Plan-it Sustainably: Assessing Sustainability

A Review ofAPA PAS Report No. 565, Assessing Sustainability: A Guide for Local Governments

In Chapter 2, this PAS report characterizes measuring sustainability as the Holy Grail for planners. The chapter concludes with two quotes that aptly frame the challenge.

“What gets measured gets done,” but …

“Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted.” —Albert Einstein

The quotes illustrate the inherent blind spots in any method and the resulting need for intelligent treatment of what can—and cannot—be measured.

The report is a cornucopia of information on all aspects of measurement, from definition and principles, to simple and complex quantitative methods and qualitative methods. It covers recent and emerging efforts such as LEED ND, ICLEI’s STAR system, and some preliminary results of the APA Sustaining Places Task Force on the role of the comprehensive plan (early draft). It is instructive reading for anyone trying to measure sustainability or progress towards other goals, e.g., community health.

If there is an Achilles’ heel in the report, it lies not in the report itself, which is excellent, but in the young state of sustainability planning best practices summarized in the report. The report takes us to the edge of the known sustainability world, but not beyond. It comprehensively reviews the many definitions of sustainability, but concludes that operational robustness and clarity are lacking. It acknowledges overuse of the word to the point that it “means everything and therefore nothing.” And finally, the report’s survey of definitions and guiding principles leaves the authors with the feeling that reviewing the enormous and varied “literature and labeling of sustainability … is like taking a Rorschach test, with each definition and discussion creating a different projection or interpretation.”

In what is likely an extreme characterization, the authors note the difficulty this definitional variety can pose. A shared understanding of the conditions of sustainability success is critical for creating sustainable communities. Accurate definition illuminates the right direction, benchmarks, strategies, and actions on which measurement techniques can chart absolute progress. Measuring absolute progress is essential for making the many mid-course corrections required for an initiative’s success and that of the longer sustainability journey.

The report contains two telling points on the definitional problem. The report contains only one short paragraph (page 13) on benchmarks (absolute objectives) and no discussion of benchmarks in Chapter 4, Model Indicators, Benchmarks, and metrics. The absence of benchmarks and definitional clarity limits the value of the accumulated experience with sustainability indicators. Indicators without benchmarks and benchmarks without clarity of goal/definition reveal only directional uncertainty and only the relative appearance of progress between jurisdictions. They do not reveal actual progress toward sustainability or the intended shrinking of the sustainability gap.

In two unrelated opposing points, the authors incidentally touch on the way beyond. The first paragraph of the report supports “the skeptics’ notion” that sustainability does not represent a paradigm shift of transformational potential but only traditional good planning. But the last paragraph of Chapter 3 suggests that sustainability is more than traditional good planning: “The new focus on sustainability represents a different mind-set and way to bring together all of the disparate goals of the planning profession.” Exactly how to accomplish this aggregation and possible synthesis is the unanswered question and a likely next step.

In conclusion, the Holy Grail for sustainability planners may be more a robust and clear operational definition of sustainability than the measurement of it, for which there are plenty of good methods! Unfortunately, the report does not review the implications of the emerging arena of strategic sustainability and its application to communities internationally over the past 20 years. Strategic sustainability uses a clear principle-based definition of sustainability—rooted in standard science—and a range of other tools and methods to facilitate the paradigm shift required to understand sustainability issues and achieve success.

Nevertheless, the report’s wealth of information brings planners up to this strategic next step. The many measurement techniques offered make a significant contribution to a strategic approach. So read the PAS Report for the value it “counts,” and bring that into the next (uncounted) step of strategic sustainability.

By Scott T. Edmondson, AICP, Sustainability 2030, The PAS report is free to APA PAS subscribers; others pay $48.

(note: cross-post from APA CA Northern Section Nothern News September 2011, p. 12-13)