• IISD Home
• Our Knowledge
• About IISD
• Media Room
• Publications Centre
• Contact Us
• Site Index

• Measurement and Assessment Home
• Publications
• Our Work

Principles

1. Guiding Vision
Assessing progress towards sustainable development is guided by the goal to deliver well-being within the capacity of the biosphere to sustain it for future generations.

2. Essential Considerations
Sustainability Assessments consider:

• The underlying social, economic and environmental system as a whole and the interactions among its components
• The adequacy of governance mechanisms
• Dynamics of current trends and drivers of change and their interactions
• Risks, uncertainties, and activities that can have an impact across boundaries
• Implications for decision making, including trade-offs and synergies

3. Adequate Scope
Sustainability Assessments adopt:

• Appropriate time horizon to capture both short and long-term effects of current policy decisions and human activities
• Appropriate geographical scope ranging from local to global

4. Framework and Indicators
Sustainability Assessments are based on:

• A conceptual framework that identifies the domains that core indicators have to cover
• The most recent and reliable data, projections and models to infer trends and build scenarios
• Standardized measurement methods, wherever possible, in the interest of comparability
• Comparison of indicator values with targets and benchmarks, where possible

5. Transparency
The assessment of progress towards sustainable development:

• Ensures the data, indicators and results of the assessment are accessible to the public
• Explains the choices, assumptions and uncertainties determining the results of the assessment
• Discloses data sources and methods
• Discloses all sources of funding and potential conflicts of interest

6. Effective Communication
In the interest of effective communication, to attract the broadest possible audience and to minimize the risk of misuse, Sustainability Assessments:

• Use clear and plain language
• Present information in a fair and objective way, that helps to build trust
• Use innovative visual tools and graphics to aid interpretation and tell a story
• Make data available in as much detail as reliable and practical

7. Broad Participation
To strengthen their legitimacy and relevance, sustainability assessments should:

• Find appropriate ways to reflect the views of the public, while providing active leadership
• Engage early on with users of the assessment so that it best fits their needs

8. Continuity and Capacity
Assessments of progress towards sustainable development require:

• Repeated measurement
• Responsiveness to change
• Investment to develop and maintain adequate capacity
• Continuous learning and improvement

Web Master - Copyright © 2010 International Institute for Sustainable Development