Environmental Sustainability Index

The Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) was a composite index published from 1999 to 2005 that tracked 21 elements of environmental sustainability covering natural resource endowments, past and present pollution levels, environmental management efforts, contributions to protection of the global commons, and a society's capacity to improve its environmental performance over time.

The ESI was published between 1999 to 2005 by Yale University's Center for Environmental Law and Policy in collaboration with Columbia University's Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and the World Economic Forum.

The Environmental Sustainability Index was developed to evaluate environmental sustainability relative to the paths of other countries. Due to a shift in focus by the teams developing the ESI, a new index was developed, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), that uses outcome-oriented indicators, then working as a benchmark index that can be more easily used by policy makers, environmental scientists, advocates and the general public. The EPI has been published in 2006, 2008, and 2010.

In 2010 Iceland was noted by Guinness World Records as "The Greenest Country", reaching highest score by the Environmental Sustainability Index with a score of 93.5/100.

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