IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i5p1688-d148417.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainability Indicators Past and Present: What Next?

Author

Listed:
  • Simon Bell

    (Bayswater Institute and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Faculty, Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK)

  • Stephen Morse

    (Centre for Environment and Sustainability, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 7XH, UK)

Abstract

This paper discusses the current state of thought amongst the Sustainability Indicator (SI) community, what has been achieved and where we are succeeding and failing. Recent years have witnessed the rise of “alternative facts” and “fake news” and this paper discusses how SIs fit into this maelstrom, especially as they are themselves designed to encapsulate complexity into condensed signals and it has long been known that SIs can be selectively used to support polarized sides of a debate. This paper draws from chapters in a new edited volume, the “Routledge Handbook of Sustainability Indicators and Indices”, edited by the authors. The book has 34 chapters written by a total of 59 SI experts from a wide range of backgrounds, and attempts to provide a picture of the past and present, strengths and weaknesses of SI development today. This paper is an “analysis of those analyses”—a mindful reflection on reflection, and an assessment of the malign and benign forces at work in 2018 within the SI arena. Finally, we seek to identify where SIs may be going over the coming, unpredictable years.

Suggested Citation

  • Simon Bell & Stephen Morse, 2018. "Sustainability Indicators Past and Present: What Next?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-15, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1688-:d:148417
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1688/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1688/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stephen Morse, 2016. "Measuring the Success of Sustainable Development Indices in Terms of Reporting by the Global Press," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 125(2), pages 359-375, January.
    2. Yevheniya Hyrina & Apostolos Serletis, 2010. "Purchasing power parity over a century," Journal of Economic Studies, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(1), pages 117-144, January.
    3. Diane Coyle, 2014. "GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 10183.
    4. Stephen Morse, 2013. "Out of Sight, Out of Mind. Reporting of Three Indices in the UK National Press Between 1990 and 2009," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 242-259, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maria Inês Paes Ferreira & Graham Sakaki & Pamela Shaw & Thaís Nacif de Souza Riscado & Luis Felipe Umbelino, 2023. "Sustainable Water Management and the 2030 Agenda: Comparing Rain Forest Watersheds in Canada and Brazil by Applying an Innovative Sustainability Indicator System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-15, October.
    2. Andrea Emma Pravitasari & Rista Ardy Priatama & Setyardi Pratika Mulya & Ernan Rustiadi & Alfin Murtadho & Adib Ahmad Kurnia & Izuru Saizen & Candraningratri Ekaputri Widodo, 2022. "Local Sustainability Performance and Its Spatial Interdependency in Urbanizing Java Island: The Case of Jakarta-Bandung Mega Urban Region," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Brennan Lowery & John Dagevos & Ratana Chuenpagdee & Kelly Vodden, 2020. "Storytelling for sustainable development in rural communities: An alternative approach," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(6), pages 1813-1826, November.
    4. Pilar Mercader-Moyano & Jesús Roldán-Porras, 2020. "Evaluating Environmental Impact in Foundations and Structures through Disaggregated Models: Towards the Decarbonisation of the Construction Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-30, June.
    5. Brennan Lowery & John Dagevos & Kelly Vodden, 2020. "Goal-Driven or Data-Driven? Inventory of Sustainability Indicator Initiatives in Rural Canada," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(20), pages 1-35, October.
    6. Piotr Sulewski & Anna Kłoczko-Gajewska & Wojciech Sroka, 2018. "Relations between Agri-Environmental, Economic and Social Dimensions of Farms’ Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-23, December.
    7. Gyula Dörgő & Viktor Sebestyén & János Abonyi, 2018. "Evaluating the Interconnectedness of the Sustainable Development Goals Based on the Causality Analysis of Sustainability Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-26, October.
    8. Ana Andries & Stephen Morse & Richard J. Murphy & Jim Lynch & Emma R. Woolliams, 2019. "Seeing Sustainability from Space: Using Earth Observation Data to Populate the UN Sustainable Development Goal Indicators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    9. Caroline Kramer & Madeleine Wagner, 2020. "Enhancing Urban Sustainable Indicators in a German City—Towards Human-Centered Measurements for Sustainable Urban Planning," World, MDPI, vol. 1(2), pages 1-20, August.
    10. Rubén Raedo, 2021. "Urban Sustainability Deficits: The Urban Non-Sustainability Index (UNSI) as a Tool for Urban Policy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-25, November.
    11. Winston Jerónimo Silvestre & Ana Fonseca & Sandra Naomi Morioka, 2022. "Strategic sustainability integration: Merging management tools to support business model decisions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2052-2067, July.
    12. Denis Michalina & Peter Mederly & Hans Diefenbacher & Benjamin Held, 2021. "Sustainable Urban Development: A Review of Urban Sustainability Indicator Frameworks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-20, August.
    13. Roope Husgafvel, 2021. "Exploring Social Sustainability Handprint—Part 2: Sustainable Development and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-35, October.
    14. Gabriela Grosseck & Laurențiu Gabriel Țîru & Ramona Alice Bran, 2019. "Education for Sustainable Development: Evolution and Perspectives: A Bibliometric Review of Research, 1992–2018," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-35, November.
    15. Pamela A. Mischen & George C. Homsy & Carl P. Lipo & Robert Holahan & Valerie Imbruce & Andreas Pape & Weixing Zhu & Joseph Graney & Ziang Zhang & Louisa M. Holmes & Manuel Reina, 2019. "A Foundation for Measuring Community Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-16, March.
