Sustainability Assessment: The Role of Indicators
There are many ways to assess sustainable development, each of which provides potentially useful, though different, insights for distinct audiences. Despite the abundance, specific features and diversity of methods and tools for assessing sustainability,
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Abstract There are many ways to assess sustainable development, each of which provides potentially useful, though different, insights for distinct audiences. Despite the abundance, specific features and diversity of methods and tools for assessing sustainability, indicators are one of the most used approaches. In fact, sustainability indicators, have been at the forefront of many political, academic, scientific, and community debates for the past decades. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of research on synthesizing indicator approaches, frameworks, trade-offs, advantages, and drawbacks, at different operational and strategic scales and contexts. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is first to develop an integrative analysis of existing sustainability indicator approaches, frameworks, and different initiatives in scope and scale. In the second place, it aims to present insights and critical dilemmas about how indicators could be adopted and tailored for higher education institutions that want to assess sustainability performance. The roles and potential values of sustainability indicators should be clarified; more than ‘‘empty’’ or ‘‘miraculous’’ assessment tools, they need to be considered as steering processes able to change organizational and cultural dimensions of higher education institutions, their education and research structures, and the way they relate to society. Keywords Sustainability assessment Higher education
Indicators Stakeholder’s engagement
T. Ramos (&) CENSE, Center for Environmental and Sustainability Research, Departamento de Ciências e Engenharia do Ambiente, Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Campus da Caparica 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] S. M. Pires Juridical Institute Research Centre, Faculty of Law, University of coimbra, Pátio da Universidade 3004-454 Coimbra, Portugal e-mail: [email protected]
S. Caeiro et al. (eds.), Sustainability Assessment Tools in Higher Education Institutions, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-02375-5_5, Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2013
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T. Ramos and S. M. Pires
Introduction The concept of sustainable development is charged with complexities as it involves and balances several different goals, content types, approaches, aspirations, and desires (Ramos and Caeiro 2010). Assuming that it is to be defined and used to support decision making and policy processes, sustainability must be monitored, evaluated, and reported. Thus, improving the management of global, national, regional and local policies, plans, programs, projects, and actions is vital to achieve more sustainable outcomes with less negative effects on human and natural systems. As a multifaceted concept, sustainability requires aggregate measures (Hanley et al. 1999), based on the integration of the different thematic dimensions, including the non-material ones (e.g., beliefs, perceptions, aspirations), that ultimately defines the sustainability level of human-natural systems. There are many ways to assess sustainable development,
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