Question

To analyze corporate sustainability metrics, companies must first customize the measurement approach and the metrics they use. Companies may include both financial and nonfinancial measures about inputs, process, output, and outcomes. Many companies do not measure social, environmental, and economic issues as part of the decision-making process. Discuss the challenges to measuring sustainability in a way that drives positive corporate sustainability performance.

Answer 1

When dealing with systems where sustainability is an issue, you are dealing with
systems where life, i.e. bios, matters. Without life no subject would be present car-
ing about whether something is sustainable or not.
For systems where life is a defining characteristic the following typically occur
• Thresholds
• Irreversibilities
• Mutual dependencies between
– Systems such as ecological, economic and social ones, and
– System levels from subcellular physiological processes, such as photosynthe-
sis and the physiological processes of cows and the rumen microbes in inter-
action to sustainable global food and bioenergy supply.

The Given diagram shows the gap between the characteristics
of real systems according to the best available knowledge and the characteristics of
the models of real systems used in different analyses aimed at supporting a
sustainable development. Commonly, they are based on the logics of Life-Cycle.
.