Veale, M;
Seixas, R;
(2015)
Moving to metrics: Opportunities and challenges of performance-based sustainability standards.
Sapiens
, 8
(1)
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Abstract
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.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Moving to metrics: Opportunities and challenges of performance-based sustainability standards |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://sapiens.revues.org/1713 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © Author(s) 2015. This article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
| Keywords: | sustainability, standards, sugarcane, sustainability standards, certification, performance-based standards, sustainable agriculture, private governance, adaptive management, dynamic standards, metric standards, bonsucro, biofuels |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of Laws |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1474248 |
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