Social indicators for sustainable communities

Purpose: Social indicators for sustainable communities are important to identify suitable strategies for developing an area and to reflect on progress. One of the best-known ways of assessing sustainability approaches for communities in the built environment is BREEAM Communities. However, BREEAM Communities provides a criteria and not indicators. It is important in city areas that communities provide input on the development of their area. At the same time, the uniqueness of their requirements can be many and difficult to measure for monitoring purposes in comparison with regional and national levels. The use of expert knowledge and methods can link the wider strategies coming from municipalities with the local community level with the potential of developing indicators to be measure against other city and regional areas. Design/methodology/approach: The key performance indicators (KPI) are designed based on a literature review from the fields of facility management and urban design. Findings: The KPI are presented from holistic design approach to see them as a tool under the non-technical drivers of architectural value, stakeholder awareness and behavior, economic and ownership structures and legislation governance. These drivers are not in isolation of each other as one driver often influences the outcomes of another. Some of indicators are discussed as the one, which impact the sustainable interventions on the area welfare, the changes in behavior in the area for sustainable use of the buildings, or changes in behavior based on physical changes of the area. The combination of expert-led and community-based approaches facilitates the potential for both grass root origins and scientific rigor in developing social sustainable indicators, which links, to the wider context of city and region.