Fecha de publicación: 18/03/2004 Fuente: WIPO "sustainability" Methods, systems and computer program products for assessing the sustainability of a development are disclosed. The method includes the steps of determining benchmark values for a plurality of sustainability indices (100), receiving data relating to a development (120), determining a plurality of input values from the data relating to a development, wherein each input value corresponds to one of the sustainability indices (120), comparing each of the plurality of input values with a corresponding one of the benchmark values (130), and providing an assessment of the sustainability of the development based on the comparison (140). The comparison may comprise generating a score for each input value that is representative of the performance of that input value relative to the corresponding benchmark value and the assessment may comprise assessing the scores against corresponding pre-determined target values. Corresponding ones of the benchmark values and the input values may relate to a resource consuming aspect of a development. The benchmark values may be based on baseline resource and utility data, policy decisions, and/or published standards. The development may comprise a development proposal.