Development of a sustainable balanced scorecard framework

The balanced scorecard (BSC) has recently been considered a proper tool for evaluating and designing the objectives of corporate sustainability. On the one hand, the theoretical body of literature provides normative sustainable balanced scorecard (SBSC) frameworks to indicate ‘what should be measured’ or ‘what should be done’ in order for firms to improve their sustainability performance. On the other hand, the empirical body of literature examines the barriers and the challenges faced by the firms in their endeavor to adopt the proposed normative frameworks. This paper aims at contributing to the theoretical body of literature by developing a new SBSC scoring framework using Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators and scoring–benchmarking techniques to measure the corporate sustainability performance by drawing data from corporate sustainability reports. It also aims at contributing to the empirical body of literature by applying this framework to a sample of Greek firms.     

Sustainability criteria and indicators of bioenergy systems from steering,research and Finnish bioenergy business operators’ perspectives

This paper addresses the interface of steering, research, and business operators’ perspectives to bioenergy sustainability. Although bioenergy business operators are essential for sustainable development of bioenergy systems through implementation of sustainability criteria, their perspective to sustainability is rarely studied. We systematically studied the relevant sustainability criteria and indicators from the three perspectives in different stages of a general bioenergy life cycle and in different sustainability dimensions, and evaluated bioenergy operators’ sustainability principles, criteria and indicators simultaneously with respect to the steering and research data and a business sustainability maturity framework. We collected data from literature and a workshop for Finnish bioenergy experts. The results show a similar division of steering and operators’ sustainability criteria and indicators to life cycle stages and sustainability dimensions with a slight emphasis on business economic sustainability from operators’ perspective. The acceptability principle could provide bioenergy operators a meaningful way of identifying the role of sustainability criteria and indicators from steering and research sources in advancing their business sustainability maturity.     

Meta-performance evaluation of sustainability indicators

There are many different kinds of frameworks for evaluating environmental and sustainability performance at the organizational level (profit or not-for-profit, private or public), sectoral level (e.g. industry, transport, agriculture and tourism), and local, regional or country levels. Despite the diversity of methods and tools to measure sustainable development, indicators are one of the approaches most used. However, these tools do not usually include evaluation of the performance measurement instrument itself. The main objective of this research is to develop a conceptual framework to design and assess the effectiveness of the sustainability indicators themselves. To put the proposed tool into practice, a set of key good-practice factors and meta-performance evaluation indicators is proposed for adoption in a national case study—the national sustainable development indicators system, SIDS Portugal, and the usefulness of this methodology is demonstrated. This approach aims to evaluate how appropriate a set of sustainability indicators is and allow an evaluation of overall performance-monitoring activities and results. Stakeholder involvement is an essential component of the proposed framework. The tool developed could support continuous improvement in the performance of ongoing sustainability indicator initiatives, allowing greater guidance, objectivity and transparency in sustainability assessment processes.     

An Entangled Model for Sustainability Indicators

Nowadays the challenge for humanity is to find pathways towards sustainable development. Decision makers require a set of sustainability indicators to know if the sustainability strategies are following those pathways. There are more than one hundred sustainability indicators but they differ on their relative importance according to the size of the locality and change on time. The resources needed to follow these sustainability indicators are scarce and in some instances finite, especially in smaller regions. Therefore strategies to select set of these indicators are useful for decision makers responsible for monitoring sustainability. In this paper we propose a model for the identification and selection of a set of sustainability indicators that adequately represents human systems. In developing this model, we applied evolutionary dynamics in a space where sustainability indicators are fundamental entities interconnected by an interaction matrix. we used a fixed interaction that simulates the current context for the city of Cuernavaca, México as an example. We were able to identify and define relevant sets indicators for the system by using the Pareto principle. In this case we identified a set of sixteen sustainability indicators with more than 80% of the total strength. This set presents resilience to perturbations. For the Tangled Nature framework we provided a manner of treating different contexts (i.e., cities, counties, states, regions, countries, continents or the whole planet), dealing with small dimensions. This model provides decision makers with a valuable tool to select sustainability indicators set for towns, cities, regions, countries, continents or the entire planet according to a coevolutionary framework. The social legitimacy can arise from the fact that each individual indicator must be selected from those that are most important for the subject community.     

