Ronald Colman

Ronald Colman (b. 1947 in Sidney, Australia) is the founder of GPI Atlantic., a nonprofit research group that has created an index of well-being and sustainable development in Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the first and, to date, only complete index of its kind.
Colman has worked with New Zealand government agencies and communities on measures of well-being and spent 10 years in Bhutan, where he helped the government develop holistic measures of progress and a new global economic paradigm that was presented to the United Nations in 2012.
In his book What Really Counts. The Case for a Sustainable and Equitable Economy (Columbia University Press, German edition: "Was wirklich zählt. Plädoyer für eine nachhaltige und gerechte Wirtschaft," Secession Verlag Berlin), Colman traces his career as an academic activist.
==Life==
Ronald Colman was born in Sidney, Australia in 1947, his parents were Walter Ulrich Kochmann and Liesel Blaschke, both from Berlin. After the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler came to power, they fled Germany and changed their last name. Colman's grandfather, Ernst Blaschke, had been awarded the Iron Cross for his service in World War I. His great-uncle, Alexander Beer, was the chief architect of the Jewish community in Berlin, and was killed in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1944
In the early 1960s, Colman began studying Political science, Economics, Chinese and Oriental studies at the Australian National University.
From 1968 to 1969, he worked as a reporter at the Canberra Times, but was fired after six months for printing and distributing a pamphlet pointing out the newspaper's censorship and arguing that editorial policy should be made by journalists, not owners.
For nearly two years in the early 1970s, Colman taught English to Bedouin children in the settlement of Kseifeh in Israel's Negev Desert. A Fulbright scholarship led him to Columbia University in New York, where he earned a doctorate in political science and Middle Eastern studies. Here he attended lectures by anthropologist Margaret Mead, among others.
Colman subsequently taught political science at Columbia University, the State University of New York, the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Canada.
==GPI Atlantic==
In April 1997, with a budget of 2,000.00 Canadian dollars, Colman formed a non-profit corporation under the name Genuine Progress Index Atlantic - GPI Atlantic - with the goal of developing new measures of progress for Nova Scotia. The Genuine Progress Index (German: 'Index für echte Fortschritt') is a net accounting system based on the principle of full-cost accounting or true cost accounting.
==Bhutan==
Since 2003, Colman has been working in Bhutan with the Centre for Bhutan Studies, the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Education, and the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative as a scientific consultant. 
==Publications==
What Really Counts. The Case for a sustainable and Equitable Economy (Columbia University Press, New York 2021)
Population Health Studies and Papers
· "Women's Health in Atlantic Canada: A Statistical Portrait," in A Portrait of Women's Health in Atlantic Canada, Maritime Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, 2000, pages 9-41. Updated 2002
· The Economic Impact of Smoke-Free Workplaces, (116 pages), NS Department of Health, October, 2001
· The Cost of Tobacco in Nova Scotia, (83 pages), Cancer Care Nova Scotia, October, 2000
· The Cost of Obesity in Nova Scotia, (57 pages), Cancer Care Nova Scotia, March, 2000 (replicated for seven other provinces in 2000-2001)
· The Cost of HIV/AIDS in Canada, Maritime Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, January, 2001
· "Physical Exercise Trends in Atlantic Canada," prepared for Recreation Nova Scotia, 2000
· "The Economic Costs of HIV/AIDS in Canada," by Ron Colman et al., article in Striking to the Heart of the Matter: Selected Readings on Gender and HIV, published by Atlantic Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, 2002.
· The Cost of Physical Inactivity in Nova Scotia, (26 pages) prepared for Sport Nova Scotia and Recreation Nova Scotia, June, 2002
· The Cost of Chronic Disease in Nova Scotia, October, 2002, prepared for Dalhousie University Dept. of Community Health and Epidemiology, Unit for Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, in and cooperation with Health Canada and NS Dept. of Health.
· The Cost of Tobacco in New Brunswick, October, 2002
· The Economic Impact of Smoke-Free Workplaces: An Assessment for New Brunswick, in conjunction with Health Canada, New Brunswick Health Department, and Cancer Society of NB, October, 2002.
Environment and Natural Resources
· "Ratify Kyoto or Risk Future," full-page article in the Halifax Daily News, March 7, 2002
· The GPI Forest Accounts, (452 pages), with Sara Wilson, Minga O'Brien and Linda Pannozzo, GPI Atlantic, Halifax, 2001
· The GPI Greenhouse Gas Accounts for Nova Scotia, (228 pages), with Sally Walker and Anne Monette, GPI Atlantic, Halifax, August, 2001
· "The GPI Natural Resource and Environmental Accounts," in Environment and Sustainable Development Indicators Initiative: Background Documents, National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, December, 2000
· "Climate Change in the Genuine Progress Index," paper presented to Costing Canadian Climate Change - Impacts and Adaptation, An International Workshop sponsored by Environment Canada and UBC, Vancouver, September 27-29, 2000
· "Measuring Genuine Progress: Accounting for Climate Change," GPI Atlantic, Halifax, August, 2000
· "The Nova Scotia Genuine Progress Index: Valuing our Natural Resources," in Between the Issues, August 1999 and Coastal Communities News, 1999
· "Measuring Sustainable Development: A Nova Scotia Pilot Project," paper presented to the Conference on the State of Living Standards and the Quality of Life in Canada, Centre for the Study of Living Standards, Ottawa, October, 1998
· Application of the GPI Approach to Analyzing Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Nova Scotia Freight Transport Sector (67 pages), with Sally Walker and Ron Hilburn, 1999
· Introduction to the GPI Natural Resource Accounts, (48 pages), with Tony Charles, Sara Wilson, Jennifer Scott, Sally Walker and Larry Hughes, GPI Atlantic, October, 1999, prepared for NS Department of Natural Resources
· Measuring Sustainable Development (135 pages), GPI Atlantic, prepared for NS Department of Economic Development, 1998
Gender Equality and Unpaid Work
· "Gender Equality in the Genuine Progress Index," in Made to Measure: Women, Gender and Equity, Maritime Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, 2000, pages 43-54
· The Economic Value of Unpaid Housework and Child-Care, (120 pages), GPI Atlantic, November, 1998
· The Economic Value of Civic and Voluntary Work in Nova Scotia, (67 pages), GPI Atlantic, July 1998, with updates in February 1999 and February 2000
Social Indicators and General Articles and Papers
· Article by Ronald Colman "Measuring Genuine Progress" in "Bringing Business on Board: Sustainable Development and the Business School Curriculum," by Peter Nemetz, Ph.D (editor), University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, 2002.
· Income Distribution in Nova Scotia, with Colin Dodds, GPI Atlantic, July, 2001
· The Cost of Crime in Nova Scotia, with Colin Dodds, GPI Atlantic, April, 1999
· Work Time Reduction in the Nova Scotia Civil Service, (32 pages), prepared for NS Department of Human Resources, 1999
· "Measuring Genuine Progress," in The Journal of Innovative Management, Mass., U.S., Fall, 2001.
· "How do we Measure Progress?" in The Shambhala Sun, November, 1999
· "More May Not Be Better: Puncturing the Economic Growth Illusion," in The Daily News, Halifax, June 18, 1999, and "A Better Way to Measure Progress," in The Daily News, Halifax, June 19, 2000
· The Nova Scotia GPI: Framework, Indicators and Methodologies, (106 pages), GPI Atlantic, 1998.
· The Economic and Social Value of Rural Community Access Program Sites, (2002), prepared for Industry Canada.
Category:1947 births
Category:People from Sydney
Category:Australian people
Category:Founders