Sustainable Development and Measurement Techniques

Abstract

Discussions on economic development, environmental theoretical currents and the United Nations (UN) international conferences have deepened the concept of sustainable development. Based on these elements, sustainable development is multidimensional as it incorporates several sustainabilities, such as economic, social, environmental and political-institutional. In addition, it is noteworthy that, with the advent of Agenda 21, the discussions on sustainable development also revealed the need to produce information concerning the state of development. Therefore, this study sought to prove, by way of exploratory research, the importance of measuring the sustainable development by presenting the main techniques used. Among them, there are indicators’ landmarks organisers and methodologies for building of indexes. As a corollary, it was observed that, apart from differences related to the distinct characteristics of each method, all are relevant in decision making, and this is essential to carry out actions, both by private and public institutions, in order to boost sustainability.