Empirical evaluation of sustainability of divergent farms in the dryland farming systems of India

The present study argues that there are heterogeneous farm systems within the drylands and each farm system is unique in terms of its livelihood asset and agricultural practice, and therefore in sustainability. Our method is based on household survey data collected from 500 farmers in Anantapur and Kurnool Districts, in Andhra Pradesh State of India, in 2013. We carried out principal component analysis (PCA) with subsequent hierarchical clustering methods to build farm typologies. To evaluate sustainability across these farm typologies, we adopted a framework consisting of economic, social and environmental sustainability pillars and associated indicators. We normalized values of target indicators and employed normative approach to assign different weights to these indicators. Composite sustainability indices (CSI) were then estimated by means of weighted sum of indicators, aggregated and integrated into farm typologies. The results suggested that there were five distinct farm typologies representing farming systems in the study area. The majority of farms (>70%) in the study area are small and extensive (typology 1); marginal and off farm based (typology 2). About 20% of the farms are irrigation based and intensive (typology 3); small and medium and off farm based (typology 4) and irrigation based semi-intensive (typology 5). There was apparent variability among farm typologies in terms of farm structure and functions and composite sustainability indices. Farm typologies 3 and 5 showed significantly higher performances for the social and economic indices, while typologies 2 and 4 had relatively stronger values for environment. These discrepancies support the relevance of integrated farm typology- and CSI approaches in assessing system sustainability and targeting technologies. Universally, for all farm typologies, composite sustainability indices for economic pillar was significantly lower than the social and environment pillars. More than 90% of farmers were in economically less-sustainable class. The correlations between sustainability indices for economic and environment were typology specific. It was strong and positive when aggregated for the whole study systems [all samples (r = 0.183; P < 0.001)] and for agriculture dependent farm typologies (e.g. typologies 1 and 3). This suggests the need to elevate farms economic performance and capacitate them to invest in the environment. These results provide information for policy makers to plan farm typology–context technological interventions and also create baseline information to evaluate sustainability performance in terms of progress made over time.     

The role of common local indicators in regional sustainability assessment

Sustainable development indicators (SDIs) are one of the most frequently used tools to assess sustainable development from an international to a local scale, supporting evaluation and reporting purposes. Indicators can also be particularly useful in addressing the growing need for interaction at regional and local scale in sustainability initiatives and assuring that regional assessments reflect community values, concerns and hopes. The main goal of this research is to develop a conceptual framework for common local sustainability indicators within a regional context, one that is supported by a participative approach and allows interaction between local and regional scales. Other major goals were to design the regional profile on local SDI initiatives and develop a set of common local indicators for the Algarve region – the most southerly region of Portugal. The framework is mainly supported on common strategic goals, objectives, targets, features and resources and on the existing regional and local SDI sets. A regional survey involving all municipalities was conducted to obtain data on local SDI initiatives and the regional profile was defined. By testing the framework in the Algarve, a proposed set of common local indicators was developed and presented in the survey for local authority evaluation. The main findings reveal that, despite the fact that there are still few local SDI initiatives in the Algarve region, the majority of municipalities surveyed fully agree on the importance of developing a minimum common local indicator set for the region. The role and usefulness of the proposed framework were demonstrated in the selection of 20 common local indicators for local–regional scale interaction in the Algarve. Establishing a set of common indicators on a local spatial scale can contribute to providing a coherent assessment framework, by preventing the duplication of effort, allowing local sustainability benchmarking and enhancing the analyses of asymmetries within a region.     

