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Getting Organized: Setting Yourself Up for Success 13
PHASING IN A PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT APPROACH
Start with what you have. A comprehensive approach to sustainability performance measurement
and management evolves over time as your agency builds understanding of how your work
contributes to sustainability, as staff awareness of sustainability concerns grows, and as your
agency undertakes new initiatives to promote sustainability. Focusing on a few key objectives
and measures and adding additional measures over time can be an effective way to begin. Some
measures of sustainability can be based on data your agency is already collecting; in fact, one
data set may support measurement of multiple objectives. As your measurement approach takes
shape, you can identify gaps in information and add additional measures or collect different
types of data.
· What data do you have available? An inventory of existing data sources is an important
step to assess the types of information that your agency already has. While in some cases
you may decide to collect new data, often the data you have at hand can be used to support
many of the sustainability measures you define.
· How much/how soon? A sustainability performance measurement program needs to be
sustainable. A well-designed approach to measuring sustainability will support and inform
your agency's work without placing unnecessary burdens on your staff or budget. As you
design your performance measurement system, keep in mind that the approach needs to be
useful, feasible, and manageable over time.
· Are you ready to do this? Having organizational support and a strong team is essential to
developing an effective performance measurement program. Senior management needs to
endorse the development of sustainability performance measures and provide clear
direction on the purpose(s) for which the measures will be used. A working group could be
established that has a clear mandate, schedule, and resources required to do the job, with an
understanding of the approval process that will be used to review and accept its
recommendations. You may want to include external partners and stakeholders directly on
the working group and/or establish a process through which the group can get ideas and
input as it goes along.
Case Study Summary: Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) is a regional organization of 21
governments that surround the nation's capital. The National Capital Region Transportation
Planning Board is part of COG and is the federally designated MPO for the Washington, DC,
region.
At COG, explicit incorporation of the term "sustainability" into its programs is in the beginning
stages. Inclusion of sustainability terminology in the Region Forward report (a policy study
that outlines desirable attributes for the Washington region) signals that COG's leaders accept
the concepts embodied by sustainability. Development of the report was guided by a group of
COG stakeholders called the Greater Washington 2050 Coalition, which was established in
2008 by COG to build agreement among its members about a long-term vision for tackling
issues of growth, transportation, and the environment. The coalition is composed of public
officials and business, civic, and environmental leaders from across the region.
