Purpose

Global development is not sustainable. Yet, both academia and practitioners are struggling with making sense of what sustainable development is. Sustainability can be assessed in the dimensions Profit, Planet and People. One of the problems with the approach is that these dimensions cannot be added while there are conflicting priorities. Another problem is that performance seldom is related to global system boundaries. The purpose of this paper is to study how sustainability on an organizational level could be operationalized while being linked to global boundaries.

Methodology

Sustainable Development and sustainability definitions are reviewed to identify main stakeholders. Main processes required for sustainability are identified based on People and Planet as stakeholders. People value defined as utility is compared to Planet harm as carbon emissions and People harm as prices of products. The proposed theoretical concept is examined on the business level looking at the process of providing housing and cement manufacturing.

Findings

The relative indicators with focus on People utility compare to Planet and People harm seem to be relevant for measuring the level of sustainability.

Practical implications

The practical implications of the results could be important in that the proposed approach with relative indicators linked to global limits could help companies work with sustainability.

Originality

In spite of the inherent logic of adjusting consumption to existing means there is little written about the practical implications for organizations.

Keywords: Sustainability reporting; Sustainability KPI; Triple Bottom Line; Profit-People-Planet; Eco Efficiency; Relative KPI; Value per harm.

Research paper