It is generally recognized that the operationalization of sustainability is still very much in its infancy; the strategies to be employed need much further development. There is now a major effort to develop instruments for environmental policies that lead towards the goal of a sustainable society. As a result, there exists a tool kit that contains a fair number of at least somewhat useful devices. Within this tool kit, this paper looks at the planning/public policy tools indicators, standards and strategic criteria; these are being developed to be used to evaluate whether, in which sense and to what extent particular societal developments lead towards that goal.

These tools should be seen in relation to one of the critical issues of sustainability policy, the development of monitoring systems that reflect environmental resources (Unemo 1992). In several cases, they are devised as an attempt to solve problems that the conventional framework of environmental economics cannot give a satisfactory treatment.

Apart from a brief presentation of these tools, the paper also contains a discussion on the application of sustainability criteria. The main emphasis is on the different rôles of indicators and criteria, arising from the inherent limitations of environmental and other indicators.