    16. Ivo Hristov & Antonio Chirico, 2019. "The Role of Sustainability Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in Implementing Sustainable Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-19, October.
    17. M. Araceli Calvo-Serrano & Isabel L. Castillejo-González & Francisco Montes-Tubío & Pilar Mercader-Moyano, 2020. "The Church Tower of Santiago Apóstol in Montilla: An Eco-Sustainable Rehabilitation Proposal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-17, August.
    18. Michael Saidani & Harrison Kim, 2022. "Nexus Between Life Cycle Assessment, Circularity, and Sustainability Indicators—Part I: a Review," Circular Economy and Sustainability, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 1143-1156, September.
    19. Hametner, Markus & Kostetckaia, Mariia, 2020. "Frontrunners and laggards: How fast are the EU member states progressing towards the sustainable development goals?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    20. Chenyu Lu & Jiaqi Yang & Hengji Li & Shulei Jin & Min Pang & Chengpeng Lu, 2019. "Research on the Spatial–Temporal Synthetic Measurement of the Coordinated Development of Population-Economy-Society-Resource-Environment (PESRE) Systems in China Based on Geographic Information System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, May.
    21. Charlotte S. Diepolder & Holger Weitzel & Johannes Huwer, 2021. "Competence Frameworks of Sustainable Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-26, December.
    22. Kyu Tae Kwak & Seong Choul Hong & Sang Woo Lee, 2018. "An Analysis of a Repetitive News Display Phenomenon in the Digital News Ecosystem," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, December.
    23. Saba Alnusairat & Jenan Abu Qadourah & Rawan Khattab, 2023. "Assessing the Future City Post COVID-19: Linking the SDGs, Health, Resilience, and Psychological Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-24, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stephen Morse, 2018. "Focussing on the Extremes of Good and Bad: Media Reporting of Countries Ranked Via Index-Based League Tables," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 631-652, September.
    2. Fabio Battaglia, 2023. "Build Back Worse: The Media Coverage of Well-being Metrics Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Crucial Cases of Scotland and Italy," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 166(3), pages 521-573, April.
    3. Elert, Niklas & Henrekson, Magnus, 2017. "Entrepreneurship and Institutions: A Bidirectional Relationship," Working Paper Series 1153, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 05 May 2017.
    4. Ida Kubiszewski & Kenneth Mulder & Diane Jarvis & Robert Costanza, 2022. "Toward better measurement of sustainable development and wellbeing: A small number of SDG indicators reliably predict life satisfaction," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(1), pages 139-148, February.
    5. Hametner, Markus, 2022. "Economics without ecology: How the SDGs fail to align socioeconomic development with environmental sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    6. Thomas Straubhaar, 2021. "Nicht das Ende, sondern der Anfang einer neuen Globalisierung," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 101(11), pages 841-844, November.
    7. Haddad, Eduardo & Araújo, Inácio, 2022. "Regional Science Meets the Past: What Do Coin Finds Tell Us About the Ancient Spatial Economy?," TD NEREUS 2-2022, Núcleo de Economia Regional e Urbana da Universidade de São Paulo (NEREUS).
    8. Si Mohammed, Kamel & Chérif touil, Noreddine & Maliki, Samir, 2015. "An Empirical Test of Purchasing Power Parity of the Algerian Exchange Rate: Evidence from Panel Dynamic," MPRA Paper 75285, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Hoff, Jens V. & Rasmussen, Martin M.B. & Sørensen, Peter Birch, 2021. "Barriers and opportunities in developing and implementing a Green GDP," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    10. Siriki Coulibaly & Pierre Guei, 2023. "Qualitative Analysis of West African Economic and Monetary Union Decades’ Economic Growth," Journal of Economic Statistics, Anser Press, vol. 1(2), pages 44-56, August.
    11. Stephen Malpezzi, 2023. "Housing affordability and responses during times of stress: A preliminary look during the COVID‐19 pandemic," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(1), pages 9-40, January.
    12. Kutan, Ali M. & Zhou, Su, 2015. "PPP may hold better than you think: Smooth breaks and non-linear mean reversion in real effective exchange rates," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 358-366.
    13. Nicholas Oulton, 2018. "GDP and the System of National Accounts: Past, Present and Future," Discussion Papers 1802, Centre for Macroeconomics (CFM), revised Jun 2018.
    14. Ifrim, Mihaela & Lazorec, Maria & Pintilescu, Carmen, 2022. "Assessing the economic resilience in central and eastern EU countries. A multidimensional approach," MPRA Paper 117912, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Olivier E. Malay, 2021. "How to Articulate Beyond GDP and Businesses’ Social and Environmental Indicators?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 1-25, May.
    16. Røpke, Inge, 2020. "Econ 101—In need of a sustainability transition," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    17. Paul Dalziel & Caroline Saunders, 2018. "Treasury's refreshed views on New Zealand's economic strategy: a review article," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(1), pages 91-107, January.
    18. Akarim, Yasemin Deniz & Sevim, Serafettin, 2013. "The impact of mean reversion model on portfolio investment strategies: Empirical evidence from emerging markets," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 453-459.
    19. Clemens Hetschko & Louisa von Reumont & Ronnie Schöb, 2019. "Embedding as a pitfall for survey‐based welfare indicators: evidence from an experiment," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series A, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 182(2), pages 517-539, February.
    20. Elert, Niklas & Stenkula, Mikael, 2020. "Intrapreneurship: Productive, Unproductive, and Destructive," Working Paper Series 1367, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:5:p:1688-:d:148417. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.