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The Lowell Center Hierarchy for Classifying Indicators
The Lowell Center has developed a hierarchy for classifying indicators. This is a valuable tool that enables the organization of existing indicators and the development of new indicators. The LCSP hierarchy has been used primarily on the environmental, health and safety aspects of sustainable production, although additional work has been done to expand the hierarchy to include social and economic aspects of sustainable production and sustainable community development.
The Hierarchy emphasizes that the development of indicators of sustainable production is a continuous, evolutionary process of setting goals and measuring performance. As a company begins to develop indicators at higher levels, the hierarchy does not suggest dropping indicators at the lower levels. Rather, such indicators must be retained as higher level indicators are developed. It is necessary for companies to comply with regulations and industry standards (Level One). It will always be important that companies monitor their efficiency and productivity (Level Two). In order to mover toward sustainable production, however, an organization needs to look beyond its boundaries to the impacts of suppliers, distributors, and products (Levels Three and Four) as well as its contribution to moving toward a more sustainable society (Level Five).
Underlying the hierarchy are three basic assumptions:
• developing sustainable systems of production is a continuous, evolutionary process of setting goals and measuring performance;
• different companies and different industries are at different places in the evolutionary process; and
• developing truly sustainable systems of production cannot be achieved by companies or industry alone but rather requires cooperation and coordination among companies, communities, and government at many different levels- local, regional, national and international.
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