Towards zero climate emissions, zero waste, and one planet living — Testing the applicability of three indicators in Finnish cities
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tested the applicability of these indicators for the city-level sustainability measurements and found that they can be used as background information for setting long-term visions and targets for a resource-wise city.
About: This article is published in Sustainable Production and Consumption.The article was published on 2017-04-01. It has received 16 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Sustainability & Ecological footprint.
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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: In this article, the authors investigated complex, country-level relationships between ISO 14001 certification, renewable energy consumption, access to electricity, agriculture, and CO2 emissions within the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.
136 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a nonparametric approach was used to evaluate the environmental efficiency of drinking water utilities, which incorporated GHGs into the evaluation as an undesirable output, and the results indicated that the source of raw water, the level of wastewater treatment and production density have a statistically significant influence on environmental efficiency.
30 citations
TL;DR: This review considers three popular concepts that support sustainable RM in terms of potential areas for convergence and divergence, which can help align the three guiding concepts into a combined holistic effort to manage resources depending on the problem considered.
23 citations
01 Jun 2021
TL;DR: In this paper, a systematic review of the literature based on meta-data assessment and bibliometric analysis was considered, for the topics addressed here, and the results revealed that it is important to find more and newer sustainability indicators concerning the circular economy, because those which have already been identified and highlighted by scientific literature fail to address any relevant dimensions.
Abstract: Economic circularity involves different dimensions and may be assessed through several indicators. These indicators are, however, scarcer when the intention is to analyse the interrelationships between the circular economy and sustainability. This framework shows that there is potential here to be explored in the indicators of the circular economy, namely to highlight their interlinkages with dimensions of sustainability. From this perspective, the main objectives of this study are to bring about new insights into the contexts of economic circularity indicators and how they are associated with sustainable development. To achieve these objectives, a systematic review of the literature based on meta-data assessment and bibliometric analysis was considered, for the topics addressed here. For the bibliometric analysis, bibliographic and text data from the Web of Science and Scopus were taken into account. In the bibliometric analysis, network metrics were explored, specifically those related to centrality approaches. The results obtained reveal, for example, that it is important to find more and newer sustainability indicators concerning the circular economy, because those which have already been identified and highlighted by scientific literature fail to address any relevant dimensions. In fact, the main limitations come from the difficulties in considering all the dimensions which may affect the main focus of the analysis. In turn, the literature survey highlights that there are not so many studies which carry out systematic reviews and bibliometric analysis covering the topics related to indicators in the circular economy. These findings show the novelty of this research and that there are fields here which should be addressed by the scientific research.
19 citations
References
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TL;DR: In this paper, a classification and mapping of different trends of thought on sustainable development, their political and policy frameworks and their attitudes towards change and means of change is presented, focusing on sustainable livelihoods and well-being rather than well-having.
Abstract: Sustainable development, although a widely used phrase and idea, has many different meanings and therefore provokes many different responses. In broad terms, the concept of sustainable development is an attempt to combine growing concerns about a range of environmental issues with socio-economic issues. To aid understanding of these different policies this paper presents a classification and mapping of different trends of thought on sustainable development, their political and policy frameworks and their attitudes towards change and means of change. Sustainable development has the potential to address fundamental challenges for humanity, now and into the future. However, to do this, it needs more clarity of meaning, concentrating on sustainable livelihoods and well-being rather than well-having, and long term environmental sustainability, which requires a strong basis in principles that link the social and environmental to human equity. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
1,906 citations
TL;DR: It is indicated that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s and humanity's load corresponded to 70% of the capacity of the global biosphere in 1961, and grew to 120% in 1999.
Abstract: Sustainability requires living within the regenerative capacity of the biosphere. In an attempt to measure the extent to which humanity satisfies this requirement, we use existing data to translate human demand on the environment into the area required for the production of food and other goods, together with the absorption of wastes. Our accounts indicate that human demand may well have exceeded the biosphere's regenerative capacity since the 1980s. According to this preliminary and exploratory assessment, humanity's load corresponded to 70% of the capacity of the global biosphere in 1961, and grew to 120% in 1999.
1,134 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an assessment of the global use of materials since the beginning of the 20th century based on the conceptual and methodological principles of material flow accounting (MFA).
944 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: In this paper, the authors present an alternative notion of sustainability assessment, with the more ambitious aim of seeking to determine whether or not an initiative is actually sustainable, and 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.
821 citations