Sustainability Metrics

Strengths of Module

This module allows students to interact with real-world data to identify, quantify, and visualize metrics of sustainability and how they can drive environmental impact. The breadth of available metrics is large, so exploring these datasets under an analytical IPAT (Environmental Impact is a function of Population, Affluence, and Technology) framework provides guidance and context for posing meaningful sustainability questions and answering them through the data analyses and quantitative reasoning. Students also answer questions about data availability, sources, suitability, and units.

What does success look like

By the end of this module, students will be able to formulate questions about sustainability, navigate the Gapminder tool to find and incorporate multiple types of quantitative data, read and interpret graphs, and report their findings, supported with quantitative reasoning. Specifically, students will be able to:

• identify data sources and units from the Gapminder online interactive data tool
• read and interpret a bubble chart incorporating multiple factors of sustainability data
• generate a time series bubble chart to track sustainability metrics over time
• communicate their findings with the class and discuss the strengths and limitations of the IPAT framework

Context for Use

This module is intended for an upper-level undergraduate course in sustainability, environmental studies, systems thinking, natural resources consumption, or any interdisciplinary course that includes these concepts. Students are expected to be familiar with the three facets of sustainability and to have some experience with reading and interpreting graphs.

This module is designed to be implemented in two 1.25-hour classroom sessions, but could be adapted to be completed in one 2.5 - 3 hour lab session. The module requires a laptop or desktop computer or tablet with internet access. Students are encouraged to work in pairs or small groups no larger than three for the duration of the module.

Description and Teaching Materials

Why this Matters:

Sustainability is a complex term applied to many different contexts in a variety of ways, which can lead to confusion over the meaning of sustainability, and hence how to assess it. The Brundtland Commission defined sustainability as 'the ability to meet one's own needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.' It is characterized by considering environmental, economic, and social factors. Inherent to achieving sustainability goals is minimizing environmental impacts while also balancing social and economic needs. A commonly used analytical framework, "IPAT," is used to link these dimensions of sustainability to quantifiable metrics of environmental impacts and their drivers:

Impact = Population x Affluence x Technology

The Gapminder foundation is an independent institution that provides data and education resources on numerous global-scale topics. They built a series of online interactive data tools where users can access and visualize numerous datasets on global issues. Here is an introduction to the Gapminder tool.

Within the Gapminder tool, Impact can be described using metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions, air pollutant emissions, or freshwater extraction rates. Affluence is typically measured by per-capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP), measured in Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Metrics for assessing Technology could include fossil energy production, energy consumption, extent of communication infrastructure, among others. The objective of this module is to explore the drivers of environmental impact using real-world data and metrics under the IPAT analytical framework.

Quick outline/overview of the activities in this module:

• Pre-module work: Instructor delivers a PowerPoint lecture that describes relevant background information, discussion questions, and links to references and additional study resources. The slide deck is provided and includes suggested activities and discussion questions throughout the Module.
• Activity A: Students learn to navigate the Gapminder tool, identify components of a graph, and interpret a graph under the IPAT analytical framework.
• Activity B: Students explore sustainability metrics by framing a sustainability question, building a graph, interpreting results, and communicating findings with peers.
• Activity C: Students formulate their own question about sustainability, extract data values from the Gapminder tool, compare and contrast sustainability metrics for a specific country over time, and reflect on strengths and limitations of datasets and IPAT framework for quantifying sustainability.

Pre-module work

Instructors are given a Sustainability Metrics (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 12.7MB Jul13 21) slide deck to deliver a lecture that describes relevant background information on sustainability, the IPAT framework, and links to optional reading resources. Within the lecture are several opportunities for interactive polling and discussion questions.

Activity A

Students will be given a Student Guide handout (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 47kB Jul13 21) with step-by-step instructions for this activity, which will be completed in pairs or small groups no larger than three. There are assessment and reflection questions throughout, and students turn in their completed handout at the end of this activity.

For this activity, students are guided through the steps to generate a graph of CO₂ emissions, energy usage, population, and income (GDP) in the Gapminder tool interface. The countries will be broken out into income classifications of High, Upper Middle, Lower Middle, and Low Income, and will be displayed showing the population of each. Students will identify the components of the graph, cite the data sources, and describe the units used.

Students will describe the relationship between x-axis and y-axis metrics, identify any outliers, and draw conclusions about their chosen sustainability metrics relative to the IPAT framework. The instructor and/or the teaching assistant can assess student progress by circulating around the room and informally asking questions, checking work on the student handout, and providing feedback.

