We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

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Sustainability: Measurement, Activities and Tools

Approach	Application	Example(s) of Implementation
Cooperative Farming	Balinese Rice Subaks	Shared water rights integrated with Tri Hita Karna, (religious tenet emphasizing harmony), practiced more than 1000 years
Governing for Future Generations	Seven Generations	‘In every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the seventh generation...’ – the Constitution of the Iroquois Nations (more than 500 years ago)
Sustainable Yield	E.g. Timber Harvest in Forestry	Royal Mining Office (Germany) and Hanns Carl von Carlowitz suggest Nachhaltiger Ertrag (sustained yield) for timber supply (1713)
Statistical Dispersion (Income Equality)	Gini Coefficent	Corrado Gini, Variability and Mutability, 1912, relative distribution (usually used to measure income inequality)
Cost-Benefit Analysis		Jules Dupuit in France analyzes merits of bridge and possible toll rates (for Pres Bonaparte) 1848 US Corp of Engineers mandated to use C-B analysis in 1936 Federal Navigation Act
Measure of Economy	Gross Domestic Product	William Petty creates first estimate of national income, 1665 (for England – Improved 1696 by King George to measure domestic product by income, production and expenditure) Simon Kuznet presents concept of GDP to US Congress (National Income, 1929-35) Wassily Leontief develops economic input-output model, 1936 (same year John Maynard Keynes publishes “General Theory” and commissions Meade & Stone to estimate national income and expenditure) Upon coronation King Wangchuck of Bhutan declares country’s pursuit is ‘Gross Domestic Happiness’ (1972) UN’s Human Development Index (1990)
Measure of Well-Being	Gross Domestic Well-Being	World Values Survey (started 1981, now available for more than 100 countries)
Product Labelling		Germany’s Blue Angel Program (1978) Environment Canada’s EcoLogo certified products (1988)
Environmental Agencies	Legislative Establishment	Canada Water Act (1970); Department of Environment (1971), advocated ‘ecosystem management’ US EPA started December, 1970
Probabilistic Risk Assessment	Risk Informed Decision Making	US National Research Council (1982); US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (1983) and NASA
Material Flows Assessment	Urban Metabolism	Wolman, Scientific America (1965); ‘Industrial Ecology’ (1989) Urban GHG emissions inventories (approx. 1989)
Equivalency Aggregation	Disability Adjusted Life Year (DALY)	Harvard University develops concept for the World Bank as means to measure overall disease burden (1990)
Strategic Decision Making	Game Theory	Mixed Strategy Equilibria, zero-sum games (Von Neuman’s minimax theorem, 1928) Tucker’s ‘Prisoner’s dilemma’ (1950)
Life Cycle Assessment		Coca Cola retains Midwest Research Institute in 1969 to compare types of beverage containers Proctor & Gamble retains Franklin Associates to compare packaging and surfactants (1988)
Systems Engineering		Schlager (1953) – ‘Systems Engineering key to modern development’ (key role in engineering) Interdisciplinary (lifecycle) field of engineering Schlager 1956 (Bell Telephone Laboratories) National Council on Systems Engineering (NCOSE, 1990) ‘Limits to Growth’, MIT, global ecosystems modelling. ‘Ecological engineering’ (1962) coined by H.T. Odum – Systems Ecology and energy/material flows 1983
Scenario Analysis and Integrated Assessment		Herman Kahn and Hudson Institute for scenario planning and public policy (1961) Royal Dutch Shell scenario planning (1971)
Contingent Valuation	Willingness to Pay	Surveys proposed by Ciriacy-Wantrup (1947) NOAA convenes high-level advisory panel on survey methodology (1993)
Social Entrepreneurship		Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, 1981 Various – usually individual metrics Grameen Bank, 1983
Philosophy		Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832): Greatest happiness principle. John Stuart Mill (1806-1873): liberty, scientific method, and utilitarianism. Gifford Pinchot (1865-1946): ‘conservation ethic’ and Wise Use, US Forestry Service Aldo Leopold (1887-1948): land ethic (e.g. A Sand County Almanac)
Earth Summit	UN Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, 1992	109 heads of state Agenda 21 (Local Agenda 21) Outcomes: climate change convention, convention on biological diversity, UNFCCC, reform of GEF, statement of forest principles ‘Common but differentiated responsibilities’
Use of Indicators	Simple indicators	Numerous examples, including Australia’s Sustainable Forest Management Framework, e.g., Indicator 1.1.a – Area of forest by forest type and tenure
	Compound and complex indicators	World Economic Forum’s sustainably-adjusted Global Competitiveness Index (GCI)
Assessments	Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Social Impact Assessment (SIA)	Standard practice in many countries for all new developments
	Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)	Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels Fossil Fuel Baseline Calculation Methodology (RSB-STD-01-003-02)
Framework Assessments	European Research Projects	European Common Indicators (1999 – 2003) LASALA – Local Authorities’ Self-Assessment of Local Agenda 21 (1999 – 2002) Indicators to Assess New Urban Services (2000 – 2003) Urban-Nexus (2011 – 2014)
