Scoping study on sustainability criteria for cities and development of a mathematical model for self-assessment of environmental performance : final report

The primary aim of this study is to identify a set of sustainability criteria through which EU cities can assess their environmental performance. The report provides insight into different indicator frameworks and data sets. Based on that, a new indicator set for city environmental performance was developed, accommodating the diversity and scale of EU cities. Subsequently these indicators were turned into a draft self-assessment tool and road-tested by a representative sample of cities. The road-testing has shown that both relevance-driven and data-driven considerations need to be taken into account in the selection of indicators. The tool should be approached as a dynamic process with room for adjustments over time. Time constraints and background knowledge of the intended user play an important role in the development of a tool, if it wants to be effective. The decision to use a tool was often found to be dependent on a political decision. For cities, the road-testing was a motivation to get in touch with colleagues of other departments working on environmental topics or to use the results for internal communication. Cities are also very interested in learning from the actions of similar cities, which opens new possibilities for inspiring environmental action.