Report covers 29 goals and measures of progress covering people, planet, place, and performance
Sustainable Pittsburgh has issued a 12-year update of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Sustainability Goals & Indicators Report, which tracks the region’s progress toward sustainable prosperity.
The report features a rich compendium of data and an easy-read narrative covering 29 essential goals and measures of true progress.
The indicators show a region that has one foot squarely planted in a new and promising economy that is clean, equitable, renewable, healthy, and based on sustainable business and community practice. The data also suggest lingering inertia of the trappings of an old economy in which some business models and market signals have yet to reorient to reap the benefits of sustainable enterprise to meet the growing expectations of customers, investors, and insurers. Sustainable enterprises lead to new market opportunities where actions simultaneously benefit people, planet, place and economic performance.
While many indicators spell substantial need for improvement, a sampling of positive progress over the 12-year period includes reduced infant mortality trends, fewer homeowners and renters paying more than 30% of their income on housing, and some environmental measures.
Among the indicators that have shown downward trends are, for example, vacant housing which, since 2005 has risen to claim 10.3 percent of housing in the Pittsburgh MSA, the percentage of Southwestern Pennsylvania residents who rate their health as fair or poor, and a myriad of social equity disparities.
Sustainable Pittsburgh commissioned Pittsburgh Today to research and update the Indicators Report. Pittsburgh Today is western Pennsylvania’s regional indicators project and operates out of the University of Pittsburgh’s University Center for Social and Urban Research (UCSUR).
The report’s 29 goals and indicators address overarching, regional issues that cut across geopolitical boundaries and highlight the progress made and challenges that remain on the road to a healthier, more just, prosperous and sustainable region. The report is available online at www.sustainablepittsburgh.org/2016indicators.
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Sustainable Pittsburgh (SP) affects decision-making for the Pittsburgh region to integrate economic prosperity, social equity, and environmental quality as the enduring accountability, bringing sustainable solutions for communities and businesses.
Media Contact:
Ginette Walker Vinski
Sustainable Pittsburgh
gvinski@sustainablepittsburgh.org
412-258-6646
Cell: 412-780-8280
