1.
Palme, Ulrika, 1966
(author)
Indikatorer för hållbar utveckling av urbana VA-system? Fältstudie Borås.
2005
Reports (other academic/artistic) abstract
This study forms part of a PhD project on sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for urban water system. The project is in its second phase (post licentiate) and fo-cused on a better understanding of the preconditions for meaningful application of SDIs within organisations. This field study is the second of its kind, aiming at inves-tigating the preconditions for application of SDIs within Swedish water organisations. The field study rests mainly on analyses of various documents and interviews with people employed in or closely connected to Borås publicly owned and governed water organsiation. The interviews were performed during February to April 2005. Interviews and documents in combination contributed to an extensive amount of data, which was analysed and, when necessary, complemented, during the subsequent spring and summer. Concerning sustainable development of the urban water system in Borås, most of those interviewed ask for improvements of the drinking water treatment and this development has already been initiated. Furthermore, people want the storm water system to develop in the direction of increased local collection (source control). When it comes to the sewage system, the majority of people asked would regard the technique and the system of today as in line with the vision of sustainable development if only the nutrients and soil conditioning substances in sewage sludge could be recycled somehow. There are also, among those interviewed, proponents of more or less substantial modifications of the existing system in order to enable source separation in the future. In Borås there are a number of initiatives including some kind of metrics. The water and sanitation department has identified a set of assessable targets that are to be con-tinually upgraded, an environmental and quality management system is to be intro-duced within short, and at the level of the entire municipality green indicators connected to the national environmental goals are being developed, as well as a set of social indicators. The operation of water and waste water in Borås include numerous indicators and parameters that carry information relevant to sustainable development, although no indicators termed SDIs exist. The greatest interest in SDIs is found among people working with strategies and planning within the municipality, i.e. in the Executive Office, which is also the office responsible for organising the development and use of green and social indicators in the municipality. The relevant indicator applications mentioned are planning by objectives, evaluation of performance, internal reporting, benchmarking and (other) external communication. Those hesitant to an increased use of indicators refer primarily to lack of time.
2.
Palme, Ulrika, 1966
(author)
Indikatorer för hållbar utveckling av urbana VA-system? Fältstudie Stockholm Vatten AB
2006
Reports (other academic/artistic) abstract
This study forms part of a PhD project on sustainable development indicators (SDIs) for urban water system. The project is in its second phase (post licentiate) and focused on a better understanding of the preconditions for meaningful application of SDIs within water utilities. The study presented here is the third and final in a series of field studies performed to investigate these preconditions. The study is based on documents and on interviews with nine employeees, two board politicians and one owner representatives of the Stockholm Water Company (SWC). The interviews were performed in late October early November 2005. Interviews and documents were analysed and, when necessary, complemented, during the following winter. Documents as well as interviews showed that there is a high ambition within the SWC to develop the activities of the company towards increased sustainability. When asked what a future sustainable urban water system will look like, the most widely held opinion among the interviewees was that itll be an improved and refined version of todays system. Management of chemicals and nutrients in wastewater were mentioned as the areas most in need of improvement. The occurrence of harmful chemicals should be minimized, in the first place through information to customers and producers, and in the second place through efficient wastewater treatment methods. Nutrients should be recycled to a greater extent than they are today, which could be achieved in various ways tecnically. The SWC has applied indicators for management by objectives, follow-up, bencmarking and external communication for about ten years. Since three years back, there is also an environmental and quality management system in place, integrating economy, environment and quality, into which the indicators are to be assimilated in the long run. Many of the existing indicators cover various aspects of sustainable development and are connecetd to sustainability objectives. They can hence be regarded as SDIs, although at SWC that term is not normally used. Most of the interviewees regarded the application of SDIs as positive, although it must not be too timeconsuming. Suggestions on how to improve SDI application at SWC included their employment in planning and control to a greater extent than today, and their refinement as tools for external communication.
3.
Palme, Ulrika, 1966, et al.
