Tools for Measuring Success

For every organisation that wants to measure its progress on the journey to sustainability, there need to be tools that are appropriate for their situation. Fortunately, many have already been developed (even though strong sustainability hasn't always been their goal). One of the most official that large corporations are already familiar with is the ISO 14001 standard. Here is a research article reviewing it from the point of view of the Natural Step framework.  The main conclusion is "tools such as ISO 14001, while a useful start, do not in themselves assist an organization in strategic planning, with true sustainability in mind".  As Karl-Henrick mentions in the presentation a few blogs down, all of these have a place and are useful, but currently only the 5-level framework is capable of looking at the whole picture to stimulate thinking towards transformational change.

Other tools are:

• Envirostep (an entry level online assessment tool to help SMEs understand, improve and communicate environmental performance)
• Tourism Oil Price Tool (an online assessment tool for New Zealand tourism businesses to assess relative exposure to profitability risks associated with higher world oil prices)
• The Global Reporting Initiative have an indicator search.
• ANEW New Zealand Integrated Structure of Indicators - this site has a variety of national and international case studies on indicators. Their research project aims to assist Councils to develop their community outcomes and performance indicators and to assist in moving toward an integrated structure of indicators across all Councils