An aggregation framework to link indicators associated with multifunctional land use to the stakeholder evaluation of policy options

In the last decade efforts have been carried out by the scientific community aimed at building integrated frameworks to support the decision-making process when sustainability issues are addressed. This paper proposes a further advancement in integrated assessment procedures by setting up an operational multi-scale and transparent framework, which comprises the assessment of European regions in terms of sustainability, and the identification of the impact that policy options might have on the sustainability of these regions. The framework is designed for use in ex ante sustainability impact assessment of policy scenarios on multifunctionality of land use and integrates economic, environmental and social issues across a variety of sectors (agriculture, forestry, transport, tourism and energy). The proposed method provides a conceptual framework applicable at different scales (European, regional), and takes into account the great variability of European regions. The described methodology is based on linear additive models to weight and aggregate selected indicators to a set of land use functions identified to describe the goods and services provided by the different land uses that summarise the most relevant economic, environmental and social issues of a region. The framework is designed to allow the evaluation of impacts at an international scale (e.g. the European Union), or on selected regions.The aggregation framework can be used to evaluate the impact that policy options have on the sustainability of multifunctional land use systems with competing demands. A conceptual envelope, called the “trade-off evaluation space”, delineates all possible developments in the functions of the land. The sustainability limits identify the subset of ‘acceptable’ policy options within the trade-off evaluation space, so that the distance of each land use function from sustainability limits can be estimated and trade-offs between the different functions of the multifunctional land use system can be identified. The proposed methodology is adaptable to different contexts: if the assumption is taken that all land use functions are equally weighted the framework can be used to analyse policy cases and take decisions on policy options at the European or regional level. However, at the local-scale the framework can also be applied through a participatory approach and the distribution of weights can be rediscussed with local stakeholders. In both cases the proposed system can be used as a tool for discussion among all interested parties.     

Conservation efforts based on local ecological knowledge: The role of social variables in identifying environmental indicators

The incorporation of local ecological knowledge in monitoring processes has been one of the great challenges of conservation initiatives worldwide. Therefore, it is essential to use indicators as local evaluation tools of the conditions of a species in order to support conservation actions. Local populations observe the environment, climate change and the influence of these factors on the species they use. However, their observations and perceptions may vary depending on different social factors. We used as model two species of economic importance involved in sociobiodiversity product chains to evaluate the role of social variables in the identification of conservation indicators for this plants. The species studied were: Caryocar coriaceum Wittm. (locally known as pequi), and Himatanthus drasticus (Mart.) Plumel (locally known as janaguba). We also registered which indicators are perceived as the most important and what they are measuring. Our results show that the knowledge among collectors is homogeneous and that, generally, the social factors do not affect the knowledge on local indicators. Age and extraction time were factors that influenced the knowledge on climate indicators and population structure only for C. coriaceum. In the communities studied, collectors not only monitor the biological characteristics of the species, but also the environmental and climatic phenomena that are threatening the sustainability of the species. These results can help to improve our ability to manage information about natural resources, incorporating local ecological knowledge in the scientific process of evaluation and monitoring of biodiversity.     

Coupled Ecosystem/Supply Chain Modelling of Fish Products from Sea to Shelf: The Peruvian Anchoveta Case

Sustainability assessment of food supply chains is relevant for global sustainable development. A framework is proposed for analysing fishfood (fish products for direct human consumption) supply chains with local or international scopes. It combines a material flow model (including an ecosystem dimension) of the supply chains, calculation of sustainability indicators (environmental, socio-economic, nutritional), and finally multi-criteria comparison of alternative supply chains (e.g. fates of landed fish) and future exploitation scenarios. The Peruvian anchoveta fishery is the starting point for various local and global supply chains, especially via reduction of anchoveta into fishmeal and oil, used worldwide as a key input in livestock and fish feeds. The Peruvian anchoveta supply chains are described, and the proposed methodology is used to model them. Three scenarios were explored: status quo of fish exploitation (Scenario 1), increase in anchoveta landings for food (Scenario 2), and radical decrease in total anchoveta landings to allow other fish stocks to prosper (Scenario 3). It was found that Scenario 2 provided the best balance of sustainability improvements among the three scenarios, but further refinement of the assessment is recommended. In the long term, the best opportunities for improving the environmental and socio-economic performance of Peruvian fisheries are related to sustainability-improving management and policy changes affecting the reduction industry. Our approach provides the tools and quantitative results to identify these best improvement opportunities.     

