 Sustainability improvementMauro Cordella Chapter 169 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment, 2026, pp 636-637 from Edward Elgar Publishing Abstract: Sustainability improvement refers to efforts aimed at enhancing environmental, social, and economic performance of an entity by reducing its negative impacts and increasing benefits. Relative sustainability improvements can be calculated by comparing the (sustainability) performance against a baseline, such as reducing the carbon footprint of a product over time. However, relative improvements may not be sufficient to prevent exceeding Earth's ecological limits at the macroeconomic scale. Improvements can be assessed on an absolute scale by evaluating whether the performance of an entity contribute respecting planet boundaries and safe operating spaces for humanity (e.g. limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels). While relative improvements are easier to measure and promote mainstream sustainability, absolute perspectives provide a long-term framework for defining and achieving sustainable development. Together, these measures can help set and monitor entity-specific pathways towards sustainability. Keywords: Sustainability performance; Sustainability improvement; Relative sustainability; Absolute sustainability; Planetary boundaries (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22215_169 Ordering information: This item can be ordered from Access Statistics for this chapter More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing |
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