Urban sustainability metrics

The document examines how cities can measure sustainability using indexes and indicator systems, presenting a synthesized list of 310 indicators across four themes: environment, social, economy, and governance. It proposes a cyclical 'indicator pathway' for municipal decision-making, involving baseline definition, ex-ante impact assessment during planning, and ex-post impact assessment after project completion. The text notes a global trend toward increased municipal monitoring but highlights a lack of commonly accepted reporting criteria and challenges with non-SMART indicators.

• Urban sustainability frameworks generally employ two distinct strategies for reporting: indexes (or scorecards), which aggregate indicator values into single or multiple numbers for easier city-to-city comparison, and indicator systems, which report results separately to allow for better tailoring to a city's specific needs.
• A review of 16 urban sustainability and bond frameworks, alongside business sustainability frameworks, identified 310 indicators organized into 44 categories across four primary themes: environment, social, economy, and governance.
• The authors propose a cyclical 'indicator pathway' for municipal governments to assess sustainability initiatives, consisting of three critical stages: establishing a baseline of the current scenario, conducting an ex-ante impact assessment during the planning phase, and performing an ex-post impact assessment after project completion.
• In Sweden, municipal sustainability reporting occurs through sustainability plans, the Kolada open database, and Statistics Sweden, though full comparability is hindered by differing municipal priorities and the use of qualitative rather than quantitative goals.
• While there is a global trend toward increased municipal sustainability monitoring, the field lacks standardized criteria regarding the choice of systems, the number of indicators required, and the use of quantitative versus qualitative metrics.

APA

Requena, A., & Vanhuyse, F. (2022). Urban sustainability metrics. Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/urban-sustainability-metrics-seifactsheet.pdf

Chicago

Requena, Alicia, and Fedra Vanhuyse. Urban sustainability metrics. Stockholm Environment Institute, 2022. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/urban-sustainability-metrics-seifactsheet.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Requena |first1=Alicia |last2=Vanhuyse |first2=Fedra |title=Urban sustainability metrics |publisher=Stockholm Environment Institute |date=June 2022 |url=https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/urban-sustainability-metrics-seifactsheet.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{requena2022urban, author = {Requena, Alicia and Vanhuyse, Fedra}, title = {{Urban sustainability metrics}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2022}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/urban-sustainability-metrics-seifactsheet.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }