmanagers Peter Bosch, Martin Bchele and David Gee, European Environment Agency.


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Indicators and information linking DPSIR elements8

According to an EEA report (Technical Report No 25), indicators can be classified into fourgroups

9:

Descriptive indicators (What is happening to the environment and to humans?)Most sets of indicators currently used by national and international bodies are based on theDPSIR-frameworkor a subset of it.

- Driving force indicators describe social, demographic and economic development insocieties and the corresponding changes in life styles, levels of consumption and production

patterns.

8 EEA Technical report No 25, Environmental Indicators: Typology and overview, prepared by Smeets, E.&Wetering R. 1999

9The Model, Flow, Quality system

Dealing with more than environmental indicators, the EEA has already developed a specific approach of urban sustainability:the model, flow, quality system.

This system is more urban in its focus and analyses the boroughs as metabolising systems, following the municipal model ofmaterial, energy, and information flows:

Model: the municipal models indicators describe processes and events with a multifactorial incidence and theyare directly related with the basic municipal model. Flow: the municipal flows indicators undertake the material and energy cycles from the point of view of their

production, distribution, treatment and re-use. Quality: the municipal environment quality indicators are those referring to the final condition of the municipalenvironment.

Driving force Effectiveness of responses Responses

Eco-efficiency of technology,indicators

Emission factors

Risk assessment costs and

benefits of action/in-action

Pressure Impact

Pathways and

dispersion modelsState

Dose responseindicators

and relationships


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Primary driving forces are population growth and changes in the needs and activities ofindividuals. These provoke changes in production and consumption levels, and this is howdriving forces exert pressure on the environment.

- Pressure indicators describe developments in the release of emissions, use of resources andland.

- State indicators describe physical phenomena (like temperature or noise level in a certainarea), biological phenomena (like current wildlife resources) and chemical phenomena (suchas concentrations of harmful substances) both in a quantitative and qualitative way.

- Impact indicators describe impacts caused by the changed state of the environment, forexample impacts with regard to bio-diversity, availability of resources and the provision ofadequate conditions for health.

- Response indicators describe responses by groups in society as well as governmentalattempts to prevent, compensate for or adapt to changes.

Performance indicators (Does it matter?)Performance indicatorscompare actual conditions with a specific set of reference conditions.They measure the distance between the current situation and the situation described (target).

Efficiency indicators (Are we improving?)Efficiency indicatorsrelate pressures to human activities. These indicators provide an insightinto the efficiency of products and processes in terms of resources used, emissions releasedand waste generated per unit of product

Total welfare indicators (Are we on the whole better?)

Total welfare indicatorswould aim at describing total sustainability. Some measure of totalsustainability like an Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare would be needed.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL OR THEMATIC INDICATORSGenerally, indicators are created in a thematic way: economy, demography, financial issues,environment, pollution...) but the emergence of sustainable development has created a growingdemand for the elaboration of new tools including new indicators. A number of them have beenstudied in the framework of the CRISP database, a European network on sustainable indicators10.

2.1 The product level: ISO 14 00011

The ISO standard 14 031 (Environmental performance evaluation)12 gives guidance on the designand use of environmental performance evaluation within an organisation.

ISO 14 031 defines environmental condition and specific expression that provides informationperformance indicators as follows:

10 See a presentation of this European network in appendix 011

http://crisp.cstb.fr/PDF/reports/stateofartmaaliskuu.pdf12 SFS-EN ISO standard 14031 Environmental performance evaluation. 1999-12-21.& (1+53 p.).


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environmental condition indicator : specific expression that provides information about thelocal, regional or global condition of the environment,

environmental performance indicator about an organisations environmental performance, management performance indicator : environmental performance indicator that provides

information about the management efforts to influence an organisations environmental

performance, operational performance indicator : environmental performance indicator that providesinformation about the environmental performance of an organisations operations.

According to ISO 14031, the environmental indicator is defined as a special expression thatprovides information about environmental conditions or performance.

2.2 The different geographical scales of indicators

Each problem has a relevant scale of evaluation and solutions: also the functions of municipalities,

regions, states are extremely varied because of the traditions and political structures in each country.Propositions must be adapted to each situation.

Some specific indicators could be used at regional, national or international scales. Some others areexclusively used at the local (even urban) scale.

Some" basic indicators" could be used for the entire urban environment as well as at national orinternational scales.

Data which have to be collected (statistics or scientific data) for measuring geographical indicators areoften erratic. Putting them at our disposal implies the improvement of survey systems and systems of

observation concerning physical, economic and social environments at different levels of relevancefor each problem (country, conurbation, administrative regions, cities, neighbourhood...) and theseobservations have in most of European countries to be created or improved.

