INTRODUCTION

SUSTAINABILITY -- Is it a buzzword? a concept? a goal? the answer?  We believe it is all of these.  While most agree on the need to be sustainable-providing for the needs of today without compromising the ability to meet the needs of the future-few agree on how to measure it.  The use of indicators reports such as this is becoming a common tool for measuring our Success.

What does this report show?
This report provides snapshots of how San Mateo County measures up in a wide variety of areas generally held to be significant indicators of a community's relative sustainability.  The indicators fall into three broad categories-social, economic, and environmental.  They include such factors as housing affordability, employment trends, community safety, maternal health care, air and water quality, and types of land use.  For each indicator, researchers compiled available data and summarized their findings.  Where possible, the current condition was compared with a point in the recent past and/or with state or national conditions, and apparent trends-both positive and negative-have been highlighted.  In aggregate, these indicators represent the most comprehensive assessment yet made of the sustainability of life in the county.

Why is this report important?
This report is important because by publicizing these indicators we highlight their significance.  Most of the information contained herein can be found in other documents, but this report brings all this data together in one place for the first time, providing a more comprehensive picture of our quality of life.  This report is a tool to inform our decision-makers and community of our progress towards sustainability.  We see this report and future reports as benchmarks to help us judge how well we are doing in implementing sustainable practices in San Mateo County.  It is our hope that our communities will increasingly embrace sustainable practices that, over time, will be reflected by measurable improvements in these indicators.

This report is a work in progress.
This is the first of what we hope will become a continuing series of reports issued annually or biannually.  It is our goal that future reports will highlight movement towards or away from sustainability although we felt it was premature to do so in this initial report.  We believe that the county, through the choices being made by its residents and decision-makers, is starting to move toward sustainability; thus we prefer that future editions of this report reflect the results of actions in this new era, not the results of past actions made in less enlightened times.

Limits of this report
San Mateo County comprises diverse social, governmental, ecological, and business environments.  This report applies to the county in general; therefore, it reflects averages and medians, not conditions specific to any one area of the county.  Although it would be informative to compare these indicators city by city to determine which jurisdictions are closer to sustainability than others, such a comparison is beyond the scope of this report.  These indicators are also not comprehensive measurements.  Sources cited are continually being updated; thus some of the information contained herein may already be dated.  In addition, this report doesn't document or analyze efforts planned or underway to address current and future issues and problems.

There are also important criteria which haven't been included, because they don't lend themselves to measurement, data were not readily available, or we lacked sufficient researchers to develop the indicator.  As we developed this report, many of the people contacted offered good ideas for other indicators, including the following:

• level of charitable giving
• participation in the arts
• the amount of income necessary to meet basic needs
• percent of people adequately covered by health insurance
• adult literacy rate
• average enrollment per teacher
• (on hold to assess new classroom size reductions)
• pupil test scores
• (excluded due to controversy and lack of standardized tests)
• number of high school students who go on to attend college
• activities available for youth
• energy consumption by sector
• (commercial, industrial, residential, and transportation)
• use of recycled materials
• volume of waste being diverted from landfills
• (this information becomes available in 1997)
• businesses that use "green" practices
• density and condition of urban trees
• other economic indicators

Finally, there is room for improvement within the various indicators included in this report.  For instance, it would be helpful to include the- total acreage and condition of various habitats (e.g. wetlands, forests, chaparral) in the county under the biodiversity indicator.

Please contact us if you can provide any measurable data for any of the indicators listed above, if you think of data that would improve the usefulness of any of the indicators included in this report, or if you would like to volunteer for researching and updating indicators.