On Thursday, Nov. 12 Western Michigan University students and faculty members gathered in Schneider Hall’s Brown Auditorium to hear Maureen Hart’s lecture on how communities can measure progress toward sustainability.
Hart is an international sustainability expert and has been an advocate for over 60 years. Her lecture, titled “Community Sustainability Projects: History and Progress,” was an introduction to sustainability goals and indicators.
Throughout the lecture, Hart explained what sustainability indicators are, how they can be used to reach sustainable goals, who uses them, and why they are used.
“A goal is just a way of talking about what you want the conditions to be in the future, and when talking about sustainability it’s about how the community wants the conditions to be in the future,” Hart said. “An indicator is a numeric way to measure sustainability that provides key information about conditions and trends.”
Indicators of a sustainable community point to areas where the relations between the economy, environment and society are fragile. They draw attention to where the problem areas are and help show the way to fix those problems, according to Hart.
“We are what we measure and it is now time to measure what we want to be,” Hart said.
Some examples of sustainability indicators include measuring a community’s total waste generated, ecological footprint, or pedestrian friendly streets.
Hart said that indicators of sustainability are different from traditional indicators of economic, social, and environmental progress. Unlike the traditional indicators, which measure changes in one part of a community as if they were independent of the other parts, sustainability indicators reflect the reality that the three different segments are interconnected.
“Sustainability indicators focus on the big picture,” Hart said.
Hart also pointed out that just because you have the perfect sustainability indicator doesn’t mean that any changes will be made.
“An indicator is only a tool. It’s a way to look at information and use it to make decisions,” she said. “You have to figure out what the right indicators are for getting people to understand and work toward sustainability.”
To do this, Hart said it is important to connect indicators with decision makers in the community, and keep the number of indicators to a minimum.
“To get people to pay attention, just pick a few indicators, no more than 12,” Hart said.
The lecture was followed by a reception that included free local sustainable foods including apple cider from Bruce Broners Orchard, and apples and broccoli from the Natural Health Center. Peoples Food Co-op and Taste of Heaven also provided food.
For more information from Hart on sustainability indicators visit www.sustainablemeasures.com.