Taking the example of water management, the best way to implement global principles and ensurewater access for essential users and ecosystemic balance in the long term, is to do so at the local level.Implementing new mechanisms of governance for local water communities is a way to apply anintegrated approach to problems.

At this level, local communities have an essential role to play in mobilising the whole sector of wateractors: residents and the principal partner groups of sustainable development (which are quoted insection III of the Rio Agenda 21).


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2.3 The European level

2.3.1 Networks

A. The European association RESPECT and its environmental indicators13

The network

Under the aegis of the CNFPT nine French communities have initiated an action leading to theworking out of a model schedule, called RESPECT : a landmark instrument evaluating and monitoringenvironmental policies in local communities (" Rfrentiel d'Evaluation et de Suivi des PolitiquesEnvironnementales des Collectivits Territoriales ").

Today the project RESPECT involves 30 communities in the European Union (towns, cities, regionsinter-district partnerships). It intends to try out and validate the schedule. Based on the sharing ofexperience, on the exchange of practice among the participating communities and working togetherinside the network, the project will lead to the development of a method for the implementation of atool to monitor, run, and evaluate environmental policies. It will be possible to adapt the tool for use inall the communities of the European Union.

As a result of an initiative by and with the support of the National School of Local Executive Practicein Montpellier (ENACT Ecole dApplication des Cadres Territoriaux de Montpellier), which is partof the CNFPT (Centre National de la Fonction Publique Territoriale), the project is now financiallysupported by the European Community as part of the LIFE-Environment programme. In additionfunding for the project has been provided by the French Ministry of Environment and Town andCountry Planning and ADEME.

Contents

The RESPECT schedule is made up of significant and comprehensible indicators based on theenvironmental responsibilities of local communities or cities.

At present, 73 indicators are divided in different themes. They characterise the physicalenvironment (air, water, soil ...), pollution (waste, transport, noise...); they aim at protecting the human

being on the levels of chronic attacks (natural and technological risks); they characterise environments(town planning, landscapes, nature) and they estimate citizen participation.

Each indicator is linked to a general strategic objective and to an operational objective defined by thecommunity and is assessed on a set date. The indicators also allow the community to identify theactions that are to be implemented to reach the operational objective.

By periodically evaluating each indicator and then each theme, the community can monitor theefficiency and the relevance of their implemented policies and, if they fail, redefine them.

Objectives

The RESPECT schedule is a decision support tool at the disposal of the community which set it up. Ithas four basic aims:

- Knowledge- Evaluation and aid to decisions- Communication within the community- Public relations

13

from French State-of-the-art , 2001, Catherine CHARLOT-VALDIEU for CRISP (http://crisp.cstb.fr/)See also http://www.respect.asso.fr/ and appendix 1a.


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The RESPECT project must lead to:

suitable indicators for the setting up of an environmental schedule in every participatingcommunity;

a complete methodology enabling any other community in the European Union, whatever itsregional level , to provide for itself a landmark instrument evaluating and monitoring

environmental policies.

Framework of analysis Pressure State - ResponseThe indicators within the RESPECT schedule have been worked out in accordance with thecompulsory and voluntary duties of the communities. Thus, they enable the monitoring of theirenvironmental policies: they are results indicators. The methods of implementation are given asadditional information.

They take into consideration the framework "Pressure - State - Response" (PSR) developed byOECD (Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development).

B. The "Healthy Cities" programme of the World Health Organisation14

WHO

The WHO Healthy Cities project is a long-term international development project that aims to placehealth high on the agenda of decision-makers in the cities of Europe and to promote comprehensivelocal strategies for health and sustainable development based on the principles and objectives of thestrategy for health for all in the twenty-first century and Local Agenda 21.

A set of indicators was produced and then, formally adopted by cities participating in the HealthyCities program in 1990. The aims of collecting this data were to:

Provide a description of health in the cities Provide a baseline of information for future comparisons Identify indicators which best characterise cities Compare and contrast cities in the Healthy Cities project network

The 53 indicators devised cover the areas of health, health services, environmental and socio-economic factors.

2.3.2 The Urban Audit by the European Commission (DG XVI) and

Eurostat15

The purpose of the Urban Audit is to create a tool which allows comparison across nationalboundaries of the conditions of life in European Union urban areas.

The general target of the Urban Audit is to make for European Union cities an inventory ofconditions and to provide information which can be used to compare European Union cities. Hence itis hoped to make the exchange of information between cities easier.

The Management of the Urban Audit was confided to the General Directorate of regional policyand cohesion (DG XVI) and to Eurostat. The other general directorates of the European Commissionwere consulted for the choice of the information which needed to be included in the Urban Audit.

