SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS MONITORING SYSTEM

Sustainability Indicators Monitoring System for a Car Wash in Townsville Queensland

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Reporting formats for Sustainability:3

Suite-of-indicators approach:3

Narrative Assessment:3

Account Based Assessments:3

Sustainability Indicators:4

The Enterprise7

Location:7

Operation of the Car Wash System:8

Sustainability Dimensions9

Specific Sustainability Criteria11

List and Assessment of Indicators for Monitoring12

Water Consumption:12

Electricity Consumption:12

Maintenance of the Ecological Process:13

Natural Resource base:13

References16

Appendix18

Table 1: A comparison of the ethics of consumption based culture and a culture that is based on sustainability18

Table 2: Chronological order of significant Australian Indicator Development19

Table 3: Water consumption levels using the three distinct methods20

Diagram 1: Map showing directions to Townsville Car Care Center20

Diagram 2: Three Dimensions of Sustainability21

Figure 1: Green Car Wash Process21

Figure 2: An illustration of the interaction between various aspects of the three pillars of Sustainability22

Sustainability Indicators Monitoring System for a Car Wash in Townsville Queensland

Introduction

The term sustainability is used quite often and in a number of different combinations such as, sustainable agriculture, sustainable economy, sustainable industry, sustainable community, sustainable growth, sustainable development, etc., but what is the real meaning of this term?

Sustainability monitoring is comparatively a phenomenon that is quite new, but it has successfully flourished over the past decade as corporations, governments, NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations), international organizations embark on attempts to build up such systems through which they are capable of monitoring the affect of their operations on the economy, society and the environment (Wilkinson & Macintosh, 2006, Pp. 8; Luckman, 2006, Pp. 62-72; Bartelmus, Hardi & Pinter, 2005, Pp. 2; Briassoulis, 2001, Pp. 409). A number of institutions starting to build up such systems, monitoring of various levels is intensifying, stating at the local community and corporation level, and then shifting towards much macro levels such as global organizations and government.

In the preceding five decades an increasing consensus is observed that economic and financial reporting needs to be extended to mull over a broad array of environmental, social and economic issues (Higgins & Venning, 2001, Pp. 7; Higgins, 2001, Pp. 51; Wilkinson & Macintosh, 2006, Pp. 8). Traditional frameworks of decision making which concentrate on economic growth with environmental remediation have steadily come to be looked upon as insufficient in fulfilling the requirements of the community or of the decision makers. Such systems for monitoring are not facilitating completely informed decisions regarding issues, which have not merely economic costs, but environmental and social affects too (Higgins & Venning, 2001, Pp. 10). As stated by Gray and Milne (2007, Pp. 199) that the connection between financial / economic and environmental / social is currently broadly acknowledged with the spheres inextricably inter-twined. The requirement of policy makers to acknowledge, and for developing an understanding of the inter relationship between the environment, society and the economy is seen to contribute to the rise of triple bottom line reporting and sustainability for monitoring the relations of these 3 basic vectors (Hart & Farrell, 1998, Pp. 4-16; Bossel, 1999, Pp. 13; Dellar, Pfahl & Spangenberg, 2002, Pp. 66; Luckman, 2006, Pp. 62-72; Gibson, 2005, Pp. 94; Wilkinson & Macintosh, 2006, Pp. 3).

Reporting formats for Sustainability:

There are three main formats in which sustainability monitoring ...