Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators has broadened in scope to include indicators that span the three pillars of sustainability. National

NGOs A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

, as well as the

Government of Canada The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federation, federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes Minister of t ...

, create and maintain Sustainability indicators. Historically ''Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators'' (CESI) was the name of a

program that provides data and information to track

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

's performance on

environmental sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

issues including

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

and

air quality Air pollution is the presence of substances in the Atmosphere of Earth, air that are harmful to humans, other living beings or the environment. Pollutants can be Gas, gases like Ground-level ozone, ozone or nitrogen oxides or small particles li ...

water quality Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through tr ...

and

availability In reliability engineering, the term availability has the following meanings: * The degree to which a system, subsystem or equipment is in a specified operable and committable state at the start of a mission, when the mission is called for at ...

, and protecting nature. Their

environmental indicator Environmental indicators are simple measures that tell us what is happening in the Natural environment, environment. Since the environment is very complex, indicators provide a more practical and economical way to track the state of the environment ...

s are based on objective and comprehensive information and convey environmental trends.

Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the department of the Government of Canada res ...

The indicators are prepared with the support of other federal government departments, such as

Health Canada Health Canada (HC; )Health Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Health (). is the Structure of the Canadian federal government#Departments, with subsidiary units, department of the Gove ...

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC; sometimes Ag-Canada; )''Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada'' is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food (). is the Structure of the Can ...

, as well as provincial and territorial government departments. Designed to be relevant to the Government's policy, the indicators are built on rigorous methodology and high quality, regularly available data from surveys and monitoring networks. The CESI website presence ensures that national, regional, local and international trends are readily accessible and transparently presented to all Canadians through the use of graphics, explanatory text, interactive maps and downloadable data. Indicator results are linked to their key social and economic drivers and information is provided on how the issues are influenced by consumers, businesses and governments. Each indicator is accompanied by a technical explanation of its calculation. CESI is the prime instrument to measure the progress of the Federal Sustainable Development Strategy and responds to Environment Canada's commitments under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act and the Department of the Environment Act to report to Canadians on the state of the environment.

Green Score City Index

This municipal index uses Canadian environmental sustainability indicator data sources to develop indicators that are specific to the municipalities they measure. These indicators are prepared with support from the

Canadian government The Government of Canada (), formally His Majesty's Government (), is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. The term ''Government of Canada'' refers specifically to the executive, which includes ministers of the Crown ( ...

, provincial governments, regional authorities, and participating municipalities. Most of the data used to calculate the comparative indicators exist outside of the jurisdictional boundaries of municipalities. The Green Score City Index is an ongoing empirical study of the anthropogenic impacts cities exert on land and ecosystems within city limits. Indicators measure the effects of human activity on the underlying land inside city limits. It uses a broad range of indicators that cover the three pillars of sustainability. It uses comparative indicators that are developed for the purpose of comparing cities with each other to discover strengths and weaknesses; this is what makes it a good tool for seeing the big picture.

ICLEI ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI, originally International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) is an international non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable development. ICLEI provides technical consult ...
Canada

Develops national programs with a local impact. Their network is made up of the municipalities that participate in our programs and activities, representing Canada’s municipalities from the smallest towns to the largest cities. It also includes an implementation of partners, funders, and peers who help deliver a range of programs and activities.

ICLEI ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI, originally International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) is an international non-governmental organization that promotes sustainable development. ICLEI provides technical consult ...

has created international guidelines for the creation of environmental sustainability indicators. Performance indicators are used across a variety of sectors to improve understanding of a particular situation, to assess progress towards a set of goals or objectives, and to make predictions regarding future performance. The purpose of this series of sector-focused case studies was to examine available indicators from a variety of sectors and assess their ability to contribute to the measurement of adaptation actions both in terms of effectiveness and progress on implementation. Developed by ICLEI Canada and the Clean Air Partnership, this project was funded by Natural Resources Canada’s Enhancing Competitiveness in a Changing Climate Program.

History

The indicators are the culmination of a long line of national-level environmental indicator work and state of the environment reporting in Canada. Three large 5-year state-of-environment reports were prepared by

Environment Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; )Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment (). is the Ministry (government department), department ...

between 1985 an
1996
and th
National Environmental Indicators Series
saw reports and bulletins released from 1990 to 2003. Environment Canada's focus turned to a consolidate
May 2003 proposal
from the National Round Table on Environment and the Economy. The CESI initiative provided indicators to track Canada's performance on three issues of concern to Canadians: air quality, water quality and greenhouse gas emissions. More recent releases include new indicators on protecting nature. Environmental indicators provide a simple way to convey complex information on the environment, much like the gross domestic product, the consumer price index and the unemployment rate do for the economy. Environmental indicator programs are prevalent internationally (e.g
the European Environment Agency
and within Canada (e.g

In 2015 Green Score Canada created a city index pilot project with the participation from many of the 50 municipalities studied which included collaboration from provincial and federal government stakeholders. The index started with 15 Canadian environmental sustainability indicators. The index has been continuously developed and published since 2016.

References

External links

Canadian Environmental Sustainability Indicators

U.S. EPA's Report on the Environment

environmental data and indicators *
St John's NL participates
in Green Score City Index pilot project
Indicators about Europe's Environment

{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220316005511/https://greenscore.eco/city-index-scoreboard.html , date=2022-03-16 scoreboard
Environmental Indicators (6th Ed)
- has an academic article devoted to its flaws: McKenzie and Rees (2007), "An analysis of a brownlash report", ''Ecological Economics'' 61(2-3), pp505–515
State of the Lakes Ecosystem Conference

Earth Trends
Ecological data Environment and Climate Change Canada Environmental statistics