Sustainable Development

Sustainable Development Strategy 1997

Safeguarding our Assets, Securing our Future

Goal 1 – Making Better Decisions

Sustainable development is about making informed choices, in order to integrate social, economic and environmental aspects into the decisions that we make. NRCan provides access to leading-edge, high-quality and relevant data, information and knowledge, and facilitates and promotes its use.

Over the period of SDS 1997, NRCan embarked on a number of significant knowledge-related commitments. The success of these commitments led to new and expanded initiatives in SDS – Now and for the Future, such as continued work on indicators for sustainable development and on-line access to NRCan information holdings as part of Government On-Line.

NRCan has been involved in the development of indicators to measure how Canada is advancing sustainable development at a number of scales. In SDS 1997, NRCan committed to develop indicators for energy, minerals and metals, and to report on indicators of sustainable forest management. The progress realized has established baselines and trends in the energy economy, to help track performance and aid in decision-making. In the minerals and metals sector, a values-based framework for the development of indicators of sustainable development, and a consensual process has been underway to develop a vision, goals, and objectives that capture the values shared by the working group members. For more about SD indicators, click here.

For a printable version of this goal including objectives and performance indicators, click here.