Composite Sustainable Development Index Research Articles

Towards a morpho-environmental neighbourhood optimization method: MENOM

Faced with the challenges of sustainable cities, compactness appears as an inseparable characteristic of an energy-efficient building; however, while this link between compactness and energy performance is no longer to be proven, the same is not true for environmental performance. This paper proposes a new Morpho-Environmental Neighbourhood Optimization Method (MENOM) which aims to optimize the environmental performance of five European neighbourhoods by intervening on their morphological parameters through three indexes: Miller’s; form and Landsberg’s construction. It is based on a system of morpho-environmental indicators, developed by algorithm and quantifying 12 environmental impacts by coupling the CSDI (Composite Sustainable Development Index) and the LCA (Life Cycle Assessment). The results demonstrate that the street width and the neighbourhood perimeter have the greatest influence on its environmental performance, that the impact generation is amply minimised by increasing the values of the Miller and form indexes and/or reducing those of the Landsberg construction index. A high product value of these three indexes would, moreover, lead to better environmental performance. Value ranges for these indexes have been proposed by the method's application to provide decision support for the morphological design of neighbourhoods thus contributing to produce sustainable cities and a healthy environment for its inhabitants.

A methodology to analyze sustainable development index: evidence from emerging markets and developed economies

The paper proposes a new approach for dealing with uncertainties in determining the level of sustainability at the national scale. Composite Sustainable Development Index (SDI) is a tool designed to assess comprehensively the progress made by 15 advanced economies and 15 emerging economies since 2004–2018 towards achieving sustainable development goals.The proposed composite index aims to measure and monitor a sustainable development at the national level, and to increase the understanding of sustainability.This method also sheds light on main problems of different economies at the current stage of their development: the methodology considers a set of indicators and arranged into four categories of sustainable development: economy, society, governance, and environment.The present study shows that during the analyzed period, advanced economies had a satisfactory level of sustainability, while the level of SDI of the emerging markets was lower. Also, the obtained results reveal that since the adoption of Paris Agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 2015 developed countries have been showing better performance.Moreover, the paper presents the research design of an optimization model for sustainable development with CO2 emissions consideration.

The Ex-Ante Evaluation of Achieving Sustainable Development Goals

This paper describes the methodology and main results from an overall assessment on future achievement of sustainable development goals. The proposed approach consists of a model-based, looking forward composite sustainable development index—FEEM sustainability index—projected to the future. It represents a first experiment to reproduce the future dynamics of sustainable development indicators over time and worldwide and to assess future sustainability under different scenarios. The assessment presented here is relevant under different viewpoints. First, it has a very broad nature in terms of both geographical coverage and meaningfulness: it considers the multi-dimensional structure of sustainable development by combining relevant indicators belonging to economic, social and environmental pillars for the whole world. Second, the modelling framework to compute future trends of indicators relies upon a recursive-dynamic computable general equilibrium model. This is an ideal tool to look simultaneously at the development of many indicators, their potential interactions and trade-offs, and more in general to the consequences of economic development and/or policies aiming to increase performance in one or more indicators; it allows measuring the overall sustainability under alternative scenarios, across countries and over time. Finally, regarding the construction of the composite indicator, the application of fuzzy measures and Choquet integral increases substantially the model capability allowing taking into account the interactions that exist among the three main pillars of sustainability and the considered indicators.

Comparison of the companies based on the composite sustainable development index and the method of the hierarchichal analysis

This paper presents a model for designing a composite sustainable development index that depicts performance of companies along all the three dimensions of sustainability—economic, environmental, and societal

Software for Sustainability Assessment: a Case Study in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Sustainable development is a widespread concept. Indicator selection and sustainability assessment are basic methods to analyse the sustainable development process. This study aims to develop a software application to select indicators and to allocate weightings to the indicators and the sub-indexes, so that they can be listed in a sustainability assessment. The Visual Basic software is used to develop a software package based on Delphi, analytic hierarchy, normalization and combination processes. Software for sustainability assessment was developed. Thirty-five indicators are selected as a first step of which eight health indicators and eight environmental ones and their sub-indexes are given weightings. The indicators are normalized. Sub-indexes are combined into a composite sustainable development index. The model is validated showing the ‘main features’ of the sustainability situation on health and environmental aspects in the Quang Tri province during the period 2000–2005. The results support the decision-making process of the competent authorities.

