Measuring Sustainability in Houston, Texas

A project has been initiated at Rice University to measure sustainability using the City of Houston as a case study. The goal of the project is to find objective methods of measuring sustainability, combining experts from the natural sciences, environmental law, sociology and economics. This presentation will focus upon the initial discussions and decisions regarding the issues of primary concern for measurement. Of particular interest are issues such as the equitable distribution of jobs, whether those most at environmental risk are benefitting from such risk, economic structure for sustainability, environmental limits, the flow of materials and energy through the City, the health and fate of ecological systems, food security and cost, full cost pricing of services, and other similar issues.