6.4 Discussion
109
0
1
2
3
4
Brazil
Indonesia
India
China
Russia
Turkey
Mexico
Sweden
Poland
Norway
Austria
France
Finland
South Africa
Switzerland
Ireland
Canada
Italy
Spain
Germany
Japan
UK
Australia
South Korea
Netherlands
Denmark
USA
Belgium
ESRI
Fig. 6.6 The index of environmental sustainability ratio for each of the 28 nations
is explained quite well by GDP and RWRs, but that the PD is not helpful in explaining
the weighted ESRI according to 95-percentile confidence intervals. As a whole, the
ranking of countries reflects the overall performance of national-scale environmental
sustainability influenced by multi-factors, justifying the use of ESRI in providing
solutions to trade-off issues.
As is the case for all weighting practices, equal weighting that assumes equal
importance of the carbon, water, and land ESRs in our case has been steeped in controversy (Berger and Finkbeiner 2013; Bruns and Shefferson 2004). That is to say, it
would be preferred if the final results are presented both at aggregate and disaggregate
levels. Other weighting schemes may easily be implemented, if desired, to investigate the sensitivity of final results to weighting factors. For instance, Tuomisto et al.
(2012) define weighting factors for the aggregation of diverse local-specific environmental issues in a way similar to the calculation of the global ESRs calculated here, so
that one can weigh the seriousness of different issues at the global level. As an aside,
from a broader point of view, the ESRs that describe the gap between the footprint
and boundary metrics can be understood as a measure of environmental impacts. In
this sense, weighting and aggregating ESRs into a single-value ESRI would facilitate
the ongoing development of integrated environmental impact assessment—a topic
that remains a priority for future endeavors (Chapman and Maher 2014).
6.5 Conclusions
It has been increasingly acknowledged that environmental sustainability serves as a
critical prerequisite for the economic and social pillars of sustainable development.
Environmental sustainability analysis, therefore, deserves priority in sustainability
sciences (Kates 2011). This chapter develops ways to allocate planetary boundaries
109
0
1
2
3
4
Brazil
Indonesia
India
China
Russia
Turkey
Mexico
Sweden
Poland
Norway
Austria
France
Finland
South Africa
Switzerland
Ireland
Canada
Italy
Spain
Germany
Japan
UK
Australia
South Korea
Netherlands
Denmark
USA
Belgium
ESRI
Fig. 6.6 The index of environmental sustainability ratio for each of the 28 nations
is explained quite well by GDP and RWRs, but that the PD is not helpful in explaining
the weighted ESRI according to 95-percentile confidence intervals. As a whole, the
ranking of countries reflects the overall performance of national-scale environmental
sustainability influenced by multi-factors, justifying the use of ESRI in providing
solutions to trade-off issues.
As is the case for all weighting practices, equal weighting that assumes equal
importance of the carbon, water, and land ESRs in our case has been steeped in controversy (Berger and Finkbeiner 2013; Bruns and Shefferson 2004). That is to say, it
would be preferred if the final results are presented both at aggregate and disaggregate
levels. Other weighting schemes may easily be implemented, if desired, to investigate the sensitivity of final results to weighting factors. For instance, Tuomisto et al.
(2012) define weighting factors for the aggregation of diverse local-specific environmental issues in a way similar to the calculation of the global ESRs calculated here, so
that one can weigh the seriousness of different issues at the global level. As an aside,
from a broader point of view, the ESRs that describe the gap between the footprint
and boundary metrics can be understood as a measure of environmental impacts. In
this sense, weighting and aggregating ESRs into a single-value ESRI would facilitate
the ongoing development of integrated environmental impact assessment—a topic
that remains a priority for future endeavors (Chapman and Maher 2014).
6.5 Conclusions
It has been increasingly acknowledged that environmental sustainability serves as a
critical prerequisite for the economic and social pillars of sustainable development.
Environmental sustainability analysis, therefore, deserves priority in sustainability
sciences (Kates 2011). This chapter develops ways to allocate planetary boundaries