Urban Sustainability Indicators: how do Australian city decision makers perceive and use global reporting standards?

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe introduction in 2014 of the first globally standardised sustainability metric for cities, ISO 37120, transformed the concept of scalability for sustainable city indicators. Our study uses original research involving producers and consumers of urban sustainability indicators (USIs), including ISO 37120, to review the current use of sustainability indicators (SIs) in Sydney and ascertain the use-value of internationally standardised USIs as perceived by professionals in the field. Our findings show that managers of cities use SIs in a variety of ways, yet links between SIs and organisational decision making are often weak. The cost of adaptation to a new indicator set may be prohibitive, especially for smaller city governments. Larger cities are seen to benefit more from international exposure and comparison. Highlighting ISO 37120 should be valued for the opportunity it presents for comparative learning regarding the nature of a sustainable city rather than its benchmarking potential. This article recommends that the process of achieving a sustainable city should be informed by ‘strong’ rather than ‘weak’ sustainability; in this regard ISO 37120 has potential for refinement. Further research is needed into determining aspects of city comparability and methods for linking USI data to government decision making in order to achieve sustainability outcomes.