For the first time, this work assembled, in 58 cities of the European Union, information on differentaspect of the quality of life in urban areas.

14 from Greek national report, 2001, CRISP (http://crisp.cstb.fr/)

See also: http://www.who.dk/healthy-cities/welcome.htm and appendix 1-b15

from French State-of-the-art , 2001, CRISP (http://crisp.cstb.fr/)See also: http://www.ereco.com/audit/ and appendix 1-c


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In order to achieve this, the European Commission urged Municipal authorities to participate directlyin the process, hence close collaboration between the European Commission and the cities wasnecessary.

2.4 The national level2.4.1 IFEN

16in France

The French Institute for the Environment (IFEN) is working on the elaboration of environmentalindicators at the national scale but some expert working groups have also been created in theeconomic, social and environmental sectors. Thus, IFEN has already worked on programmes for thecreation of environmental indicators17: "environmental performance indicators", "sector basedindicators: tourism and environment", "the industry, energy and environment program".

Since 1996, IFEN has developed its own ideas about sustainable development including:

a) A methodological approach

The establishment of a methodological scope able to integrate the different elements of sustainabledevelopment and to include various actors (from multiple disciplinary origins) in the construction ofindicators. This has three precise purposes:

- To improve understanding of the phenomenon ;- To help decision making ;- To inform the public.

The work realised in that context was quite original because it was chosen to articulate the differentdimensions of sustainable development (according to the studies of the Brundtland Commission) ina modular architecture as represented in the figure below, and to have a coherent system that can beassessed independently.

The result is the creation ofa realistic set of307 indicators organised in 9 modules 18(each of thesemodules is represented by a number on the diagram).

According to the IFEN, 5 axes characterise the definition of sustainable development in theBrundtland report:

- balanced growth creating more employment and productivity and fewerexternalities.(module 1);

- greater care for the management and the restoration of critical forms of capital includinghuman and institutional capital.(modules 2 and 3);

- good links between local and global (modules 4 and 5);- the satisfaction of present generations by reducing inequalities and dissatisfaction

(modules 6 and 7);- the integration of future generations by using of the precaution principle for resource

management and for adaptations to unforeseeable situations (modules 8 and 9).

16 French Institute of Environment ( Institut Franais de lEnvironnement) Established on November 18th 1991,IFEN is a public administrative body under the authority of the French Ministry of Environment. Appendix 1.d17

IFEN, tudes et travaux n35 Propositions dindicateurs de dveloppement durable pour la France.18 see appendix 1-d


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b) Experts and working groups

Working groups including than 50 experts, decision makers, researchers were created in 1998-9within a programme concerning sustainable development indicators.

This second approach results from defining "critical natural capital", important because the loss of thiscapital would compromise the possibility of sustainable development.

The IFEN processes try to link two demands:

- the reference to a coherent field of reflection , enabling the integration of the differentdimensions of sustainable development;

- the creation of numbered indicators (mostly state or evaluation indicators) clearlysituated in the general scheme and directly usable by the actors concerned .


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2.4.2 The environmental economic accounting approach in Germany19

In Germany, the Federal Statistical Office has tried to develop indicators aimed at sustainabledevelopment. The purpose of the Environmental Economic Approach (UGR) is to representinterdependencies between economic activities and the environment. UGR shows what naturalresources are used up, devalued or destroyed by production and consumption and how efficiently the

economy and society deal with energy and areas. The UGR system allows the determination of the pressure put on nature by using it as a "sink" for residuals and pollutants and permits compilinginformation on the state of the environment and the costs of environmental protection. Followingthis pattern of issues, UGR results are structured by the following subjects fields: material and energyflows, use of areas and space, state of the environment, measures for environmental protection, andabatement costs. This shows that the modular structure is an essential feature of the UGR concept. TheUGR subject fields are self-contained and, at the same time, connected with each other in statisticalterms so that, taken together, they form an overall picture. Depending on the issue examined, differentmethodological approaches are used, for example accounting methods, the development of indicators,or geographical information systems. Physical and monetary values are equally important as results.Where appropriate, environment-related data are always compiled in a form enabling them to belinked with economic data from national accounts or other statistics.

2.4.3 The German Environmental Index (Deutscher Umweltindex /

DUX)20

The German Federal Ministry for Environmental Affairs developed the German environmentalbarometer, which is calculated in a similar way to an index used on stock exchange (The Germanstock-exchange-index is called "DAX", comparable to the "Dow Jones" index in NYC). Accordingly itis called "DUX" = "Deutscher UmweltIndex". This index is based on 6 indicators given below. Eachindicator is given certain points for reaching set targets. If the target reaches 100%, 1000 points aregiven. For October 2000 the index amounted to 1505 points.

- Climatic index 607 (max 1000 points)- Air 692 (max 1000 points)- Soil -11 (max 1000 points)- Water 0 (max 1000 points)- Energy 164 (max 1000 points)- Raw Materials 53 (max 1000 points)

A number of approaches are already orientated towards an environment taking more account of thedifferent pressures exerted on it. In this way, tools for creating sustainable development indicators arenow developed at national, regional and local scales of urban environment.

19 DR.Karl Schoer et al.: Umweltkonomische Gesamtrechnungen 2000, Frankfurt am Main, Oktober 2000(German State-of-the-art Report, http://crisp.cstb.fr), see also appendix 1-g

20 Description taken from: WETZEL, C.; WRLE, G.; MAYER, E. (Fraunhofer IBP, 2001): CRISP GermanState of the art report, section 2.1


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3. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT INDICATORS AT THE

DIFFERENT SCALES

3.1 The sustainable development concept: definition, historical

development and main events

DefinitionsSustainable development is a new approach to development and became necessary because ofecological problems arising at a planetary level. The notion of and the term sustainable development

became institutionalised for the first time in 1972 at Stockholm during the UN EnvironmentConference..

However, the event that gave it its real importance was the Brundtland report (published in 1987)commissioned by the UN Environment and Development Program. It was entitled Our commonfuture and defined sustainable development as follows:Sustainable development is a form development that meets the needs of the present withoutcompromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.The ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives)21 gave a more local definitionof sustainable development, which is applicable in European urban regions:

Sustainable development is a form of development which supplies some economic, social and

environmental fundamental services to all the inhabitants without compromising the validity of

natural, property and social systems on which the supply of those services depends.

The idea of sustainable development is based on a notion of eco-development, in other terms adevelopment which aims to increase the human standard of living without compromising the naturalenvironment and exhausting its resources. Hence, future generations will not be penalised by animpoverished planet, unable to respond to their needs and aspirations.

Source : CSTB, La Calade

21

www.iclei.org


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Main events:

Ten years after Rio and six years after HABITAT 2 (Istanbul), sustainable development is finallybeginning to reach cities but its influence is still weak.

The following table summarises the most important events for sustainable development:

June 1972 StockholmFirst Conference of the United Nations on Environment

Call from scientists for nature conservation

1986 Catastrophy of Tchernobyl in Ukraine

1987 Bruntland Report for

the United Nations

For "a development which does not penalise the futuregenerations". Identification of two risks: the greenhouse effect andozone layer destruction

1987 / 1993

Protocol of Montreal /London andCopenhagenAmendments

Commitment of States to stop CFC consumption and productionby 1/1/1995 and HCFC consumption by 2015.

3 14 June 1992 Rio de Janeiro

Conference of the United Nations on Environment and

Development: AGENDA 21, conventions on biodiversity and

climate, statements on forests. First perspective on the

Northern and Southern approaches.

1994 BerlinFirst Parts Conference: consensus to decrease CO2 emissions backto their 1990 level by 2000.

1996 GenevaSecond Parts Conference on climatic changes: approval by States,without reservation, of the IPCC22 report and of the necessity toadopt legally restricting quantified objectives

1996 Istanbul

Habitat 2 Summit of the United Nations which recognises citiesas partners of the United Nations and confirms the Riocommitments to protect the world wide environment and toimprove the quality of life in human establishments, we commitourselves to respect sustainable modes of production,consumption, transport and urbanisation, to prevent pollution, torespect the ecosystems capacity and to preserve the chances offuture generations (statement, paragraph 10)

December 1997 KyotoThird Parts Conference giving CO2 emission reductionobjectives for industrialised countries from now until 2008-2012

26 August 4

September 2002Johannesburg

RIO + 10 : Keep the agreement about some results from Rio withrenovation of public policies and a new agreement about an ActionPlan on drinking and sewage water, within type 2 initiatives(public-private partnership) under the responsibility of ONU.

Source : from Cahier CSTB n 3106 of March 1999 : La ville et le dveloppement durable .

22 IPCC: International Panel on Climate Change, created in 1988 by the United Nations Program forEnvironment and the World Meteorological Organisation


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Sustainable Development IndicatorsAt the Rio Conference, in 1992, Sustainable Development Indicators (SDI) were presented as anindispensable tool for improving the information supporting decisions. Chapter 40 of Agenda 21recalls that correct information must be the basis for decisions and that two elements must be takeninto account: the elimination of gaps which exist between levels of information and the improvementof access to information. For reaching these objectives, a new activity is to establish SustainableDevelopment Indicators. Agenda 21 stipulates that different countries as well as internationalorganisations should define SDI in order to be able to identify them, then they should use them innational and international accounting.