A PCA-based method for construction of composite sustainability indicators

Purpose

Sustainable manufacturing is practiced globally as a comprehensive strategy for improving the sustainability performance of the manufacturing industry. While sustainability is characterized into such three dimensions as economic, environmental, and social, currently, there is no quantitative method yet to measure the so-called ??sustainability?? in the manufacturing industry. The objective of this research is to develop a comprehensive and effective quantitative method to measure the overall sustainability performance of manufacturing companies.

Methods

In this paper, an integrated methodology is presented for the development of composite sustainability indicators based on principal component analysis (PCA). In developing this integrated approach, both industry and academia surveys are conducted to identify what sustainability indicators are favored by the sustainable manufacturing community. A unique index is then generated to measure the overall sustainability performance of industrial practices. The methodology can be used for benchmarking the overall sustainability performance of various manufacturing companies.

Results

A case study is conducted on a total of 11 global electronic manufacturing companies. The overall sustainability performance of these companies are measured, benchmarked, and ranked. The results showed that PCA is an effective approach for constructing composite sustainability indicators across environmental, economic, and social dimensions.

Conclusions

From this research, it is found that industry and academia have different views on the sustainability measurement, evidenced by different weights put on the same indicator in industry and academia. The case study demonstrated that the methodology presented in this paper is an effective tool for comprehensive measurement of sustainability performance of manufacturing companies. Strengths and weaknesses of each company can be identified. Then, the recommended improvements can be suggested based on the study of each of the individual indicators.     

Sustainability indicator systems within urban governance: Usability analysis of sustainability indicator systems as boundary objects

While sustainability indicator systems (SIs) have proven to be valuable rational tools for improving the availability of information related to the relationship of cities and communities to natural limits, the indicators movement has achieved limited instrumental uptake in policy. This paper begins from a recognition that instrumental use of sustainability indicator systems is rare. Greater potential impact exists for SIs designed to be much more attentive to their conceptual and political values within their particular social and political context. In other words, greater attention to what has been called the governance of indicator systems, or the ways in which SIs fit as policy tools within a multilevel and multiactor governance context, is key to increasing their utility. This is particularly true given the need for decisive policy change, or even the introduction of a new development path, which is asserted within the sustainability agenda.Understanding the real and potential utility of indicator systems within multiactor governance processes, in which their roles are primarily rhetorical, conceptual and political, is facilitated by thinking about indicator systems as boundary objects, tools which open up dialogue, information sharing, learning and consensus-building across different policy boundaries: between experts and nonexperts, formal government and different nongovernment actors, higher-order governments and lower-order governments. This paper offers a comparative analysis of three sustainability indicator systems in the North American context – Vancouver's Vital Signs (Vancouver Foundation), Seattle's Happiness Initiative, and LEED-ND (US Green Building Council) – all of which have shown some success in operationalizing a new policy boundary as a means of making conceptual and political contributions to governance practices. The specific boundaries operationalized, the different approach taken by each project, and the usability demonstrated by each project at that boundary in terms of salience, legitimacy and credibility, are assessed comparatively. In general, the trajectory in design and use of ecological and sustainability indicators demonstrates an increase in appetite, aptitude and numbers of channels for use in processes of governance; however, these factors vary with the local social–political opportunity structure. This analysis presents the advances made as well as the tradeoffs evident in these cases across the gamut of different forms of usability of nongovernmental indicator systems designed for use as boundary objects, and suggests a path forward for indicator work which aims to change policy, from a governance perspective.     

