Sustainability measurement is a set of frameworks or indicators used to measure how sustainable something is. This includes processes, products, services and businesses. Sustainability is difficult to quantify and it may even be impossible to measure as there is no fixed definition. To measure sustainability, frameworks and indicators consider environmental, social and economic domains. The metrics vary by use case and are still evolving. They include indicators, benchmarks and audits. They include sustainability standards and certification systems like Fairtrade and Organic. They also involve indices and accounting. They can include assessment, appraisalDalal-Clayton, Barry and Sadler, Barry 2009. Sustainability Appraisal: A Sourcebook and Reference Guide to International Experience. London: Earthscan. . and other reporting systems. The metrics are used over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales.Hak, T. et al. 2007. Sustainability Indicators, SCOPE 67. Island Press, London. Bell, Simon and Morse, Stephen 2008. Sustainability Indicators. Measuring the Immeasurable? 2nd edn. London: Earthscan. .
For organizations, sustainability measures include corporate sustainability reporting and Triple Bottom Line accounting. For countries, they include estimates of the quality of sustainability governance or quality of life measures, or environmental assessments like the Environmental Sustainability Index and Environmental Performance Index. Some methods let us track sustainable development. These include the UN Human Development Index, ecological footprints, and the Nature Relationship Index.
Two related concepts for sustainability measurement are planetary boundaries and ecological footprint. If the boundaries are not crossed and the ecological footprint does not exceed the carrying capacity of the biosphere, the mode of life can be regarded as sustainable.
A set of well defined and harmonized indicators can help to make sustainability tangible. Those indicators are expected to be identified and adjusted through empirical observations (trial and error). The most common critiques are related to issues like data quality, comparability, objective function and the necessary resources. However a more general criticism is coming from the project management community: "How can a sustainable development be achieved at global level if we cannot monitor it in any single project?".
Sustainability need and framework Sustainable development has become the primary yardstick of improvement for industries and is being integrated into effective government and business strategies. The needs for sustainability measurement include improvement in the operations, benchmarking performances, tracking progress, and evaluating process, among others. For the purposes of building sustainability indicators, frameworks can be developed and the steps are as follows:
Defining the system- A proper and definite system is defined. A proper system boundary is drawn for further analysis. Elements of the system- The whole input, output of materials, emissions, energy and other auxiliary elements are properly analysed. The working conditions, process parameters and characteristics are defined in this step. Indicators selection- The indicators is selected of which measurement has to be done. This forms the metric for this system whose analysis is done in the further steps. Assessment and Measurement- Proper assessing tools are used and tests or experiments are performed for the pre-defined indicators to give a value for the indicators measurement. Analysis and reviewing the results- Once the results have been obtained, proper analysis and interpretation is done and tools are used to improve and revise the processes present in the system.
Sustainability indicators and their function
The principal objective of sustainability indicators is to inform public policy-making as part of the process of sustainability governance. Sustainability indicators can provide information on any aspect of the interplay between the environment and socio-economic activities.Hak, T., Moldan, B. & Dahl, A.L. 2007. SCOPE 67. Sustainability indicators. Island Press, London. Building strategic indicator sets generally deals with just a few simple questions: what is happening? (descriptive indicators), does it matter and are we reaching targets? (performance indicators), are we improving? (efficiency indicators), are measures working? (policy effectiveness indicators), and are we generally better off? (total welfare indicators).
The International Institute for Sustainable Development and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development established the Committee on Sustainability Assessment (COSA) in 2006 to evaluate sustainability initiatives operating in agriculture and develop indicators for their measurable social, economic and environmental objectives.
One popular general framework used by The European Environment Agency uses a slight modification of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development DPSIR system.Stanners, D. et al. 2007. Frameworks for environmental assessment and indicators at the EEA. In: Hak, T., Moldan, B. & Dahl, A.L. 2007. SCOPE 67. Sustainability indicators. Island Press, London. This breaks up environmental impact into five stages. Social and economic developments (consumption and production) (D)rive or initiate environmental (P)ressures which, in turn, produces a change in the (S)tate of the environment which leads to (I)mpacts of various kinds. Societal (R)esponses (policy guided by sustainability indicators) can be introduced at any stage of this sequence of events.
