Chapter 6: Sustainability Development Assessment and Indicators

Introduction and Purpose: Sustainable development is a concept that plays an essential part in the business and industry of the twenty-first century. At present, the authors observe a wide range of models to analyse and implement sustainable development measures, which use various methodologies to address sustainability goals and monitor and assess implementation progress-wise. These models are based on a systemic vision and the complexity of the interconnected component elements. This chapter presents two fundamental concepts (systemic and related) through a comparison made between two sustainability assessment systems, the first one focussing on evaluating the sustainable development goals (SDG) implementation, and the second one focussing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria assessment.

Methodology: Then, using cluster analysis, the authors grouped European Union (EU) member states from a sustainability assessment point of view.

Findings: Results show a congruent and complementary evolution of EU member states that use both sustainability assessment systems. As an outcome of this research, the authors suggest integrating the two sustainability assessment systems to better understand the phenomenon and the evolutionary trends in the field of sustainability.

Significance and Originality of Findings: Using the comparative approach and the cluster analysis method, this chapter showed that the two systems are consistent and offer compatible and complementary views, which led at necessity of integration of the two visions into a unitary systemic concept consisting of inputs (ESG scores) and outputs (SDG index).