13 December 2006

Sustainability Background Papers

(picture by sillygwailo)

I'd like to point you to a series of interesting papers, posted at the website of the Parliamentary Commissioner of the Environment. They are background papers on a series of issues. They are all important, yet I'd like to emphasise a few:

by Anew NZ
Significant work on progress indicators is taking place in New Zealand but the challenge is to achieve integration and comparability of the diverse indicator sets. Gross Domestic Product should no longer be used as a key indicator of society's well-being. Six action steps are recommended.


* Corporate sustainability reporting in New Zealand (0.3 MB pdf)
by Kerry Griffiths and Julia Lindesay
The emergence of triple bottom line (TBL) reporting in New Zealand, where stakeholder demands for information and transparency are not as strong as they are internationally.


* Lyttelton working towards sustainability: A case study of Project Port Lyttelton, a community group acting as catalyst (4.1 MB pdf)
by Margaret Jefferies and Wendy Everingham
Project Port Lyttelton is a grass roots community group that works to bring about a sustainable world locally. An exploration of aspects including communication, values, networking, and taking risks, and a review of several Lyttelton projects.

* Sustainability in New Zealand - Lifting the game (0.5 MB pdf)
by John Peet
Our economy's relationships with the natural environment, society and our institutional framework are not sustainable. To move forward we need a national strategy for sustainable development and policy tools including ecotaxes and tradeable permits.


by Robert Vale and Charles Eason
Sustainability seen in terms of self-reliant, resilient, and resource efficient housing, of which few New Zealand examples exist. Sustainable housing means new buildings and neighbourhoods with zero non-renewable energy consumption to suit a range of tastes and incomes.


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