Defining a fit for purpose statistically reliable sustainability indicator

E. Marian Scott, Daniela Cocchi and J. Campbell Gemmell

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal, 2014, vol. 5, issue 3, 262-267

Abstract: Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to bring together an overview of the basic definitions and functions that indicators and indices have in sustainability and environmental debates. Indicators and indices are widely and increasingly used within environmental and sustainability debates; they provide “evidence” to demonstrate policy effects; they are used for communication of state and condition and to benchmark performance. However, the statistical basis of many indicators and indices is not well defined; so in one sense, they are simple arithmetic rather than inferential tools. This special issue opens up further debate around the creation and utility of indicators and indices and discusses some of the research challenges, including a sound statistical and inferential framework for indicator development. Design/methodology/approach - – This short paper brings together an overview of the basic definitions and functions that indicators and indices have in sustainability and environmental debates. Findings - – The paper summarises very broadly the rationale for and construction of indicators and indices. It also highlights areas where further work is required to ensure that the indicators are not simply arithmetic summaries but are generalisable. Originality/value - – This paper and the papers of this issue seek to enhance the debate concerning the development of reliable and robust indicators.

Keywords: Uncertainty; Data quality; Statistics; Sustainability indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:sampjp:sampj-04-2014-0024

DOI: 10.1108/SAMPJ-04-2014-0024

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal is currently edited by Prof Carol Adams

More articles in Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().