Sustainability Metrics

There are many emerging standards in Sustainability.

Their emphasis differs, some are highly focused on greenhouse gas emissions, others on dwindling resources such as water, and yet others on the more political/economic aspects of Sustainability.

Green is merely the symbolic colour of Sustainability and is as relevant for environmental factors as it is for the other dimensions of Green.

Green is a holistic totality, requiring the ‘equilibrium’ that sustains Life in all its forms.

It is also significantly anthropomorphic, and by that I mean that our well-being is an inevitable parameter to measure Green against.

Holistic analysis is no walk in the park.

It requires seeking to juggle countless balls all at the same time.

It requires alertness to the potential of ‘butterfly effects’.

Generally it is not the natural domain of the linear minded who feel insecure when the ‘obvious’ is being challenged; the comforting rails of the established way of doing things are then being threatened and resistance is encountered in all sorts of denials.

These denials are never in their raw form, they are always camouflaged by ‘rational’ arguments, wrapped up in lines such as ‘where is the evidence, the proof, etc’.

Often careers and business interests are threatened, and these may range from careers in fossil fuel science to the bottom lines of fossil fuel enterprises.

The truth is that personal and business interests can turn scientists into intellectual prostitutes and businesses into devious organizations seeking to promote misinformation.

Political ideologies also jump onto the band wagon and seek to twist the ‘facts’ to promote their objectives.

What should be a Green dialogue becomes a pawn for global politicking.

Ultimately, measurement and verification of the facts will always be necessary to confirm the way forward in Sustainability.

The article below indicates general metrics for Sustainability.

http://people.clarkson.edu/~wwilcox/Design/sustain.pdf

Regardless of the method, quality data is crucial. That is often the elusive butterfly ...