Green Protocols for Neighborhoods and Cities

The rating systems which certify the environmental sustainability of neighbourhoods or cities contribute greatly to enhancing the quality of built environ-ments, also from a social and economic point of view, thus improving the quality of life of the inhabitants. For this reason, in a proper vision of green planning of cities and communities they are essential tools. This chapter focuses on the most widespread protocols used for the certification of urban space sustainability: BREEAM® Com-munity, LEED® V4 for Neighbourhood Development and LEED® for Cities and Communities. The analysis confirms the validity of these instruments which, in addi-tion to certifying the environmental, social and economic sustainability of neighbour-hoods and cities, provide indicators that facilitate an objective comparison between different urban realities. The completeness of the areas covered by these protocols certainly places them among smart city protocols

Sustainability and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): From Moral Imperatives to Indicators and Indexes. A Methodology for Validating and Assessing SDGs

Sustainability is a multidimensional concept that is not directly measurable, so it requires a set of indicators in order to be assessed. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) program offers a detailed dashboard of sustainability indicators. However, the path from the value assumptions and policy (that underpin this program) to its statistical operationalization is not clear. In order to produce usable knowledge for policy, sustainability assessment needs to be redefined from a technical to a moral process that requires prior responses to normative questions. This chapter suggests a model for sustainable development based on a set of moral imperatives which further specify the popular three-pillar model of sustainability based on social, economic, and environmental dimensions. The aim of this study was thus threefold. Firstly, it aimed to clarify the conceptual framework that is the foundation of country-level sustainability. Secondly, it proposes a methodology for assessing the different moral dimensions of sustainability. Finally, it aimed to validate this framework and also to assess the state of art of each of the European Union (EU) Member States with regard to the SDGs. Operationally, using the latest available national cross-country data with multivariate statistical analysis, the study builds several composite indexes to assess the performance of European Member States on single imperatives, in order to identify priorities and gaps that must be addressed to achieve sustainability