Sustainable development

Measuring progress using a sustainable development approach allows a broad view to be taken of New Zealand’s long-term environmental, economic, and social progress. There are many ways to define sustainable development. The definition used by Statistics New Zealand is:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sustainable development means ensuring that well-being is at least maintained over time. The principle of fairness within and between present and future generations should be taken into account in the use of environmental, economic, and social resources.

Putting these needs into practice requires living within the limits of the natural environment.

This definition is an interpretation of the Brundtland definition (adopted by the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987). Statistics NZ has chosen to take a ‘capital approach’ to measuring environmental, economic, and social progress. This approach was endorsed by the international working group convened by the OECD, the United Nations Economic Committee for Europe (UNCE), and Eurostat (part of the European Commission). Our conceptual definition of sustainable development is discussed in more detail in Measuring New Zealand’s Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2008.

We selected a set of indicators to measure environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainable development. The results of the indicators answer four main questions, based around four key concepts:

• Meeting needs – how well do we live?
• Fairness – how well are resources distributed?
• Efficiency – how efficiently are we using our resources?
• Preserving resources – what are we leaving behind for our children?

 Latest releases

• Key Findings on New Zealand's Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2010 (February 2011)
  Updates 13 of the 16 key indicators outlined in the 2008 version of the key findings.
• Measuring New Zealand's Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2008 (July 2009)
  Uses 85 indicators to measure New Zealand’s environmental, economic, and social progress and assess whether that progress is consistent with sustainable development
• Key Findings on New Zealand's Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2008 (July 2009)
  Uses 16 key indicators to present the key findings of Measuring New Zealand's Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2008.

Reports and articles 

• Statistics New Zealand's Framework for Measuring Sustainable Development (March 2009)
  Defines the concept of sustainable development and provides a basis for selecting indicators to measure progress towards sustainable development.
• Public sustainable development workshop summary (October 2008)
  Summarises the consultation workshops held on Statistics New Zealand’s proposed approach to measuring sustainable development and what topics should be included in that measurement.
• Monitoring Progress Towards a Sustainable New Zealand (August 2002)
  Provides a basis for selecting indicators to measure progress towards sustainable development and outlines an experimental set of sustainable development indicators. This was the forerunner to our 2009 publication Measuring New Zealand's Progress Using a Sustainable Development Approach: 2008.

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