Moving to metrics: Opportunities and challenges of performance-based sustainability standards

The rise of global sustainability standards has led to an energetic discussion about their consequences and outcomes. Almost all standards today are built around ‘technology-based’ indicators, which prescribe certain practices assumed to lead to sustainable outcomes. However we are now seeing the em...

সম্পূর্ণ বিবরণ

সংরক্ষণ করুন:
গ্রন্থ-পঞ্জীর বিবরন
প্রকাশিত:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/sapiens,
প্রধান লেখক: Veale, Michael, Seixas, Rafael
অন্যান্য লেখক: Renard, Nicolas
বিন্যাস: Article ou chapitre numérique
ভাষা:Anglais
প্রকাশিত: S.A.P.I.EN.S 2016
বিষয়গুলি:
অনলাইন ব্যবহার করুন:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
বিবরন
সংক্ষিপ্ত:The rise of global sustainability standards has led to an energetic discussion about their consequences and outcomes. Almost all standards today are built around ‘technology-based’ indicators, which prescribe certain practices assumed to lead to sustainable outcomes. However we are now seeing the emergence of the first ‘performance-based’ metric sustainability indicators, directly measuring outcomes without prescribing particular methods to reach them. This paper presents the example of the Bonsucro Production Standard, a sustainability standard for the sugarcane sector, and identifies five relevant areas opened up by performance-based metrics. These are flexibility in application, provision of information, the creation of dynamic standards, the enabling of adaptive management, and the harmonisation of policy instruments. Opportunities and challenges within each area are discussed in relation to a wide literature from a variety of disciplines, informing opportunities for standard-systems to explore within their own activities, as well as an agenda for future research.