Dr. Joy E. Hecht


research, writing,
and consulting
on environmental
and sustainability
indicators



My work on indicators of environment and sustainability spans the United States and the developing world. Domestically, I was the founding executive director of the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute, a research and policy group affiliated with school of policy and planning at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. NJSSI is the keeper of a set of sustainability indicators tracking public and private sector progress in a range of areas related to the three axes of sustainability; you can explore them at their website. I also was an active member and environment group leader of the U.S. Forest Service Sustainable Minerals Roundtable, a public-private initiative to develop sustainability indicators for the minerals sector.

In the developing world, I have worked extensively on environmental indicators in Egypt, through the USAID-funded Egyptian Environmental Policy Program. I also worked with the national statistical office on the development of their environmental statistics system, reviewing available data and developing a strategy that we hoped would make them more accessible to potential users.

ed., Living With the Future in Mind. Third edition of the New Jersey Sustainable State Goals and Indicators. December, 2004. Produced by the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute.click

"Environmental Statistics and Accounting in Egypt: Challenges and Opportunities." Study carried out for the USAID DATA Project, Ministry of Planning, Egyptian Arabic Republic. August 2004. click

"What's Sustainability Go to do with New Jersey?" ANJEC (Association of New Jersey Environment Commissions) Report, Spring 2003. Pages 8-9. click

News from NJSSI An occasional news brief from the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute

  • "The Johannesburg Summit: Is it relevant to New Jersey?" September 4, 2002. click
  • "Setting Energy Targets for New Jersey." October 3, 2002. click
  • "What do Sustainability Indicators Have to do with Sustainability?" November 19, 2002. click
  • "Tracking the Financial Payoffs to Green Building." June 3, 2003. click

"Green National Income, Measures of Welfare, and Ideological Bias." Presented at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Ecological Economics, Sousse, Tunisia, March 2002.click

"Egyptian Environmental Policy Program Monitoring System: Draft Prototype Working Indicators." Prepared for the USAID-funded Egyptian Environmental Policy Program, through Chemonics, International. November 2001. click