Equivalence Measurement	Ecological Footprint	William Rees (1992) Wackernagel and Rees (1996)
Maintenance of Capital Stocks and Flows	Triple Bottom Line (TBL) Sustainability	The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) founded in Boston (1997)
Schemes and Standards for Measuring, Assessing, Reporting and Certifying Sustainability		Montreal Process Criteria and Indicators of Sustainable Forest Management Forest Stewardship Council – Certification The Carbon Disclosure Project (2000) The Standards Map: information on 120 voluntary standards operating in over 200 countries, and certifying products and services in more than 80 economic sectors ISO 9000 Quality Standards EcoChoice, Blue Dot, Fair Trade ‘Dolphin Safe’ Jantzi Social Index Energystar Acumen (Capital) Fund, 2001
(Driver-Impact) Pressure-State-Response (DIPSR)	Pressure-State-Response (PSR)	OECD: Environmental Indicators 2008; Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises (voluntary standards), 1976
Accounting System Approaches	System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting (SEEA)	SEEA Central Framework, adopted in 2012 as an international standard by the United Nations Statistical Commission, supported by the European Commission, FAO, IMF, OECD, UN and World Bank
	Consumption-based Accounting (CBA)	United Kingdom 2011-2013 – Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC) with the University of Leeds, developing a CBA Indicator for GHG emissions
	Supply Chain	Global Forest Watch (with WRI, 1997)
Indexes		Dow Jones Sustainability Index, 1999 Yale’s Environmental Sustainability Index, 2000 Transparency International started by Peter Eigen, 1993 World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ Index launched Nov, 2001
Risk Assessment Dealing with Uncertainty	Risk Assessment and Management	ISO 31000 – Risk Management Risk Management – Principles and Guidelines
Subjective Well-Being		Cognitive and affective evaluations; Ed Denier (2000) – proposes a US national Index of SWB
Rating of Buildings	Sustainable Buildings	BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology, 1990) US Green Building Council (1993), LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environment Design, 2000) Canadian GBC (2002) BOMA (founded 1907) provides advisory services and ratings for building owners
Rating of Cities		GaWC – Globalization and World Cities, Beaverstock et al., 1998 – e.g., London and NYC ‘Alpha++’ Saskia Sassen, The Global City (1991), NYC, Tokyo and London. Now city raking and indices common and widespread, e.g. Mercer Index of Livability, 2000 WHO ‘Healthy Cities Project’, 53 indicators from 47 cities (1992-94) Mercer (2005), Economist (2005), Siemens Green City Index (started 2009), and others, ranking cities for ‘livability’, ‘quality of life’, etc.
Management Approaches: Adherence to Prescribed Approaches	Best Management Practices (BMP), Codes of Practice; Environmental Management Systems (EMS)	Cotton Australia’s MYBMP, a best management practice tool for Australia’s cotton growers BSI Group – first EMS (BS 7750) ISO 14000 series (1996); ISO 14001 used by more than 250,000 organizations in 159 countries (ISO, 2010)
	Six Sigma	Motorola introduces quality control scheme, 1988
Cost Curves	Marginal Abatement Cost Curves	Rose in prominence post Kyoto Protocol, e.g., McKinsey Global GHG abatement cost curve to 2030
Adaptive Management		Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency – Operational Policy Statement: Adaptive Management Measures under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act
Engineering Principles	Strategic Guidance	Sustainable Development in the Consulting Engineering Industry. FIDIC (2000) list of 18 objectives Clift and Morris (2002), Engineering with a human face. Dealing with uncertainty; social acceptance
Millennium Development Goals	UN consensus – various metrics, various attainment	Established September 2000. Eight goals over 15 years to 2015: (i) eradicate extreme poverty; (ii) primary education; (iii) gender equality; (iv) child mortality; (v) maternal health; (vi) combat disease; (vii) environmental sustainability; and (viii) partnership for development
Rio +10	Johannesburg, 2002	Johannesburg Declaration Included some 300 ‘partnership initiatives’ to help achieve MDGs
Scenario Analysis and Integrated Assessment		Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – 5th Assessment Report (AR5) Shell Oil scenario planning continues
Environmental Performance Index		Fare et al (2004) apply environmental performance index to sample of OECD countries Esty and Porter (2005) – National Environmental Performance (data-driven and analytical rigour)
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) - Ecosystem Services Report		Millennium Ecosystem Assessment UK National Ecosystem Assessment 2011
Resilience Thinking, Thresholds and Planetary Boundaries		Resilience Practice: Engaging the Sources of our Sustainability, Brian Walker and David Salt (2012), exploring the application of resilience theory to real-world situations Rockstrom et al., A safe operating space for humanity, (climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, N and P cycles, freshwater use, biodiversity loss, land use – plus pollution and aerosols), 2009
