Indicators

Indicators are an effective means of quantifying and measuring progress towards sustainable development. They help to create a �picture� of what sustainable development means in our everyday lives.

Until recently, the UK Government used 15 �headline� sustainable development indicators to track progress in the UK. The Government reported on the performance of these indicators in its annual Achieving a Better Quality of Life reports, which have been produced since 2000.

In April 2004, the SDC produced its own Assessment of progress against the headline indicators. In our publication Shows Promise. But Must Try Harder, we challenged the Government �to ensure more rapid movement towards sustainability�. We recommended that the Government brought forward a new, better, set of headline indicators with:

� key priorities that better reflected sustainability principles and policy;

� a radically different approach to measuring economic progress;

� challenging targets as to how they should move over time; and

� more effective machinery for acting on adverse trends.

The new UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy �Securing the Future� goes quite some way to meeting this challenge. It contains 68 indicators - 20 UK Framework indicators and a further 48 indicators to monitor progress. The SDC particularly welcomes the commitment to develop an indicator for wellbeing.

� Read the UK Government's new sustainable development strategy Securing the Future
� Visit the UK Sustainable Development Strategy indicators homepage
� Read the UK Government�s set of revised Sustainable Consumption and Production Indicators.
� Visit the United Nations� Indicators of Sustainable Development homepage
� Visit the International Institute for Sustainable Development�s global directory of indicator initiatives

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