ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to develop a framework to compare and evaluate the effectiveness of sustainability assessment practice in different jurisdictions. To do this, it is important to clarify what is meant by effectiveness. Chapter 3 set out a typology of effectiveness criteria derived from the academic literature and identified that effective sustainability assessment involves procedural, substantive, transactive and normative elements. The key message from Chapter 3 is that effectiveness is difficult to measure in absolute terms because of the diverse and even divergent reference points against which effectiveness might be judged. Consequently, in comparing and evaluating sustainability assessment in different places, the way that the ecological, social, political and cultural pluralism that provides the context in which the work of sustainability assessment is done must be recognised and accommodated as a central point of any comparative discussion.