Sustainability indicator development—Science or political negotiation?

The efforts to develop sustainability indicators have strongly increased since the beginning of the 1990s, often led by intergovernmental processes. More recently, a number of sustainability indicator development processes have been initiated within large research projects that aim to design tools for sustainability assessments, funded by the European Union. The development of sustainability indicators provides a particular challenge to scientists, given the essentially normative dimension of the concept of “sustainability”. Thus, we argue, the development of sustainability indicators is a process of both scientific “knowledge production” and of political “norm creation”, and both components need to be properly acknowledged. Based on a respective theoretical framework and comparing five cases of sustainability indicator development processes (three science-led and two led by intergovernmental processes), we find that the political norm creation dimension is not fully and explicitly recognized in science-led processes. The paper concludes by discussing a number of implications for the design of sustainability indicator development processes, in particular with regard to participation and representation as well as adjustment of indicators over time.     

Revisiting the ‘cornerstone of Amazonian conservation’: a socioecological assessment of Brazil nut exploitation

The Brazil nut (the seeds of the rainforest tree Bertholletia excelsa) is the only globally traded seed collected from the wild by forest-based harvesters across the Amazon basin. The large geographic scale of Brazil nut exploitation and the significant contributions to local livelihoods, national economies, and forest-based development over the last decades, merit a review of the “conservation-through-use” paradigm. We use Elinor Ostrom’s framework for assessing sustainability in socioecological systems: (1) resource unit, (2) users, (3) governance system, and (4) resource system, to determine how different contexts and external developments generate specific conservation and development outcomes. We find that the resource unit reacts robustly to the type and level of extraction currently practiced; that resource users have built on a self-organized system that had defined boundaries and access to the resource; that linked production chains, market networks and informal financing work to supply global markets; and that local harvesters have used supporting alliances with NGOs and conservationists to formalize and secure their endogenous governance system and make it more equitable. As a result, the Brazil nut model represents a socioecological system that may not require major changes to sustain productivity. Yet since long-term Brazil nut production seems inextricably tied to a continuous forest cover, and because planted Brazil nut trees currently provide a minimal contribution to total nut production basin-wide, we call to preserve, diversify and intensify production in Brazil nut-rich forests that will inevitably become ever more integrated within human-modified landscapes over time.     

Management framework for sustainable development indicators in the State of Selangor, Malaysia

The perception that better information on environment and development is the determinant of effective rational decision- and policy-making processes provide the impetus for global interest in the use of sustainable development indicators (SDIs). Accordingly, proposals for SDIs are framed either on organisational goals or on disciplinary and multidisciplinary theories—aiming to reduce uncertainties in choosing the best alternative among a set of options concerning sustainability. Despite the fact that many SDI initiatives are explicitly aimed at improving policy-making, it is not apparent that political settings and organisational realities are taken into consideration in designing the framework for sustainability assessment. Ignoring the realities of policy-making dynamics can result in poor institutionalisation of the SDI development process, and therefore reduced impact of indicators. Linkage of SDIs to policy processes must also take into account the complex role of information in policy processes. The importance of societal values, cultural contexts and behaviour of bureaucracies must be understood and used to assist the assessment of progress towards sustainability using SDIs. Essentially, objective knowledge must be tampered with pragmatism in governance. This paper highlights the case of SDI development in the state of Selangor where the notion of instrumental rationality is balanced with the ‘incrementalism’ of the policy process that provided the foundation for institutionalising the reporting and use of SDIs. The ideals and paradoxes of participatory decision-making, the principles of the rational model and decision-making processes within a state government are critically examined.     