SMS for decision making of SMEs

To pursue the high environmental performance, economic and social effectiveness of the companies, including small and medium enterprises (SMEs), is the key goal of the sustainable development concept. Sustainable development is based on preventive management principles, and their application in SMEs has become an important issue for enhancing competitiveness. Unfortunately, most of the sustainable development-related research is focused on large companies rather than SMEs, especially in the industrial sector. The importance of SMEs often remains unnoticed. Besides, SMEs themselves often have inadequate knowledge about their environmental and social impacts and management, and apply voluntary preventive measures less frequently than large companies. To make sustainable decisions and to improve the environmental performance, economic and social effectiveness of SMEs, an integrated sustainable management system (SMS) based on financial analysis is necessary, oriented to strategic sustainability goals, not requiring significant financial and human resources. Integration of sustainability management accounting and composite sustainable development index methodologies forms the basis of SMS for SMEs decision making. SMS was applied in three pilot SMEs (small-scale wood parquet, medium-scale wood pallets, medium-scale beverage producing companies). In this article, an extensive analysis of a small-scale wood parquet manufacturing company’s case is presented. The application of SMS enabled to identify key sustainability problems and to find solutions to improve the companies’ sustainability performance. SMS application resulted in reduced input materials consumption and the reduction of sustainability costs.

A Model for Incorporated Measurement of Sustainable Development Comprising Remote Sensing Data and Using the Concept of Biodiversity

The central point of the paper is on concern of how to utilize indicators to observe sustainable development in an applicable and valuable way. The aim of the work was to propose a model for achieving a composite sustainable development index using the concept of Biodiversity in order to track incorporated information on social, economic and environmental dimension of the municipality with time periods, according to: 1 ) Social (Population); 2 ) Economic (Agriculture, Tourism, Agricultural Goods and Industry); 3 ) Environmental (output of remote sensing data using Fragstat software). An attractive approach is suggested for the environmental dimension. The calculated metrics become an input to the model like Environmental Indicators. In addition, the concept s of Biodiversity are kept for Environmental Indicators in the following way: Ecosystem = Landscape Level and Species = Class Level. Finally, the results, discussions and conclusions are provided for each existing theme, each dimension and CSDI.

Health and environmental sustainability indicators in Quang Tri Province, Vietnam

Trieu Phong district, Dong Ha town and Huong Hoa district are in Quang Tri Province (central Vietnam). These areas were selected as case studies for analysis of sustainable development. Sixteen indicators of two dimensions of sustainable development were defined: eight health and eight environmental. The evolution of these indicators during the period 2000–2005 was analysed using available data in the provincial information bank, UN guidelines and expert discussions. It was found that all, except the environmental aspect, performed well for the province. One of the most important outcomes was variation in the composite sustainable development index (I CSD) in 2000 and 2005. Comparing these years, I CSD increased effectively, although the score was low, at > 0.4. Sustainable development situations were weak in the study period. In the case studies, Dong Ha had the best performance, followed by Trieu Phong and Huong Hoa. In general, Quang Tri is undergoing development (e.g. poverty reduction, health and environmental improvement), although the changes are not comprehensive.