Chapter 28 of Agenda 21 focuses on city initiatives to promote Local Agenda 21. The proposed actionis its implementation. At this level, dialogue with residents, local organisations and enterprises is themain topic. To improve empowerment, information systems must be also improved. SDI at this locallevel could be also a means to improving this information and encouraging the analysis of localauthority programmes.

3.2 The national level

3.2.1 Sustainable Development Indicators by the United Nations23

The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) took place in Rio deJaneiro, Brazil, in 1992. The Earth Summit was convened to address problems of environmental

protection and socio-economic development. The assembled leaders signed the FrameworkConvention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity, endorsed the RioDeclaration and the Forest Principles, and adopted Agenda 21 for achieving sustainable development.

The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was created in December 1992 to ensure

follow-up of UNCED and to monitor and report on implementation of the Earth Summit agreements atthe local, national, regional and international levels. The CSD is a functional commission of the UNEconomic and Social Council (ECOSOC), with 53 members. CSD has worked out a working list ofSustainable Development Indicators. This should be seen as a flexible list from which countries canchoose indicators according to national priorities, problems and targets .

The indicators are presented in a Driving Force - State - Response framework24.

The UN sustainability indicators aim at describing society from the point of view of sustainabledevelopment. The Driving Force indicators address activities and processes that affect the sustainabledevelopment of a society; the application of those for the assessment of different kinds of activitiesand processes is not straightforward. As the indicators formulated by CSD are applied for theassessment of activities or end products - like buildings and built environment - state indicators cannot

be used as such. However, part of the Driving Force indicators may be applied within one socio-economic sector in a society.

23http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/worklist.htm24 "Driving Force" indicators indicate human activities, processes and patterns that impact on sustainabledevelopment. "State" indicators indicate the "state" of sustainable development and "Response" indicatorsindicate policy options and other responses to changes in the "state" of sustainable development. ( The list ofindicators is presented in Appendix 1-f).


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3.2.2 Eco-efficiency concept by WBCSD

The concept of eco-efficiency was first introduced by the World Business Council for SustainableDevelopment (WBCSD) in its report for the UN conference on sustainable development in 199225.

The meaning of eco-efficiency concept has been widely discussed ever since. The OECD 2627 has

defined the term in such a way that: "Eco-efficiency expresses the efficiency with which ecologicalresources are used to meet human needs".

According to the OECD report, eco-efficiency can also be defined as a ratio of output and input so thatthe output represents the value of the products or services that a company produces and the input is thesum of environmental pressures caused by the production.

Eco efficiency = Value of products or services/ Environmental pressures

This definition is product-related and the approach is close to life-cycle assessment. According tothe above definition of eco-efficiency, it does not address all three pillars of sustainable development.

While it strives to improve economic and environmental efficiency, the concept does not pertain tosocial issues.

3.3 The urban scale

3.3.1 European networks: the 10 composite indicators for sustainability byDG XI

28

10 composite indicators have been established by a working group managed by the EuropeanCommission, DG Environment (DG XI).

These 10 indicators were presented for the first time in Hanover in February 2000 as towards a LocalSustainability profile at the Third European Conference on Sustainable Cities and Towns. Thisindicator-based monitoring initiative aimed at supporting local authorities in their work towardssustainability and providing objective and comparable information on progress towards sustainabilityacross Europe. It does so by helping local communities monitor progress towards sustainability, notonly in relation to their own performance, but also in a wider perspective, allowing them to recognisetheir strengths and weaknesses and identify where they can learn from others. The monitoringinitiative aims to enable cities and towns to show in a coherent way how urban areas contribute tosustainability in Europe.

25 WBCSD has defined the concept of eco-efficiency as follows : Eco-efficiency is reached by the deliver ofcompetitively priced goods and services that satisfy human needs and bring quality of life, while progressivelyreducing ecological impacts and resources intensity throughout the life cycle, to a level in line with the earth'sestimated carrying capacity.

WBCSD also aims at developing a framework measuring and reporting eco-efficiency. According to theWBCSD report ( http://www.wbcsd.ch/ee/EEBriefAug99Final.PDF ), when harmonising indicators it isimportant that the terminology used is logic, simple and straight-forward.26 The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 1998. Eco-Efficiency.27

OECD Meetings of the Environment Policy Committee at Ministerial Level, February 1996 and April 1998 28http://www.sustainable-cities.org


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The initiative is a contribution of the Expert Group on the Urban Environment (set up as an advisorybody in 1991 by the European Commission's Directorate-General Environment) to the European Citiesand Towns Campaign. The work has been carried out by a Working Group of the Expert Group, inclose collaboration with a Group of Local Authorities set up to ensure that as many local authorities as

possible could take an active role in defining and agreeing on the indicators.

