What? How? and For What?: Assessment Metrics for Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability is a complex and polycentric concept that needs to be addressed from an interdisciplinary and holistic perspective. Sustainability sciences have advanced in recent years, highlighting the necessity of assessing organizational, social, economic, and environmental impacts. The relevance of assessment in sustainability however goes beyond simple metrics and quantifications, a deeper understanding of the concept of sustainability and goals therefore being required. The main objective of this chapter is to discuss three methodologies that, in their application, facilitate an integration of the developments in, and views of, different disciplines in the assessment of sustainability. These three integrative and reliable methodologies are: (i) Materiality Analysis (ii) Footprint methodologies and (iii) Fuzzy Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Methodology. This chapter focuses on the application of these complementary and mutually supporting methodologies in the field of sustainability, and so answers the questions of what needs to be measured, how it can be measured, and what the measurements are to be used for. The chapter justifies the suitability of the three methodologies for adopting an interdisciplinary approach, in the application and achievement of transdisciplinary outcomes in sustainability assessment.

Keywords: Sustainability metrics, footprints methodologies, materiality analysis, MCDM