Sustainability Assessment and Indicators: Tools in a Decision-Making Strategy for Sustainable Development

Recognizing the urgent need for sustainability, we argue that to move beyond the rhetoric and to actually realize sustainable development, it must be considered as a decision-making strategy. We demonstrate that sustainability assessment and sustainability indicators can be powerful decision-support...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Sustainability 2014, Vol.6 (9), p.5512-5534
Main Authors:	Waas, Tom, Huge, Jean, Block, Thomas, Wright, Tarah, Benitez-Capistros, Francisco, Verbruggen, Aviel
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Assessments Decision making Frames Indicators Strategy Sustainable development
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Recognizing the urgent need for sustainability, we argue that to move beyond the rhetoric and to actually realize sustainable development, it must be considered as a decision-making strategy. We demonstrate that sustainability assessment and sustainability indicators can be powerful decision-supporting tools that foster sustainable development by addressing three sustainability decision-making challenges: interpretation, information-structuring, and influence. Particularly, since the 1990s many substantial and often promising sustainability assessment and sustainability indicators efforts are made. However, better practices and a broader shared understanding are still required. We aim to contribute to that objective by adopting a theoretical perspective that frames SA and SI in the context of sustainable development as a decision-making strategy and that introduces both fields along several essential aspects in a structured and comparable manner.
ISSN:	2071-1050 2071-1050