A 2024 study introduced a Spatial Cooperative Simulation (SCS). Framework that models the co-evolution of land use, population, and economic land data to better predict and plan for sustainable regional development. This framework demonstrated improved accuracy in predicting sustainable urban development for China's Greater Bay Area.
Politics
A study concluded that social indicators and, therefore, sustainable development indicators, are scientific constructs whose principal objective is to inform public policy-making. The International Institute for Sustainable Development has similarly developed a political policy framework, linked to a sustainability index for establishing measurable entities and metrics. The framework consists of six core areas: International trade and investment Economic policy Climate change and energy Measurement and assessment Natural resource management Communication technologies.
The United Nations Global Compact Cities Programme has defined sustainable political development in a way that broadens the usual definition beyond states and governance. The political is defined as the domain of practices and meanings associated with basic issues of social power as they pertain to the organisation, authorisation, legitimation and regulation of a social life held in common. This definition is in accord with the view that political change is important for responding to economic, ecological and cultural challenges. It also means that the politics of economic change can be addressed. They have listed seven subdomains of the domain of politics:
Organization and governance Law and justice Communication and critique Representation and negotiation Security and accord Dialogue and reconciliation Ethics and accountability
Metrics at the global scale
There are numerous indicators which could be used as basis for sustainability measurement. Few commonly used indicators are:
Environmental sustainability indicators: Global warming potential Acidification potential Ozone depletion potential Aerosol optical depth Eutrophication potential Ionization radiation potential Photochemical ozone potential Waste treatment Freshwater use Energy resources use Level of Biodiversity
Economic indicators: Gross domestic product Trade balance Local government income Profit, value and tax Investments
Social indicators: Employment generated Equity Health and safety Education Housing/living conditions Community cohesion Social security
Due to the large numbers of various indicators that could be used for sustainability measurement, proper assessment and monitoring is required. In order to organize the chaos and disorder in selecting the metrics, specific organizations have been set up which groups the metrics under different categories and defines proper methodology to implement it for measurement. They provide modelling techniques and indexes to compare the measurement and have methods to convert the scientific measurement results into easy to understand terms.
United Nations indicators The United Nations has developed extensive sustainability measurement tools in relation to sustainable development United Nations sustainable development indicators as well as a System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.
The UN Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) has published a list of 140 indicators which covers environmental, social, economical and institutional aspects of sustainable development.
Benchmarks, indicators, indexes, auditing etc. In the last couple of decades, there has arisen a crowded toolbox of quantitative methods used to assess sustainability — including measures of resource use like life cycle assessment, measures of consumption like the ecological footprint and measurements of quality of environmental governance like the Environmental Performance Index. The following is a list of quantitative "tools" used by sustainability scientists - the different categories are for convenience only as defining criteria will intergrade. It would be too difficult to list all those methods available at different levels of the organization so those listed here are at the global level only.
Benchmarks A benchmark is a point of reference for a measurement. Once a benchmark is established it is possible to assess trends and measure progress. Baseline global data on a range of sustainability parameters is available in the list of global sustainability statistics.
Indices A sustainability index is an aggregate sustainability indicator that combines multiple sources of data. There is a Consultative Group on Sustainable Development Indices
Air quality index Child Development Index Corruption Perceptions Index Democracy Index Environmental Performance Index Energy Sustainability Index Education Index Environmental Sustainability Index Environmental Vulnerability Index
GDP per capita Gini coefficient Gender Parity Index Gender-related Development Index Gender Empowerment Measure Gross national happiness Genuine Progress Indicator (formerly Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare) Green Score City Index The Green Score City Index: development and application at a municipal scale Gross National Product
Happy Planet Index Human Development Index (see List of countries by HDI) Legatum Prosperity Index Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare Life Expectancy Index Sustainable Governance Indicators. The Status Index ranks 30 OECD countries in terms of sustainable reform performance Sustainable Society Index SDEWES Index Water Poverty Index Sullivan, C.A. et al. (eds) 2003. The water poverty index: development and application at the community scale. Natural Resources Forum 27: 189–199.
Metrics Many environmental problems ultimately relate to the human effect on those global biogeochemical cycles that are critical to life. Over the last decade monitoring these cycles have become a more urgent target for research:
water cycle carbon cycle phosphorus cycle
nitrogen cycle sulphur cycle oxygen cycle
Auditing