Sustainable development profile of the Gironde

The sustainable development profile of the Girondin territory makes it possible to present the situation of the department with regard to sustainable development.

Classically, the first possibility for such a presentation is to establish a sustainable development diagnosis of the territory. To this long, tedious, unsynthetic approach and difficult to reproduce annually, the Department of Gironde preferred an alternative: use synthetic indicators of sustainable development.

These are indicators that make it possible to visualise, in a single data, a plurality of elements (called elementary indicators). This choice makes it possible to have a simple and clear vision of sustainable development in the territory, which can be updated every year. In addition, it makes it possible to highlight the strengths, weaknesses and challenges present in the territory and to target where it seems necessary to act. Indicators, although primarily pedagogical, therefore also have operational virtues.

The synthetic indicators refer to the five sustainable development goals as well as the key elements of the Agenda 21 approach. Each objective of Agenda 21 therefore has an associated synthetic indicator.

The department being a precursor in this process (to our knowledge this approach is a first for a department), it was necessary to rely on existing work and work on their translation, to adapt what has been carried out elsewhere, mainly in the regions (Ile-de-France, Nord-pas-de-Calais...).

Four synthetic indicators emerged from this adaptation; the Departmental Social Health Index allowing to represent the goal “Social cohesion and solidarity between territories and between generations”, the Index of human well-being for the purpose “Blossomment of all human beings”, the Index of Environmental Quality and Ecosystem Preservation referring to the goal “Preservation of biodiversity, protection of environments and resources” and the Index of vulnerability to climate change for the purpose “Climate Change Control”.

For the purpose “Dynamics of development according to responsible modes of production and consumption”, it was initially planned to calculate the ecological footprint of the territory. This method makes it possible to determine whether humans consume natural resources beyond the capacity for renewal and absorption of ecosystems. Being unable to collect all the data from this indicator because they do not exist on a departmental scale, another indicator replaced it. It is the Responsible Consumption and Production Index, creation of the department.

To approach governance issues, as experiments in other territories do not meet our needs, we worked, with the network of agendas 21 in the girdle, to create a new indicator.

The Governance Index thus refers to the determinants of the Agenda 21 approach. This indicator, unlike the others, highlights the situation of each Girondin canton on this issue.

Together, these indices make it possible to draw up a “state of play” sustainable development of the territory, placing the Department in relation to a national average or trend.