Author
Evelin Urbel-Piirsalu
Other affiliations: Lund University
Bio: Evelin Urbel-Piirsalu is an academic researcher from Stockholm Environment Institute. The author has contributed to research in topics: Impact assessment & Valuation (finance). The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 1188 citations. Previous affiliations of Evelin Urbel-Piirsalu include Lund University.
Papers
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a cohesive categorisation of the most common sustainability assessment tools within the broader objective of lifting the understanding of tools from the environmentally-focused realm to that of the wider concept of sustainability.
1,306 citations
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TL;DR: A review of recent developments of LCA methods, focusing on some areas where there has been an intense methodological development during the last years, and some of the emerging issues.
2,683 citations
TL;DR: Sustainability indicators and composite index are increasingly recognized as a useful tool for policy making and public communication in conveying information on countries and corporate performance in fields such as environment, economy, society, or technological improvement as mentioned in this paper.
2,181 citations
Book Chapter•
01 Jan 2016TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare TBL approaches and principles-based approaches to developing such sustainability criteria, concluding that the latter are more appropriate, since they avoid many of the inherent limitations of the triple-bottom-line as a conception of sustainability.
Abstract: Sustainability assessment is being increasingly viewed as an important tool to aid in the shift towards sustainability. However, this is a new and evolving concept and there remain very few examples of effective sustainability assessment processes implemented anywhere in the world. Sustainability assessment is often described as a process by which the implications of an initiative on sustainability are evaluated, where the initiative can be a proposed or existing policy, plan, programme, project, piece of legislation, or a current practice or activity. However, this generic definition covers a broad range of different processes, many of which have been described in the literature as 'sustainability assessment'. This article seeks to provide some clarification by reflecting on the different approaches described in the literature as being forms of sustainability assessment, and evaluating them in terms of their potential contributions to sustainability. Many of these are actually examples of 'integrated assessment', derived from environmental impact assessment (EIA) and strategic environmental assessment (SEA), but which have been extended to incorporate social and economic considerations as well as environmental ones, reflecting a 'triple bottom line' (TBL) approach to sustainability. These integrated assessment processes typically either seek to minimise 'unsustainability', or to achieve TBL objectives. Both aims may, or may not, result in sustainable practice. We present an alternative conception of sustainability assessment, with the more ambitious aim of seeking to determine whether or not an initiative is actually sustainable. We term such processes 'assessment for sustainability'. 'Assessment for sustainability' firstly requires that the concept of sustainability be well-defined. The article compares TBL approaches and principles-based approaches to developing such sustainability criteria, concluding that the latter are more appropriate, since they avoid many of the inherent limitations of the triple-bottom-line as a conception of sustainability.
859 citations
TL;DR: An overview of the definitions and units of measurement associated with environmental, social, and economic footprints is presented in this paper, where composite footprints combining two or more individual footprints are also assessed.
726 citations
TL;DR: The conceptual requirements for an adequate CSI are: (i) to consider environmental, economic and social aspects from the viewpoint of strong sustainability; (ii) to capture external impacts (leakage effects) of city on other areas beyond the city boundaries particularly in terms of environmental aspects; (iii) to create indices/indicators originally for the purpose of assessing city sustainability; and (iv) to be able to assess world cities in both developed and developing countries using CSI as discussed by the authors.
621 citations