The 10 European composite indicators are divided in 2 groups:

5 core indicators (compulsory) Citizen satisfaction with the local community Local contribution to global climatic change Local mobility and passenger transportation Availability of local public green areas and local services Quality of local outdoor air

5 additional indicators (voluntary) Children s journeys to and from school Sustainable management of the local authority and local business Noise pollution Sustainable land use Products promoting sustainability

The Urban Expert Group has now published methodology sheets27 setting out how to measure andtest the indicators and thus help Local Authorities to use them

Local authorities across Europe are encouraged to participate in the monitoring of initiatives byadopting the European Common Indicators and integrating them into existing municipal managementsystems, and contribute actively to the further development of this set of voluntarily agreed indicatorsduring the testing period.

3.3.2 National or local programmes

A. United-Kingdom

1. Introduction

After a first experience to define global indicators at the national scale, the UK government haspublished in 1999 a national strategy called the Quality of life counts.

This report presents 15 Headline indicators and a more complete list of 150 core indicators.

The 15 headline indicators are intended to make up a 'quality of life barometer', which will be usedto measure overall progress towards sustainable development and the UK government proposed to

bring together and publish the latest information about progress against each of the headline indicatorsonce a year

28.

27 see http://www.sustainable-cities.org/expert.html and

http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/urban/local_sustainability_en.pdf28 see appendix UK


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The national core set of 150 indicators is intended: to describe, overall, whether the government is achieving sustainable development; to highlight key national-scale policy initiatives relevant to sustainable development and to

monitor whether the government is meeting key targets and commitments in those areas; to educate the public about what sustainable development means; to raise public and business awareness of particular actions which they need to take in order

to achieve more sustainable development; to report progress to international audiences; to help to make transparent the trade-offs and synergies between sustainable development

objectives.

As a complement of this strategy, the United Kingdom has developed too the Regional Quality ofLife Counts in 2000. Its aim is to measure for each of the nine English regions the 15 headlineindicators.

At last, another programme called Local quality of life counts determined local indicators in2000and will be explained in the part concerning local initiatives (below).

There are currently no moves in the UK to introduce statutory quality of life indicators. Guidance isdeveloped by central government in partnership with local government. It is seen as good practice totake account of this advice, although local government is free to adapt it to local circumstances.

The structure of UK government Sustainable Development Indicators is described briefly inAppendix.

2. Local works in the UK

The Local Quality of Life Counts

Complementing national and regional levels, there has also been extensive work at local level by localauthorities and Local Agenda 21 groups to develop indicators, which can be used to monitorsustainable development at the local scale. In July 2000 a new handbook Local quality of lifecounts29 was launched. This offers ideas for measuring sustainable development and quality of life inlocal communities. It gives a menu of 29 indicators, from which local authorities in England maywish to consider using a selection for reporting their Local Agenda 21 and Community Strategies.These local indicators build on the work already carried out at local as well as national levels 30 andinclude some of the 15 national headline indicators. It was developed by a joint initiative betweenlocal and central government.

Southwark and the LITMUS project31

The Local Indicators to Monitor Urban Sustainability project (LITMUS) addresses the need to gainmore experience of engaging local communities in the development and application of indicators ofsustainability. The project is focussed on two major urban regeneration programmes in the LondonBorough of Southwark, United Kingdom.

29www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/indicators/index.htm and also appendix UK30 seeNational sustainable indicators in United Kingdom31 Final report of the LITMUS Project-Local indicators to Monitor Urban Sustainability-carried out by the

London Borough of Southwark between October 1997 and March 2000- Southwark Council, March 2001and web site: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/litmus/ and appendix UK.


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The project takes sustainability indicators beyond the development of technically based indicators,accessible and understood by professionals, to community based indicators developed and owned bylocal communities. This approach is based on the idea that the understanding by and activeinvolvement of citizens in promoting sustainable development is the best guarantee of buildingsustainability into urban management processes.

LITMUS seeks to demonstrate that the development of community indicators of sustainability canlead to changes in individual behaviour, increased public environmental awareness, increased localparticipation in neighbourhood management and the development of a clear direction for improvingurban regeneration programmes.

Definition of the indicators

The two areas concerned with this project are Peckham and Aylesbury, two of the most deprivedwards in the United Kingdom.

The project establishes what local people consider to be the most important signs of the changingquality of their lives and aims to generate discussion among people with different backgrounds andviewpoints.

