An overview of sustainability assessment methodologies

• Published in: Ecological indicators Vol. 9; no. 2; pp. 189 - 212
• Main Authors: Singh, Rajesh Kumar, Murty, H.R., Gupta, S.K., Dikshit, A.K.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-03-2009
• Subjects: Composite index; Index; Ratings; Sustainability indicators; Sustainable development; Index; Sustainable development; Sustainability indicators; Composite index; Ratings
• ISSN: 1470-160X; 1872-7034
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2008.05.011

Sustainability indicators and composite index are increasingly recognised as a useful tool for policy making and public communication in conveying information on countries and corporate performance in fields such as environment, economy, society, or technological improvement. By visualizing phenomena and highlighting trends, sustainability indicators simplify, quantify, analyse and communicate otherwise complex and complicated information.
There are number of initiatives working on indicators and frameworks for sustainable development (SD). This article provides an overview various sustainability indices applied in policy practice. The paper also compiles the information related to sustainability indices formulation strategy, scaling, normalisation, weighting and aggregation methodology.