Beyond “beyond GDP indicators:” The need for reflexivity in science for governance

“Beyond GDP” initiatives flag the limits of the quantitative indicators of progress currently used for governance. Focusing on the quality assessment of quantitative information used for governance, we use some of the conceptual tools of theoretical ecology and evolutionary biology in order to identify the pre-analytical choices that determine the usefulness and pertinence of a model. Starting from the definition of a model as a formal representation of a specific and necessarily subjective observation, we show that the production of indicators is the final result of a series of decisions on what to observe and how. These choices, in turn, depend on the narrative, or set of narratives, adopted. Narratives provide causality and context to knowledge claims and are needed to select the indicators to be used for policy. Moving beyond the GDP debate requires reflexivity, that is, awareness of the key role that pre-analytical choices play in the definition of both the relevance of the chosen perceptions and narratives (determined by the normative stands of different actors – who defines wellbeing?), and the usefulness of the chosen models and data (determined by the pertinence of the resulting representation – how to measure wellbeing?). Reflexivity is essential in order to take into account the purposes for which different indicators were created and to define new purposes for the “beyond GDP” indicators.     

Co-endemicity of Loiasis and Onchocerciasis in Rain Forest Communities in Southwestern Nigeria

BackgroundLoiasis is currently receiving attention as a disease of public health importance because of the possibility of increased risk of developing neurologic serious adverse event following mass ivermectin treatment against onchocerciasis in individual co-infected with Onchocerca volvulus and Loa loa.Conclusions/SignificanceLow prevalence of onchocerciasis and loiasis co-infection in this study suggests that loiasis may not pose a serious epidemiological threat to the continuous distribution and sustainability of ivermectin for the treatment of onchocerciasis. Evaluation of the interruption of onchocerciasis transmissions in this region using all the indicators set forth by WHO is therefore suggested.     

Biodiesel-TBL+: A new hierarchical sustainability assessment framework of PC&I for biodiesel production – Part I

Sustainability assessment of biodiesel production is a topic of increasing importance due to the interest of governments to define sovereignty strategies and diversification of their energy matrix, and to set up the impact of biofuels production. In this context, this work aims to propose a hierarchical structure of sustainability assessment that integrates dimensions of sustainable development with principles, criteria and indicators (PC&I). The method employed to define the hierarchical structure was a comprehensive literature review, based on information search strategy and classification. About 400 documents were reviewed and 103 documents were ultimately selected, including laws, policy documents, certificates, directives and other normative documents and papers published in peer-reviewed journals. The first result of the analysis was the need to strengthen identification of the sustainable development assessment, adding the political and technological dimensions to the three traditional dimensions, social, economic and environmental, studied in this kind of evaluation. The second result was the proposal of a hierarchical framework for the sustainability assessment of biodiesel production, organized in four levels: the first level comprises the five dimensions associated with sustainable development evaluation, the second includes 13 principles, the third contains 40 criteria and the fourth level corresponds to a set of indicators that describes each criterion. Outcomes of this work provide a foundation for further discussion of sustainability assessments for biodiesel production and its potential application in specific contexts.     

Lessons from seven sustainability indicator programs in developing countries of Asia

Sustainability indicator programs in developing countries are the poor cousin of ecological indicator research. While an enormous number of indicators for the monitoring of sustainable development exists, few meta-evaluations on these measurements have been conducted in developing countries. Yet, researchers developing new programs face the question: how shall we design our monitoring instrument to respond to the local challenges.By presenting a qualitative meta-performance evaluation of seven sustainability indicator programs on the municipal level in developing countries of Asia, we identify crucial success factors in this contribution. The research draws on 41 expert interviews in Indonesia, Thailand, China, and India, as well as on program-related documents. In the presented case studies, local contexts are intended to be diverse: obtained results should map success factors in different settings. A context-related list of good-practice factors is derived from the interview material via a Qualitative Content Analysis and assessed against the data.We identify crucial strengths and weaknesses of sustainability indicator programs in six dimensions and link the success factors to their contexts. The results include innovative approaches to indicator types, data collection and data quality control, and a correlation between the anchoring of programs in approved development plans and long-term implementation. The results can provide valuable guidance to users of existing sustainability indicator programs and planners of new programs.