Measuring sustainability: some international experiences

Journal title RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'
Author/s Debora Scarpato
Publishing Year 2013 Issue 2013/1
Language Italian Pages 22 P. 55-76 File size 303 KB
DOI 10.3280/RISS2013-001005
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The current international scenario, in part as a result of the global crisis, is characterized by a growing attention of society, policy makers and enterprises, towards the issues of sustainable development. In this context the role of measuring sustainability has become more important, as it allows the understanding of variations of all the capital "stock". This has led to the spread of a very high number of indicators in support of the decision-making process, not only for policy makers, but also for managers. The objective of this study is to analyse the salient aspects of the measurement of sustainability and the most significant experiences of some international institutions that have proposed sets of indicators for the evaluation of sustainability.

Keywords: Sustainability, Indicators, International institutions, Policy makers

  1. Alkire S., and Foster J. (2010). Designing the Inequality-Adjusted Human Development Index (HDI), OPHI Working Paper no. 37, July.
  2. Beach K. (2010). Edmond Oklahoma Info for Citizens Planning to Survive Sustainability. University of Michigan Sustainable Assessment.
  3. Bossel H. (1999). Indicators for Sustainable Development: Theory, Method, Applications. International Institute for Sustainable Development, Winnipeg, Manitoba.
  4. Bresso M. (1994). Per un’economia ecologica. Roma: NIS.
  5. Comitato economico e sociale europeo (2013). REX/372, Bilancio e prospettive degli obiettivi di sviluppo del millennio: il contributo della società civile, Bruxelles, 12 febbraio.
  6. Gian Paolo Cesaretti (2011). L’approccio della Fondazione Simone Cesaretti ai temi della sostenibilità dello sviluppo umano. Rivista di Studi sulla sostenibilità, 1.
  7. Daly H., Cobb J. (1989). For the Common Good. Boston: Beacon Press.
  8. Development.Federal Register (2009). “Federal Leadership in Environmental, Energy, and Economic Performance” into the Agency’s Green Purchasing Plan. Washington D.C.
  9. Eason T. N. and Cabezas H. (2012). Evaluating the sustainability of a regional system using Fisher Information, San Luis Basin, Colorado. J Environ Manage, 94: 41-49, DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.08.003
  10. Fiksel J., Eason T. Frederickson H. (2012). A Framework for Sustainability Indicators at EPA, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
  11. Eurostat (2009). Sustainable Development in the European Union: 2009 monitoring report of the EU sustainable development strategy. Eurostat Statistical Books.
  12. Eurostat (2011), Sustainable Development in the European Union: 2009 monitoring report of the EU sustainable development strategy, Eurostat Statistical Books.
  13. Gazzelloni S., Morrone A., Riccardini F., Tommaso Rondinella, Sabbadini L. L. (2011). Commissione Scientifica per la misura del benessere- La sfida del BES nella situazione italiana: i nodi da sciogliere per avviare la discussione sui domini. ISTAT.
  14. Jesinghaus J (1999). Indicators for decision making. Working paper. http://esl.jrc.it/envind/. Accessed 5 Oct 2009.
  15. Meadows D.H., Meadows D.L., Randers J. (2006). I nuovi limiti dello sviluppo: la salute del pianeta nel terzo millennio. Milano: Mondadori.
  16. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (1993). OECD Core Set of Indicators for Environmental Performance Reviews, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris.
  17. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (1998). Towards Sustainable Development: Environmental indicators, Paris.
  18. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2001). Policies to Enhance Sustainable Development, OECD, Paris.
  19. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2001), Sustainable Development, Critical Issues, OECD, Paris.
  20. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2002). Indicators to Measure Decoupling of Environmental Pressure from Economic Growth, OECD, Paris.
