Apart from their economic data work, BAK has also devoted time since the nineties to the environmental and social compatibility of economic growth and has built up relevant databases. Publication of the comprehensive final report on the pilot project for Swiss regions in June 2000 by BAK Basel Economics entitled «Economic Performance – Ecological Soundness – Social Balance» and the brochure «Sustainable Growth» by the Zürcher Kantonalbank in June 2000 represented a milestone in the field of (regional) sustainability benchmarking.

In addition, BAK Basel Economics together with 21 partners from Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Slovenia has submitted MARS – «Monitoring the Alpine Regions’ Sustainability» as an INTERREG IIIB – Alpine Space Project as lead partner and the project has been accepted by the Managing Authority on May 22, 2003. Its aim is to develop a monitoring of regional sustainability for the entire alpine space region. This work is now completed. During the time period from June 2001 and June 2005 the INTERREG IIIB – Alpine Space Project of the European Commission granted a start-up financing. The first report of the MARS findings – the MARS Report 2005 – as well as the summary of this report in German, Italian and French is now available here:

The main intention of MARS is the creation and establishment of a permanent platform for sustainability on a regional level. Another essential aim of the project is to elaborate a database with appropriate indicators, comparative data for every region and appropriate methods of aggregation and integration for monitoring sustainable development of the Alpine Space and its regions. With the establishment of a monitoring system for sustainability and the communication to the public, people should be better sensitised to the problems of sustainable development. On the basis of the project results, political recommendations for actions can be derived.

As already mentioned, the concept of sustainable development aims at fairness within and between generations and is therefore an interrelated system of different areas which can be summarised in three pillars: economy, environment and society (OECD, 2004). These three dimensions affect but also require one another. Economic development interferes with the availability of environmental re-sources. Economic growth without concerning the environmental quality is impossible in the long term. Therefore, economic growth cannot be the only goal and can even be counterproductive in terms of quality of life. Economic development is the basis of the income development and allows a reallocation from the socially advantaged to the socially weak people; therefore, social stability has to be involved. Social solidarity as a whole plays an important role in sustainable development. Altogether it be-comes obvious that sustainable development cannot be reached without taking all three mutually interactive dimensions into account. In this report the concept of relative (or limited) sustainability is implemented - relative or limited in the sense that the indicators that are used to describe sustainability neither consider the future changes in social values or relative prices nor show full coverage of all domains necessary for regarding economy, environment and society.

The choice of indicators is central to the evaluation of economic, ecological and social situations and developments. There is already a considerable number of analyses on this subject: the starting point for all of them is the indicator list of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD). The aim of this analysis was the development of a set of indicators that would enable the evaluation of sustainable development both worldwide and for individual countries.

This list of indicators was created on the basis of the three pillars of sustainability – economy, environment, and society. After these three pillars had been determined, topics relevant to sustainability were defined within them and one or more indicators were sought for each topic to cover the topic area as specifically as possible, but at the same time comprehensively and in particular with a view to sustainability. The OECD has also created an indicator list along these lines, and the work of Eurostat also basically orientates itself towards the UN principles. However, the implementation aimed for and the definitions in the CSD approach, which are very general in part, led Eurostat to create a more “Europe-friendly” variation. A number of country-specific sets of indicators were added based to a considerable extent on the UN’s indicator list. There are also respective indicator systems for evaluating sustainable development in the respective home countries of the Alpine regions. Such systems have been and are being introduced in many regions in Europe. However, there is not yet a uniform monitoring at the NUTS2 region level.

The central topic of this report is to bring together and analyse indicators at the regional level. One must ask quite different questions when it is all the regions of the Alpine Space, and not one particular region, one country, the whole of Europe or even the whole world that are to be evaluated. The examination of problems that are regionally relevant and specific to the Alpine Space also plays a key role in the choice of indicators. This is done by exchanging ideas, concepts and discussions among the regional players on the one hand, and on the other on the basis of the effective implementation of an indicator approach at regional level that makes it possible to display information that is as up to date as possible and to analyse the development in recent years. These aims, of course, make heavy demands on the data material available. For this reason, the choice of indicators was also determined to a great extent by the data status. Several desirable indicators could not be used because the status of the data was unsatisfactory. Regardless, an attempt was made to calculate at least one adequate indicator for each topic within the three sustainability pillars. Occasionally, estimations and adaptations were necessary to have comparable regional data at our disposal. In order to guarantee uniformity the same methods must be used in all regions.

Regions of the Alpine Space

Austria – Burgenland, Niederösterreich, Wien, Kärnten, Steiermark, Oberösterreich, Salzburg, Tirol, Vorarlberg
Germany – Freiburg, Tübingen, Oberbayern, Schwaben
France – Alsace, Franche-Comté, Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur (PACA)
Italy – Piemonte, Valle d´Aosta, Liguria, Lombardia, Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia
Liechtenstein – Liechtenstein
Slovenia – Slovenija
Switzerland – Région lémanique, Espace Mittelland, Nordwestschweiz, Zürich, Ostschweiz, Zentralschweiz, Ticino

As mentioned above, one of the objectives of MARS is the establishment of an information and communication platform with issues of monitoring and promoting of sustainable development in the Alpine Space and its regions. Broadening and deepening of this platform should take place continuously to further develop and update MARS without help from the ERDF after summer 2005.

The database must be kept constantly up to date in order to establish such a platform and in particular long-term monitoring. New indicators can be integrated: regional location factors and also quality of life indicators and “intergenerationality factors”. An expansion of the indicator set in the area of subjective indicators is of particular interest in the social part. Expanded databases can also be used to display additional relationships of effects, which means in turn that the level of analytical examinations can also be expanded.

In addition to the consideration of expansion in terms of data and analysis, the primary consideration is to use the existing, comprehensive data set and the existing methods of analysis. On the basis of the existing monitoring, special evaluations can now be carried out for the regions of the Alpine Space, according to pillar, topic or even individual indicator – depending on requirement or necessity. Specific regional analyses such as these can be used as a basis for drawing economic and political conclusions. In the winter of 2005/2006, there will be a workshop on the subject of sustainability in the Alpine Space in which the future developments of the MARS project will be discussed.

Thomas Schoder, Senior Economist, BAK Basel Economics

Contact
Marc Bros de Puechredon
Head of Marketing & Communications
Tel. +41 61 279 97 25
marc.puechredon@bakbasel.com