Welcome to the September 2007 edition of the Centre’s Newsletter. Inside this Newsletter you will find information on recent developments in sustainability reporting and related areas of sustainability, accountability and transparency, especially relevant to the public sector.

I have recently had the privilege of discussing the role and place of sustainable community indicators with Maureen Hart from Sustainable Measures in the United States. Maureen is a leading figure in the sustainable community indicators movement, and she has worked with many communities, agencies and organisations on indicator initiatives (you may have seen Maureen’s Guide to Sustainable Community Indicators).

So what are sustainable community indicators? Essentially, they are indicators that enable a community to measure progress and report on all aspects of sustainable development i.e. economic, environmental, social and cultural. Sustainable community indicators may be linked with a long term sustainability strategy and specific actions to advance sustainability, or the indicators may be used to measure and benchmark progress between communities.

Excellent examples of sustainable community indicator initiatives operating at different levels and led by different organisations are the Community Indicators Victoria project, the Quality of Life project in New Zealand, the Santa Monica Sustainable City program, Sustainable Seattle, and Sustainable Calgary – State of the City (for details, please see the ‘Additional References’ section at the end of this Newsletter).

There are important connections between sustainable community indicator initiatives and the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sector Supplement for Public Agencies. The Sector Supplement outlines that for public agencies, sustainability reporting can be considered at three levels:
1.    Corporate –reporting on an organisation’s internal sustainability performance
2.    Public policy outcomes – reporting on the outcomes of public policies (building on annual reporting and other agency performance reports), and
3.    Contextual or spatial outcomes – reporting on broader outcomes within a community, jurisdiction or sector e.g. a state of the city report or a health sector report.

Not every public agency, especially some departments, will report at the contextual, community or sectoral level. Contextual reporting may occur at a different timeframe to sustainability reporting on organisational performance that is usually undertaken annually. However, particularly for local governments, working with communities to develop long term strategies and then report on progress is core business, and part of the broader local government strategic planning and reporting framework.

In some jurisdictions, such as New Zealand and the United Kingdom, long term community plans (or similar) are legislative requirements and local governments are required to consult with their communities, develop suitable long term plans, and regularly report on progress. This Newsletter highlights a valuable report by the New Zealand Auditor-General on an assessment of local government performance against long term strategic planning requirements.

Of course it can be challenging for a public agency (or any organisation) to design and implement a monitoring and reporting system that addresses all three levels of organisational reporting, public policy reporting and community reporting – but this is where there are potential synergies and efficiencies to be gained from common indicators, data systems and processes.

The Centre would welcome your comments on the role and place of sustainable community indicators as part of a broader sustainability reporting strategy, and how sustainable community indicators can best be progressed by a public agency, especially at the local government level.

Phil Hughes

Director