(author)
Sustainable development indicators: how are they used in Swedish water utilities?
2008
In: Journal of Cleaner Production. - : Elsevier BV. - 0959-6526. ; 16:13, s. 1346-1357
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Since the late 1990s, increased attention has been given to the role of organizations in implementing sustainable development, where sustainable development indicators (SDIs) are frequently recommended as useful tools. Due to limited knowledge on the application of SDIs in Swedish water utilities, a series of field studies were carried out in order to find out whether and how SDIs are applied. Concurrently, a literature survey was performed concerning the current use of SDIs in organizations in general. Both studies show that SDIs are frequently used in reporting, but not in planning and decision-making, and hence may not contribute substantially to sustainable development.
4.
Palme, Ulrika, 1966, et al.
(author)
Sustainable urban water systems in indicators: researchers' recommendations versus practice in Swedish utilities
2009
In: Water Policy. - : IWA Publishing. - 1366-7017 .- 1996-9759. ; 11:2, s. 250-268
Journal article (peer-reviewed) abstract
Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) are frequently recommended as tools for supporting sustainable development. The scientific community has made numerous suggestions regarding SDIs for urban water systems, but few studies have examined what information other actors consider important. This paper examines, based on literature and field studies of Swedish water organizations, what sets of SDIs are considered important, in terms of information content by researchers, sector associations and practitioners. Furthermore, the paper investigates how preferred SDI content relates to these actors' conceptions of sustainable development (SD) and what happens when sender and receiver disagree on what information should be captured in SDIs and exchanged. The results indicate that what SDI content is considered important reflects the conception of SD. Different conceptions of SD and the consequent differences in preferred SDIs contribute to a mismatch between the information that senders want to convey to receivers and the information the latter actually want. In such instances it was the receivers who determined what information was, in fact, exchanged. A prerequisite for meaningful application of SDIs in the Swedish water sector is to identify processes that can contribute to an increased pull for sustainability information, particularly so among its decision makers.
5.
Palme, Ulrika, 1966
(author)
The role of indicators in developing sustainable urban water systems
2007
Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic) abstract
Conventional urban water systems function well, in the sense that they protect receiving waters from eutrophication and supply the people they serve with water and sanitation. However, the rate at which these systems consume energy and resources in order to supply these services is increasingly regarded as unsustainable, while their capacity to recycle nutrients and handle toxic compounds is seen as limited and inadequate. The application of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) is frequently recommended for guiding development towards more sustainable trajectories. SDI use in organizations is also recommended, though there are few documented examples of SDI implementation in water organizations.On the empirical basis of one case study and three field studies of Swedish organizations, and one field study of a German organization, the thesis investigates the preconditions for applying SDIs in water service organizations. To complement these studies, the scientific literature was searched and sector associations consulted to find definitions of sustainable development and of indicators applicable to urban water systems.The thesis describes the range of conceptions of sustainable development held by the groups of actors studied, and the extent to which these conceptions are reflected in the recommended and/or applied SDIs. The use of SDIs is analyzed in terms of what information different actors consider it relevant to capture in indicators (e.g., environmental, social, financial, or technical), as well as the applications (e.g., monitoring, benchmarking, reporting, and management by objectives) in which indicators are considered useful. Furthermore, the processes and key factors that support or restrict the use of SDIs in the urban water context are investigated. The results indicate that key actors in the urban water sector hold divergent views of sustainable development and of whether and how SDIs are useful in fostering it. Numerous indicators are in use, particularly in monitoring and mandatory reporting, that are not formally termed SDIs, but which nonetheless capture certain sustainability issues. It is concluded that before SDIs can be further developed, the potential SDI users in an organization need to settle on one shared or a number of non-contradictory visions of sustainable development. Thereafter, they need to agree on whether or not they consider the application of SDIs useful, and if so, what purposes the SDIs should serve. To make SDIs useful, the content and function of SDIs need to be specifically considered in each relationship between information sender and receiver.
