Australia's Balancing Act...

Australia's CSIRO and the University of Sydney have recently published a report entitled Balancing Act A triple bottom line analysis of the Australian economy.

This report provides an overview of the Australian economy using a set of ten environmental, social, and financial indicators.

The environmental indicators are water use, land disturbance, greenhouse emissions and energy use; the social indicators are employment, government revenue and income; and the financial indicators are operating surplus (or profits), exports and imports.

All effects are referred back to a consumption dollar – roughly the dollar spent by a consumer in everyday life. It also shows that each consumption dollar is quite different – some dollars are positive and create employment, or suck in imports or generate government revenue. Other consumption dollars are less positive through their high use of water or production of greenhouse gas emissions.

It is hoped that this relatively simple presentation of highly complex issues will become a powerful tool for people in industry, government and the community who are interested in sustainability and enable them to make decisions based on a contribution to society, environment, AND the economy.

The report can be downloaded in four very large .pdf files: Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4.