Att kommunicera hållbar utveckling genom emergibaserade fot- och fingeravtryck

Tidsperiod:

1 september – 31 december 2010

Projektledare:

Göran Hoppe

Finansiär:

Formas

Bidragstyp:

Oklassificerat

Budget:

16 000 SEK

One step forward A method developed to assess sustainability in a communicative way, by emergy-based foot-, and fingerprints. Sustainable development is one of today?s most widespread and common concepts. On almost all political levels and all over the world there exists some sort of effort to achieve sustainable development. At the same time, sustainable development is hard to define and assess. After two decades with reports and conferences over the theme, there are still difficulties concerning the definition and the significance of the issue. One reason for this could be that political disagreement exists around the interpretation of the concept sustainable development. Another could be that it is a normal human reaction to deny when an insight into reality demands such a huge change of life-style. Difficulties with the communication of the concept and its consequences can also be a reason for the lack of a clear and obvious definition of sustainability in an atmosphere of consensus. Sustainable development is a cross-disciplinary concept, developed within different scientific cultures, both natural and social, and this could also be a reason why there are difficulties in defining and communicating what sustainable development is and what it implies. For policy-makers, the concept can be rather complicated to introduce, when the aim is somewhat indistinct. To aid policy practice as well as consumers and the general public, a number of sustainability indicators have been developed. These indicators of sustainable development are aimed at measuring or assessing various production and service processes in an objective manner. A meaningful indicator of sustainability should measure an aggregation of the processes involved, consistently and transparently, with reliability and at the same time easily communicable to the public. It should be easy to reproduce and assure that aspects of importance were included. The importance of developing useful indicators is urgent; the UN initiated group of researchers, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment proposes an evolution of a credible certification system for sustainable development. J.S. Reichert writes in the book ?Natures services, societal dependence on natural ecosystems? that ?The rapid deterioration of the global environment presents a set of new and urgent challenges to scientists worldwide. In addition to better understanding how natural ecosystems function, relate, and interdependent, there is a vital need to translate this information to general public, as well as to policymakers, in ways that will prompt the action needed to preserve what remains of the planet?s natural resources.? In Sweden the team for sustainable development has pronounced the importance of developing indicators. To valuate one single criterion as a part of a system, is quite reasonable, the measuring is evident and straightforward. When the goal is to catch an indication of a whole system, with all the processes involved it is more complicated. There are not many methods applicable to systems, but there are indicators of the health of systems under scientific development. The purpose of this study is to take one step forward in the communication process between the scientific knowledge of natural ecosystems within their vulnerability, and decision makers, stakeholders in the agricultural sector along with the general public. The aim is to develop one of the existing methods used for assessment of sustainable development, emergy analysis. Emergy analysis is a well-tried but perhaps not so widespread, holistic method. It is mostly useful in the environmental and economic dimensions of sustainable development. The methods will be applied in a small agricultural system in the province of Hälsingland, Sweden. Together with the development of methods, an aggregated assessment of sustainability of the analyzed agricultural system is to be realized. It can be described as a case study with method applicat