Activity B

Students continue to work in pairs or small groups to explore data and plot graphs using the Gapminder tool. They will identify available environmental (e.g. CO₂ emissions, PM_2.5 emissions, freshwater consumption, etc...) and technological (e.g. fossil energy production, energy, or communication infrastructure) metrics underlying the IPAT framework, and use them to frame a sustainability question. Students will then plot the relevant data with the selected Impact metric on the y-axis and the selected Technology metric on the x-axis. Gapminder classifies countries into economic levels (High, Upper Middle, Lower Middle, Low Income), and students will be asked to select one country from each economic level and describe the economic, environmental, population, and technological metrics from each of the countries.

Students will then discuss and answer a series of questions about whether their findings support their sustainability question and the relationships among IPAT metrics for countries of differing economic status, and reflect upon the strengths and limitations of the IPAT framework in quantifying sustainability. There are two opportunities for applying a think-pair-share activity throughout Activity B, which can provide clarity checkpoints across the student teams. Students will turn in a screen grab of their graphs along with their responses.

Activity C

The IPAT framework is not a perfect predictor of impact, but rather a framework for thinking broadly about the relationships among impact, population, affluence, and technology. Not every country will fall neatly under this framework, due to the multiple factors that influence sustainability, or the variation in each country's socioeconomic history. This is one of the challenges in quantifying sustainability. Additionally, sometimes impacts are not fully captured in datasets due to limitations in collection, processing, or access.

Such datasets highlight the importance of using metrics to support sustainability claims, so that decisions can be made based on scientific evidence. One of the powerful features of the GapMinder tool is that users can visualize data over a specific time frame to explore how sustainability metrics change over time.

For Activity C, students will look at the factors that informed their initial sustainability question over time. Using the same metrics they explored in Activity B, students will be asked to rebuild the graph in Gapminder tool with a specific focus on how those metrics may have changed over time. They are encouraged to work in the same pairing or small group as in Activities A and B.

Students will be asked to select four countries across the different economic levels (e.g. High, Upper middle, Lower middle, and Low) to track over time. They will also extract values from metrics of Environmental Impact, Population, and Technology to calculate the amount of change occurring over their selected time frame. They will answer questions about observed data trends and will discuss interpretations and potential drivers of those trends. They will also reflect upon real-world events that may have influenced the observed data trends and whether the IPAT framework can capture such events. Students will then submit a screen grab of their graphs along with the responses to their questions. There is also an opportunity at the end of this exercise for class-wide discussion on the opportunities and limitations that the IPAT framework provides in assessing sustainability.

Teaching Materials:

• Instructor Guide -- educator-only file
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  Instructor Guide

  
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  : Step-by step instructions for the activities, with example responses and teaching notes in green.
• Student Guide (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 47kB Jul13 21): Step-by-step instructions for the activities.
• Sustainability Metrics Lecture Slides (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 12.7MB Jul13 21): Background information and discussion of key concepts of the module.
• Gapminder Tool Instructional Video (hosted on Vimeo). Please note that this video has no sound.

Teaching Notes and Tips

This module is designed to be conducted in consecutive order, as each activity builds on the one before. The module could be modified for an entirely online format, with student pairs or groups communicating over a video conferencing platform.

Workflow of this module:

1. Instructor delivers Sustainability Metrics lecture prior to starting the module.
2. Give students the student guide handout (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 47kB Jul13 21) following the Sustainability Metrics lecture.
3. Students then work through the module activities. Any unfinished content on Day 1 can be saved for Day 2.
4. Student groups can present their findings and engage in broader discussion to the whole class following completion.

Potential pre-class readings:

There are no pre-class reading assignments, as the basic concepts and background information are included in the Instructor Guide.

Measures of Student Success

Student success is demonstrated as:

• Students are able to identify Impact metrics appropriate for IPAT framework, their respective units, and sources via the Gapminder tool.
• Students are able to generate a bubble graph incorporating an Impact metric on the y-axis and a Technology metric on the x-axis, and display the countries according to economic level and population via the Gapminder tool.
• Students are able to compare and contrast the IPAT relationship across different countries of varying economic scale and identify the metrics that explain those relationships using the Gapminder tool.
• Students can calculate changes in country-level impact, population, and technology drivers over a specified time frame by extracting values from the Gapminder tool.
• Students are able to identify patterns across countries, outliers (address the open-ended nature of the question), and are able to formulate hypotheses around why IPAT may not hold universally.

References and Resources

• Gapminder Tool
• Introductory video: How to use Gapminder Bubbles (Note that this video has no sound)
• View the November 12, 2021, Measuring Sustainability? Teaching Sustainability Using GAPMinder webinar, featuring how this module was used:
  
  Click to view or download the webinar recording (MP4 Video 82.6MB Oct29 21).