Sustainability Assessment

* The first book to tackle the complexities of sustainability assessment and provide practical solutions * Comprehensive analysis, guidance, and criteria for impact assessment professionals and policymakers at all levels and in all circumstances * Applicable to the new EU Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive and other international assessment systems Many governments express commitments to sustainability, yet until now assessing sustainability in projects, plans, programs, and policies has been largely limited to traditional environmental assessment (EA) with an imperfect attempt to staple on biophysical and socio-economic considerations. While traditional EA focuses on mitigating negative effects, achieving true sustainability demands that each new undertaking make a positive contribution to desirable and durable futures. This onerous goal can only be achieved if decisionmakers are able to consciously and publicly specify and use sustainability-centered criteria to justify options and to weigh trade-offs. Sustainability Assessment covers all aspects of the core requirements of sustainability including the creation of basic criteria, handling trade-offs, practicalities in application, implications for process design and uses in decisionmaking as well as examining the range of tools and innovative examples available to assist implementation of sustainability assessment.

James Tansey is a research associate at the Sustainable Development Research Initiative, University of British Columbia. Robert B. Gibson is professor of environment and resource studies at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and Editorial Board Chair of Alternatives Journal.