Halstar: systems engineering for sustainable development

Sustainable development is subjective and value laden, and achieving it involves balancing a complex system of issues. Most existing approaches to assessing and managing sustainability fail to address sustainability in the particular context of a project and its stakeholders. A more holistic, ‘systems approach’ is required to address sustainability effectively. The Halcrow sustainability toolkit and rating (Halstar) system has been designed to provide a truly holistic methodology, incorporating many of the features of existing approaches, while attempting to mitigate their disadvantages. Halstar provides a common framework to support decision-making, enabling the comprehensive assessment and management of sustainable development issues. The technique works to improve sustainability on projects and programmes by guiding decision-making and appraisal within unique contexts and priorities. It ensures that sustainability, rather than being an add-on to the development process, becomes a source of added value. This paper outlines the rationale behind the development of Halstar and includes a case study demonstrating one of the ways it can be applied.