For this purpose LITMUS has worked with local people to develop and monitor a set of localsustainability indicators. This is done by a series of consultation activities, practical projects, and localmeetings.

The indicators have been determined in five linked phases:

- an initial phase to raise awareness of sustainability and environmental issues;

- a consultation phase aimed at exposing the common values of local people andvoluntary groups in a way which truly expresses the key community sustainabilityissues for the area;

- a sustainability indicator development phase aimed at supporting local people indeveloping appropriate indicators;

- an indicator monitoring phase to involve local people in data collection;

- and an action phase aimed at using information gathered through monitoring theindicators as a means of identifying and catalysing local responses and action.

3. The Audit Commission Quality of Life Indicators Project

The Audit Commissions Quality of Life Indicators project is an important recent collaboration between central and local government. The Audit Commission is the central government bodyresponsible for auditing the spending of public funds. Its core work in local government is concernedwith more traditional performance indicators, but it has recently become interested in quality of lifeindicators as a way of assessing the effectiveness of local services. The project was started in responseto the Local Government Act of 2000, which gave local authorities a new duty to promote the social,economic and environmental well-being of their area. Building on the central and local governmentindicator work of the late 1990s, the Commission consulted on a set of QOL indicators in the autumnof 2000. Following this consultation, a voluntary pilot test of the indicators was held, in which 90 localauthorities participated during the financial year 2001/02. The result of this process has been the

production of a list of indicators grouped under the headings Economic, Environmental, Socialand Social - Community Development. Each indicator is supported by advice on how to collect anduse the data, backed up by the experience of the pilot authorities. The Commission is organisingcontinuing support through seminars and handbooks. There is a particular focus on improving theeffectiveness and influence of indicators, and communicating them to the public. The use of theindicators is voluntary and discretionary. It is expected that local authorities will adapt the indicatorlist to their local circumstances, changing, omitting and adding indicators as appropriate.

Reference: http://ww2.audit-commission.gov.uk/pis/quality-of-life-indicators.shtml


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B. Denmark

1. Introduction

In Denmark work to define sustainable development indicators has been going on since the earlynineties. The strategy plan sustainable development for Denmark has among other things clarified the

need for measurable entities (indicators) that in an easily comprehensible way show the state of or thedirection in which we are moving with respect to sustainability.

The development of indicators in other countries has been extensively studied and used as a basis forthe development of Danish indicator sets29. The Danish government presented a proposal for anindicator set in April 2001. This has been commented on by the public and a final set produced inOctober 200130.

The Danish indicator sets have been developed with a focus on the possibility of using the indicatorsto measure the success of the action plans initiated towards sustainability.

It has been decided to develop two sets of indicators:

1. A detailed set of indicators for each area of the strategy plan describing development and

results in relation to the goals and initiatives of the plan.2. A set of15 selected key indicators (like the UK headline or the Swedish key indicators)that describe development and condition in relation to the overall objectives of the strategy

plan for a sustainable development.

This set of key indicators has been selected in close relation with 8 aims and principles of theDanish view on sustainable development (key indicators mentioned in parenthesis)32:

1. We shall maintain high social welfare and break the link between growth and harming theenvironment (N1, N2, N3 & N4)

2. We shall create a safe and healthy environment for everybody and maintain a high level

of protection (N5, N6 & N7)3. We shall assure a high level of biological diversity and protect ecosystems (N8)4. We shall exploit resources more efficiently (N9)5. We shall contribute actively to international developments (N10)6. We shall ensure that environmental concerns are taken into account by all sectors (N11 &

N12)7. We shall assure that the market supports sustainable development (N13)8. Sustainable development is a common responsibility and we shall measure progress (N14

& N15)

Key indicators:

N1: GNP pr. capita N2: Environment impact from 4 factors (CO2-eq., N- and P- emissions to the sea and acidity) inrelation to GNP

29 Internationale erfaringer med strategier for baeredytig udvikling- En analyse af strategisk arbejde medbaeredygtig udvikling i udvalgte europaeiske lande og internationale organisationer. Miljo og Energiministeriet,Oktober 200030 Danmarks nationale strategigi for baeredygtig udvikling. Udvikling med omtanke - faelles ansvar;Indikatorsaet. The Danish Government, Oktober 2001.

Indikatorer i fremtidig strategi g - metodemaessige overvejelser og eksempler. Rapport. Miljo - og

Energiministeriet, Oktober 200032 see appendix Denmark-15 key indicators


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N3: Real savingsN4: Employment distributed by ageN5: Mean living age (distributed on women and men)N6: CO2-eq. emissions from different sectorsN7: Use of dangerous chemicalsN8: Size of nature areasN9: Energy use, water use and waste in relation to GNPN10: Economical value of international development supportN11, N12: Indicators selected for each year for specific sectorsN13: Number of products that have an environmental specification (e.g. Swan mark)N14: Number of governmental institutions that have a green buying policyN15: Number of companies with an environmental certification.