Measuring City Performance	City Indicators, GCIF (2007)	Federation of Canadian Municipalities, ‘Quality of Life in Canadian Communities’ (2001) European Common Indicators, Towards a Local Sustainability Profile (2003) The power and potential of well-being indicators. A pilot project by nef (the New Economics Foundation) and Nottingham City Council (2004) World Bank discussion paper, The Current Status of City Indicators. “City Indicators: Now to Nanjing” presented at WUF3, Vancouver (2006)
Urban Growth Modelling	City Scaling	West and Bettencourt propose city scaling – economy scales super-linearly while infrastructure scales sub-linearly
Emissions Inventory	GHG Protocol	GHG emissions inventory (national, regional and city) – Scopes 1, 2 and 3; ISO 14064 (2006) from WBCSD-WRI 1998
Adaptive Governance		Adaptive governance and climate change, Ronald D. Brunner and Amanda H. Lynch (2010), arguing for decentralized adaptive governance to provide diversity and innovation in addressing climate change
Corporate Social Responsibility		Various corporate forms, ISO 26000 (November 2010): e.g. Marks & Spencer, Plan A; Body Shop; Patagonia Sustainability Consortium (2009) – ASU, University of Arkansas and Walmart – product sustainability metrics (now more than 100 member companies)
Engineering Principles	Strategic Guidance	Shanghai Declaration on Engineering and Sustainable Development. WFEO (2004) – commit to: ethics; interdisciplinarity; education and capacity building; gender issues; international cooperation Abraham (2006) proposed nine principles National directives: ICE, UK (2003); IPE, NZ (2004); Eng Aus., IIE, Spain (2005); CSCE and Engineers Canada (2006) Meadows, Thinking in Systems (2008)
Engineering Tools	Infrastructure Ratings	Arup’s ASPIRE (2008) with DFID and Engineers Against Poverty Envision Infrastructure Rating System by ISI Numerous other tools, e.g., BE2ST, GreenLITES, Greenroads, I-LAST and INVEST
Rio +20	Rio de Janeiro, 2012	Billed as largest UN event ever organized ~45,000 participants (130 heads of state) Renewing Agenda 21 ‘Green economy roadmap’ with SDGs (“The Future we Want”) Larger role for UNEP
Defining Urban Boundaries and Borders	Consultative or Directive	Data, Boundaries, Competiveness: The Toronto Urban Region in Global Context. Global City Indicators Facility (2013)
Community Indicators	World Council on City Data	Sustainable development of communities: Indicators for City Services and Quality of Life. ISO 37120 (2014)
Sustainable Cities	Guidance Document	Indicators of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative, Inter-American Development Bank, 2013 Certu, European Commission
	Resource Efficient Cities	UNEP – International Resource Panel – ‘Decoupling’
Inventories	Global or Regional Assessments	WWF Living Planet Report (2014) – ‘half of all global wildlife lost since 1970’
Assessment Tools	Higg Index	Apparel and footwear products – used by hundreds of organizations Sustainability Consortium (100+ corporate members, 7 retail sectors)
Modelling, Data Management, ‘Smart Cities’	Predictive Analytics	Predictive policing, e.g., Santa Cruz
	Algorithms in Policy Making	Traffic management, e.g., Lyon, Stockholm
	Data Mining and Systems Development	City management through data collection and predictive modelling, e.g., Rio de Janeiro, New York, Kunming
Indexes, continued	Sustainability	Yale’s Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) modified to Environmental Performance Index (EPI), 2005 – national rankings published annually (with WEF)
	Adaptation	Notre Dame – Global Adaptation Index (GAIN) – transferred from Global Adaptation Institute, 2013 – national rankings published annually
Sustainable Development Goals	UN consensus, 2015	Target implementation 2016 to 2030 As of August 2015, 169 targets and 304 indicators proposed Comprised of 17 goals: (i) end poverty; (ii) end hunger, promote sustainable agriculture; (iii) promote well-being; (iv) quality education for all; (v) gender equality; (vi) sustainable water and sanitation for all; (vii) sustainable energy for all; (viii) economic growth and productive employment work for all; (ix) sustainable industrialization; (x) reduce inequality; (xi) sustainable cities; (xii) sustainable consumption and production; (xiii) combat climate change and its impacts; (xiv) conserve the oceans; (xv) manage lands and halt biodiversity loss; (xvi) inclusive societies and institutions; (xvii) revitalize global partnerships

NB: Ballantine (CitiesToday, Oct 2014) and Monnen & Clark (2013) list more than 150 benchmarking tools for sustainable cities metrics, e.g., Corporate Knights, Siemens Green City Index, AT Kearney’s Global Cities Index, Mercer, ICLEI, C40, Covenant of Mayors, GRI, Eurostat Urban Audit. Poveda and Lipsett (2014) outline more than 600 existing approaches to sustainability assessment (mainly for buildings and infrastructure projects). Adapted from World Economic Forum, Designing for Action: Principles of Effective Sustainability Measurement (2013). European research projects from Moreno Pires et al (2014). Engineering principles adapted from Gagnon et al. (2008).

From: Hoornweg, D., A Cities Approach to Sustainability, University of Toronto, 2015.

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