  21. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2004). Measuring Sustainable Development: Integrated Economic, Environmental and Social Frameworks, OECD, Paris.
  22. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2008). OECD Insights - Sustainable Development: Linking Economy, Society, Environment.
  23. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2009). OECD Factbook 2009: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, OECD, Paris.
  24. Organization For Economic Cooperation And Development (2010). Measuring and Fostering the Progress of Societies, Paper for Council 20 April 2010; OECD, Paris.
  25. Pearce D.W., Atkinson G. (1993). Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of weak sustainability. Ecological Economics, 8, 1: 103-108, DOI: 10.1016/0921-8009(93)90039-9
  26. Pearce D.W., Barbier E., Markandya A. (1990). Sustainable Development. London: Earthscan.
  27. Pearce D.W., Barbier E.B. (2000). Blueprint for a Sustainable Economy. London: Earthscan.
  28. Scarpato D., Pagliuca M. (2010). Una rassegna sulla sostenibilità dello sviluppo. Approcci definitori e logico-concettuali ed indicatori delle principali Organizzazioni internazionali. Rassegna economica, 19: 5-36.
  29. Serageldin I. (Ed.) (1997). Expanding the Measure of Wealth, Indicators of Environmentally Sustainable Development. Washington DC: The World Bank.
  30. Serageldin I., Steer A. (1996). Sustainability and the Wealth of Nations; First Steps in an Ongoing Journey. Washington DC: The World Bank.
  31. Sikdar S. K. (2003). Sustainable development and sustainability metrics. AIChe J., 49(8): 1928-1932, DOI: 10.1002/aic.690490802
  32. Singh R., Murty H., Gupta S., and Dikshit A. (2009). An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies. Ecological Indicators, 9(2):189-212, DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.05.011
  33. Stiglitz J. E., Sen A., Fitoussi J.P. (2009). Report by the Commission on the Measuring of Economic Performance and Social Progress, www.stiglitz-sen-fitoussi.fr.
  34. Szekeres A, Jeswiet J. (2013). Defining sustainability: Critical factors in sustainable material selection, Mechanical and materials Engineering, Kingston, Ontario, Canada: Queen’s University.
  35. UNECE/EUROSTAT/OECD (2012). Task Force on Measuring Sustainable, draft report of December 2012.
  36. UNECE/OECD/EUROSTAT (2008). Report on measuring sustainable development: statistics for sustainable development, commonalities between current practice an theory, Working Paper ECE/CES/2008/29.
  37. United Nation (2007). Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies, Third Edition, New York, United Nations, USA: Economic & Social Affairs.
  38. World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our Common Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 27.
  39. Zamagni A., Buttol P., Buonamici R., Masoni P., Guinee J. B., Huppes G., Heijungs R., van der Voet E., Ekvall T., and Rydberg T. (2009). CALCAS D20 blue paper on life cycle sustainability analysis. Institute of Environmental Sciences, Lieden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.

  • Does quality really matter? Variables that drive postmodern consumer choices Nicola Marinelli, Mariarosaria Simeone, Debora Scarpato, in Nutrition & Food Science /2015 pp.255
    DOI: 10.1108/NFS-03-2014-0022
  • Factors Affecting Food Label Complexity: Does the New EU Regulation Satisfy Consumer Issues? An Exploratory Study Mariarosaria Simeone, Debora Scarpato, Nicola Marinelli, in Journal of Food Products Marketing /2016 pp.571
    DOI: 10.1080/10454446.2015.1121422
  • Factors affecting consumer attitudes towards food products with sustainable attributes Azzurra ANNUNZIATA, Debora SCARPATO, in Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika) /2014 pp.353
    DOI: 10.17221/156/2013-AGRICECON
  • The challenge of Euro-Mediterranean integration for Campania agribusiness sustainability Debora Scarpato, Mariarosaria Simeone, Giacomo Rotondo, in Agricultural Economics (Zemědělská ekonomika) /2019 pp.539
    DOI: 10.17221/18/2019-AGRICECON

Debora Scarpato, La misurazione della sostenibilità: alcune esperienze internazionali in "RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA'" 1/2013, pp 55-76, DOI: 10.3280/RISS2013-001005