The use of sustainable development indicators (SDIs) continues to be a powerful tool to measure both quantitative and qualitative improvements (or the opposite) on how companies perform. This is an added-value within an overarching corporate responsibility framework. Although the phenomenon can be seen from many different perspectives, below is a publication which I co-authored in 2006 with the European aluminium (spelled aluminum in North America) industry and continues to be relevant today. See: Sustainable Development Indicators of the European Aluminium Industry
What companies choose to report and measure continues to be a point of contention in many sectors, such as in the mining and shipping just to name two examples which I am familiar with. But it is nonetheless a start and until certified guidelines and verifiable/methodologically correct indicators are developed will a “true” picture start to present itself in order to remove subjectivity and address such thorny issues, including absolute VS intensity-based targets (see Environment section).
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