Sustainability Performance Metrics and Evaluation

(3 Credits)

This course will cover the practice of sustainability performance metrics methodologies and datasets to underpin assessments from corporate and urban perspectives. The course will begin with a review of the theoretical concepts around which sustainability data practices and policies are built, including environmental economics. Students will learn how to consider the selection of appropriate indicators for sustainability performance depending on the kind of organization and values that have been selected to prioritize and identify the data sets and relevant indicators to use in fashioning sustainability performance evaluation and reporting. Students will be introduced to the array of data sources that are used by practitioners and learn to process these data through widely used methodologies in sustainability practice to assess the environmental and social footprints of corporations and cities. Emphasis will be placed on a reporting process that taps concepts of data robustness, materiality of performance metrics to the particular entity, forward looking scenario analysis, and stakeholder engagement. Consideration will be given to reporting differences generated by investor led initiatives, regulatory aspects, and public and consumer pressure to create sustainability solutions. Through a combination of lectures, active discussions, problem sets, case studies, small group projects, and multi-media students will master widely accepted sustainability performance assessment and evaluation techniques.