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Sustainability assessment: the state of the art
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Sustainability assessment: the state of the art

A. Bond, A. Morrison-Saunders and J. Pope
Impact Assessment and Project Appraisal, Vol.30(1), pp.53-62
2012
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Abstract

sustainability assessment theory practice process effectiveness pluralism
Sustainability assessment is a recent framing of impact assessment that places emphasis on delivering positive net sustainability gains now and into the future. It can be directed to any type of decision-making, can take many forms and is fundamentally pluralistic. Drawing mainly on theoretical papers along with the few case study examples published to date (from England, Western Australia, South Africa and Canada), this paper outlines what might be considered state-of-the-art sustainability assessment. Such processes must: (i) address sustainability imperatives with positive progress towards sustainability; (ii) establish a workable concept of sustainability in the context of individual decisions/assessments; (iii) adopt formal mechanisms for managing unavoidable trade-offs in an open, participative and accountable manner; (iv) embrace the pluralistic inevitabilities of sustainability assessment, and (v) engender learning throughout. We postulate that sustainability assessment may be at the beginning of a phase of expansion not seen since environmental impact assessment was adopted worldwide.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities
#13 Climate Action
#14 Life Below Water
#15 Life on Land

Source: InCites

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Collaboration types
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Citation topics
6 Social Sciences
6.153 Climate Change
6.153.2227 Strategic Environmental Assessment
Web Of Science research areas
Environmental Studies
ESI research areas
Social Sciences, general
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