How Do your Projects Measure Up?

Newsletter Article - April 2007

How do our decisions, whether we make them individually or collectively, and our subsequent actions impact the long-term well-being of our region? The Sustainability Indicators Report for Cape Cod was designed as a decision-making tool for use by individuals, educators, and local & regional officials. Since no single indicator gives us the entire picture, we must understand the impact our goals and projects have on all the indicators if we are to progress toward becoming a sustainable region.

The Sustainability Scorecard is a simple tool that an organization can easily utilize during the planning process. It allows an organization to compare various project possibilities within the context of sustainability by aggregating the extent to which they touch on each of the sustainability indicators. Whether an organization is a college campus or a governmental agency or a nonprofit, this scoring can help in the prioritization of projects and/or in the budgeting of resources, volunteers or otherwise.

The attainment of a sustainable future must be based on understanding and dealing with the inter-relationships between these three objectives: a sound economy, a healthy natural environment, and social justice. We hope that the Sustainability Scorecard helps encourage planning and action toward sustainability and continues the dialogue about what a sustainable Cape Cod means for all who live and visit here.