Assessing Environmental Sustainability Performance at the National Level:Leading Indicators Can Help

摘要

In summary, the evidence shows that leading and lagging indicators from performance frameworks can improve conventional national-level environmental assessment methodologies. Many of the deficiencies associated with current assessment practices are related to their dependence on results-focused indicators. By incorporating leading indicators into existing methodologies, and employing scoring techniques from performance frameworks, conventional assessments can better characterize the performance phenomena they claim to measure. These tools could also improve the applicability and functionality of the existing assessment methodologies.Process-oriented indicators can help mitigate many of the challenges associated with scaling assessments to the national level, and they can add a forward-looking dimension that conventional methodologies fail to reliably offer. The evidence underlying these conclusions shows that leading indicators derived from performance frameworks offer a viable approach to improving existing national-level environmental assessment methodologies.