The PAIRS model exemplifies this approach by

developing a novel framework that spans sectors (e.g., water, waste, energy) familiar to the individual researchers and addresses a spanning notion that collaboration and partnership can improve sustainability as a social, economic, and environmental program and goal. Methods The potential for a new regional partnership paradigm is assessed using both a metric and a survey instrument. The metric is composed of 37 questions that address five public sectors with regional impact. The metric is intended for municipal planners or committees developing sustainability action plans to identify the partnerships with neighboring communities that could produce the greatest selleck chemicals benefit. The survey instrument would also gauge the acceptability GS-4997 mw and potential for participation in theLEED certified or low-energy buildings account community for a particular initiative or policy identified

by the metric. Some questions from the metric will be included in this text to illustrate specific features of the questions, while the complete metric can be found in the Appendix. Within each of the five sectors, the questions address social, environmental, and economic issues of sustainability through quantifiable indicators, presence of best-practice techniques, availability and scarcity of natural resources, and the available knowledge base of previously Mephenoxalone implemented sustainability initiatives. The objective

of the PAIRS metric was to identify synergies between communities which address different aspects of sustainability. Some of the potential synergies of each sector are presented below. Table 1 also presents a quantitative analysis of the areas of sustainability addressed by the questions within each subsection. Table 1 Potential synergies used in the PAIRS metric Potential synergies Water Energy Food and agriculture Sociographic Waste Water sharing, knowledge of conservation, infrastructure development (%) Conservation techniques, infrastructure, utilization of biofuel feedstocks (%) Knowledge of PHA-848125 sustainable farming techniques, local food production and consumption (%) Public health, environmental stewardship (%) Collection and recycling programs, waste avoidance (%) Environmental 45 50 25 12 17 Economic 11 12 25 12 17 Environmental and economic 33 38 12 25 33 Social 11 25 38 50 33 The PAIRS citizen assessment includes both independent and dependent variables (DV) measuring some common theoretical variables to establish a baseline, and nine variables specific to the intra-regional resource sharing framework suggested.