The Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators (ESDI) Initiative was a three-year multistakeholder program aimed at developing a small set of credible and understandable indicators to track whether Canada's current economic activities threaten the way of life for future generations.

This initiative - which was announced in the Finance Minister's 2000 Budget Speech - marked the first time a federal finance minister acknowledged the need and urgency to track a full range of Canada's assets - including the ecosystem services that are crucial to sustaining the economy in the long term.

To better track these assets - our natural capital - the Round Table has proposed six new measurements - or indicators. These indicators will augment familiar economic data, such as the gross domestic product (GDP) and the consumer price index (CPI). Developed in close collaboration with Environment Canada and Statistics Canada, these indicators are realistic and useable. When implemented, these indicators will track, sometimes for the first time, key types of natural and human capital.

The initiative was guided by a steering committee representing stakeholders from current sustainability and well-being indicators initiatives, business, labour, provincial government, community groups, not-for-profit organizations, and academic or research institutions.The six indicators, released in May 2003, include five natural capital and one human capital indicator. The indicators are: forest cover, freshwater quality, air quality, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, extent of wetlands, and educational attainment.

The ESDI Initiative's final State of the Debate report entitled, Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators for Canada, includes the findings and recommendations from extensive research and multistakeholder consultation.

In the February 2004 Speech from the Throne, the federal government made a commitment to begin using several of the recommended indicators. Governor General Adrienne Clarkson announced that "… building on the recommendations of the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, the Government will start incorporating key indicators on clean water, clean air and emissions reductions into its decision making."

For further information, please contact:
Carolyn Cahill,
Senior Policy Advisor at
(613) 996-4501
or by E-mail at: cahillc@nrtee-trnee.ca