Corporate sustainability performance: methods and illustrative examples

The concept of sustainable development is of increasing importance for societies. Corporations are as relevant societal actors in an essential role for the realization and implementation of sustainable development. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the performance of corporations in the light of sustainable development. In this paper, basic methods and instruments for the assessment of corporate sustainability performance are compared. Sustainability assessments can be divided into two groups: The fi rst group consists of methods based on monetary units; the second group consists of methods based on non-monetary units. The methods of Sustainable Value Added, Composite Sustainable Development Index and Integrated Sustainability Assess- ment are discussed in detail and evaluated regarding the criteria applicability, contribution to basic goals of sustainable development and completeness. The methods are used to assess the sustainability performance of BP and Royal Dutch/Shell Group. Keywords: assessment, Composite Sustainable Development Index, corporate sustainability assessment, Integrated Sustainability Assessment, monetarization, sustainable business management, sustainable development, Sustainable Value Added. Assessing the sustainability performance of corporations is an important aspect within the transition of societies towards the principles of sustainable development. In this paper, three methods (Sustainable Value Added, Composite Sustainable Development Index, Integrated Sustainability Assessment) are presented. Sustainable Value Added is based on monetary units and assesses the value a company creates by using resources compared to a benchmark. Composite Sustainable Development Index and Integrated Sustainability Assessment are based on non-monetary units. These methods use different indicators for each dimension of sustainable development and combine them either with benefi t analysis or with fuzzy logic. Depending on the goals used for the benchmark, relative and absolute contributions to sustainable development can be assessed. The objective of sustainable development (1) is sustainability, which can be characterized by four principles. First, contribution to systematic increase in concentrations of substances from the earth's crust has to be eliminated. This means substituting certain minerals that are scarce in nature with others that are more abundant, using all mined materials effi ciently, and systematically reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Second, contribution to systematic increases in concentrations of substances produced by society has to be eliminated. This means systematically substituting certain persistent and unnatural compounds with ones that are normally abundant or break down more easily in nature, and using these ones in an effi cient and effective way. Third, contribution to the systematic physical degradation of nature through over-harvesting, introductions and other forms of modifi cation has to be eliminated. This means drawing resources only from well-managed eco-systems, systematically pursuing the most productive and effi cient use both of those resources and land, and exercising caution in all kinds of modifi cation of nature. Fourth, contribute as much as possible to the meeting of human needs in our society and worldwide, over and above all measures taken in meeting the fi rst three objectives. This means drawing resources only from well-managed eco-systems, systematically pursuing the most productive and effi cient use both of those resources

How to compare companies on relevant dimensions of sustainability

Dozens of frameworks of sustainability assessment that focus on the performance of companies have been suggested by now. They propose using numerous sustainability indicators, which are generally measured in very different units. While it is important to assess sustainability with several indicators, it may sometimes be difficult to make comparisons among companies based on a large number of performance measurements. This paper presents a model for designing a composite sustainable development index that depicts performance of companies along all the three dimensions of sustainability—economic, environmental, and societal. In the first part of the paper, the procedure of calculating the index that would enable comparisons of companies in specific sector regarding sustainability performance is presented. However, the emphasis of the paper is on the second part, where the effectiveness of the proposed model is illustrated with a case study in which two companies from specific sector are compared regarding their sustainability performance.

A model for integrated assessment of sustainable development

The focus of the paper is on consideration of how to use indicators to monitor sustainable development in a relevant and useful manner. Integrated information on sustainable development of a company is very essential for decision-making since it is very difficult to evaluate the performance of the company on the ground of too many indicators. The objective of the work was to design a model for obtaining a composite sustainable development index ( I CSD) in order to track integrated information on economic, environmental, and social performance of the company with time. Normalized indicators were associated into three sustainability sub-indices and finally composed into an overall indicator of a company performance. This was applied by determining the impact of individual indicator to the overall sustainability of a company using the concept of analytic hierarchy process. The demonstration of the model used data for a case study company, Henkel, and a set of sustainable development indicators that were classified using the currently most widely accepted approach of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Case study was used to measure I CSD and sustainability sub-indices of the company over the time interval of 6 years. Interpretation of results is given and the utility of I CSD with its relevance for decision-making is pointed out. Using a case study, the paper demonstrates that the model can be applied to deliver composite indicators of sustainability performance of companies.