2. Building / built elements

One of the areas covered by the detailed set of indicators in Denmark is Urban and dwelling deve-lopment . Seven indicators have been defined for this area in relation to the goals and action plans.

Danish Urban and dwelling SD indicators

Goals and actions Indicators

Better use of urban areas, and the growth of the cities must bereduced

1. Area for city zone

New urban structures shall reduce the need for transportation 2. Percentage of new offices built within 500 m from publictransport

The cities shall be alive and diversified, and parts of the cityshall contain residences, service companies, etc.

3. Relationship between dwellings and workplace positions /Number locally employed in selected larger and smaller cities

The value of use, flexibility and quality shall be increased 4. Percentage of all dwellings that have district heating andown bath and toilet

The quality of the recreation areas in the city must beimproved 5. Number of m green area reachable within 15 mins walkfor inhabitants in 3 larger cities i Copenhagen, Aalborg andOdense

Further requirements on energy- and resource usage 6. Energy use for space heating for the city as a whole (energyper m)

7. An index for the development of electrical energy use,water use and amount of waste in the households (perinhabitant)

3. New Development

A Danish law31 requires a so-called VVM-statement and Danish Building regulations have to beadhered to for all new buildings sets out a formal approval procedure for a number of newdevelopments that may have an impact on the environment. Construction work in urban areas thatrequires a VVM-statement are shopping centres and parking areas, and other new constructions thatmight impact the environment or the buildings of the cultural environment (heritage) significantly,or that have an impact on the infrastructure through their use or users. Larger institutions such ashospitals, universities, major theatres and sports-stadiums would require a VVM-statement, wherease.g. homes for elderly people and schools would not.

The VVM statement will have to be written according to a standard format covering a number ofissues, such as area usage, materials, production processes, expected waste products and emissions,new supply systems for electricity and heating, etc.

31 LBK Nr. 518 af 11/06/2000 concerning VVM


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For new developments not covered by the VVM law requirement, the general specifications in regi-onal, urban and local plans apply and in addition there are special requirements in overall supply plansfor heating and or gas services.

Further to the VMM requirement different cities and municipalities have their own requirements fornew developments.

4. Neighbourhood: The Danish urban regeneration experiment33

The Danish urban regeneration experiment is an experiment in citizen participation and integrated andcoordinated urban regeneration in selected urban areas. Twelve urban areas in Denmark are participa-ting in an extensive urban regeneration experiment. The purpose is partly to improve the individualresidential areas as a whole and partly to provide models for urban policy in the future.

The main features of the urban regeneration experiment are as follows:

- The projects concern selected areas, and not individual residents or properties- The projects are based on coordinated and integrated action

- The projects are aimed at increasing local participation- The projects are part of a controlled process

Focus on resident participation

The projects are democratic in that they are based on local forces. In the projects the residents are participating in working groups on the urban regeneration plans' themes, e.g. traffic, environment,cultural life and employment.

Indicators in the Danish urban regeneration experiment

The project does not speak of indicators but ofsuccess criteria, but the meaning is the same. The

criteria are subdivided in two categories: process-oriented criteria and thematic criteria for theindividual projects. The criteria selected under each theme relate to the overall objectives of the

particular neighbourhood regeneration project.

Below are examples of the indicators (success criteria) used:

Theme Criteria to measure results Criteria to measure process

Citizen grouping

Average income

Number of persons with an incomeabove a threshold

Pct. of people: receiving social security ,owning their own home, employed

Partnerships between the municipalityand the housing associations

Participation

Number of persons participating Number of participants at citizenmeetings and other similar arrangements

Pct. of the people participating in largercultural events

Pct. of participants in work- and project-groups that are from another ethnicalbackground than Danish

Number of attempts to activate personsthat once have been active, but now arepassive

The physical environmentSpecific objectives with respect to theactual building of specific buildingsfulfilled

Number of cultural unions / thematicgroups involved in the development

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CSTB La Calade

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Number of new squares, of parked cars(shows the degree of increased activity)in the central area

Average speed on selected streets

Number of sustainable elements in newor renovation building projects (i.e.

additional insulation, solar heating, etc.)

Pct. of houses using district heating

Energy use, Water use, Wasteproduction, CO2 emissions

Pct. of citizens who experience it movesafe to move in the traffic on foot /

Documents

HQE2R Etat Des Lieux Des Indicateurs Européens