Stakeholder-driven initiatives using sustainability indicators

Several authors have highlighted that stakeholders’ involvement increases the quality of environmental and sustainability decisions, since such information is then taken into consideration in more comprehensive ways. On... [ view full abstract ]

Several authors have highlighted that stakeholders’ involvement increases the quality of environmental and sustainability decisions, since such information is then taken into consideration in more comprehensive ways. On numerous occasions stakeholders have been integrated into processes when decisions have already been discussed and decided. New approaches have appeared to integrate stakeholders in environmental and sustainability processes that go beyond passive roles, with many of such initiatives being related to sustainability indicators. Sustainability indicators allow informal and semi-continuous actions of sustainability data collection and evaluation, conducted by stakeholders, covering different phases of the assessment. We aim to provide a review of voluntary and collaborative stakeholder initiatives that use sustainability indicators as evaluation and communication tools. We reviewed scientific and grey literature to analyse worldwide initiatives, including technology-driven examples. These initiatives are from governmental agencies, Non-Governmental Organisations and private companies. Findings show that the integration of stakeholders as active actors enhance social ties, communication grid, the use of a common language, the vision about what was being implemented, co-responsibility of the shared resources and feedback mechanisms. Stakeholders become part of the processes because they feel their opinions are heard in processes that have impacts in their daily lives or that it is important for their community. For instance, they become part of the team that gather environmental indicators to monitor the quality of a water systems. Some examples of indicators used by stakeholders in the development, use and communication are given. Aspects related to the conflict of interests between stakeholders and the possibility of over-representativeness of some groups are also addressed. Finally, we discuss how empowering stakeholders can boost their engagement with sustainability related-aspects and help the transition to more sustainable societies. Thus, this allows integration of new perspectives from the engaged stakeholders as a complementary evaluation to sustainability assessment processes.  

Keywords: Sustainability assessment; indicators; voluntary process; collaborative process; interactive participation; stakeholder empowerment