Sustainability is often a goal for businesses, nonprofits and government groups, yet measuring the degree to which an organization is being sustainable can be difficult. What are the standards used to measure and assess performance and progress toward sustainability?

The School of Global Environmental Sustainability will host a panel discussion on sustainability metrics from 5-6:30 p.m. Nov. 2, at Avogadro’s Number.

Sustainability indicators measure things like resource consumption, pollution emissions, biodiversity, and building and labor practices. The panelists will provide insight on how they use sustainability indicators to quantify, measure and benchmark environmental performance. What do they measure and what indicators suggest opportunities and risks in reaching the triple bottom line — people, planet, profit — of sustainability?

Panelists include:
· Keith Paustian, professor, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
· Josie Plaut, associate director, Institute for the Built Environment
· John Sheehan, research scientist, Department of Soil and Crop Sciences
· Sarah Reed, affiliate faculty member, Department of Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology

The discussion will be moderated by Gene Kelly, head of the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences, associate director for Research and Development at SoGES, deputy director of the Agricultural Experiment Station and associate dean of CSU Extension.

Avogadro’s Number is located at 605 S. Mason St.

The panel discussion, part of the Managing the Planet series, is free and open to the public.