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Sustainability measurement system: a reference model proposal
Abstract
Purpose The primary aim of this paper is to develop a reference model for measuring corporate sustainability that can be used by organizations to integrate sustainability measures into their current performance measurement system, helping them to embed sustainability into daily activities and to forge a sustainability culture. A secondary intent is to present a critical analysis of some well‐known sustainability measurement initiatives, showing their strengths and shortcomings. Design/methodology/approach The approach employed to develop the reference model described in this paper is a qualitative analysis of the complementarity, shortcomings and strengths of eight well‐known sustainability measurement initiatives alongside an extant corporate sustainability literature review. Findings The research carried out has found that there is not a single initiative analyzed that tackles all sustainability issues and in fact there is no consensus around what should be measured and how. The main divergences are related to the following aspects: different criteria are applied by the initiatives to classify issues between dimensions; same impacts are evaluated at different levels of a cause‐effect relationship continuum by the same initiative; disagreement about the groups of stakeholders a company should engage and assessing the company impacts that should be taken into account (direct only or those of its whole value chain). Moreover, the way in which most initiatives measure sustainab…
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Metadata
- Authors
- Delai, I., & Takahashi, S.
- Affiliations
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Venue
- Social Responsibility Journal
- Publisher
- Emerald
- Published
- 2011-08-02
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 438-471
- ISSN
- 1747-1117 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2011632692
- Cited by
- 185
- References
- 50
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 20 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 12.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Responsibility Journal (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Accounting › Accounting and Organizational Management
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy
- Keywords
- corporate sustainability measurement, reference model, performance measurement systems, sustainability culture, stakeholder engagement, sustainability indicators, ratio indicators, sustainability reporting
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