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Territorial sustainability performance is becoming a core subject and an important governing tool for defining policies and strategies from the global to local scale. In this regard, this research has two main objectives. The first one is to develop composite indicators considering the social, environmental, and economic aspects as coupled systems for assessing the territorial sustainability performance (TSP) at the provincial level of Moroccan territory. The second objective is to identify provinces having difficulties in reaching economic growth, social equity, and environmental preservation. Using the standard constant-elasticity-of-substitution function, the TSP index was calculated based on 33 indicators, including 15, 13, and 5 for economic, social, and environmental indicators respectively. The evaluation was conducted at three levels: first; from indicators to nine dimension indices (Occupation, Education, Employment, Public Services, Health infrastructure, Tourism, Mobility, Vegetation, and Climate); second, from these dimensions to the three main aspects of sustainability; and finally, the TSP index. The results obtained from the composite index (TSPI) show that the majority of the Moroccan provinces present a low to moderate sustainability performance, requiring an effective improvement in those provinces' management. To better analyze the dimension performances and illustrate weaknesses and strengths, Moroccan provinces were subdivided into 5 main clusters using hierarchical and non-hierarchical Cluster-Analyses. The outcomes show that 62% of Moroccan provinces present some weaknesses in employment, education, and tourism. However, the public services, health infrastructure, and climate are the strengths of the remaining Moroccan provinces. These findings can be considered a valuable information system for adequate decision-making and enhancing vision in territorial planning and management. • The territorial sustainability performance (TSP) at the provincial level was evaluated based on composite indicators. • A general overview of the strengths and weaknesses in the sustainability performance of the Moroccan provinces is provided. • The majority of the Moroccan provinces show a low to moderate sustainability performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy recovery is a viable option for waste management to integrate prevention, reuse and recycling when those strategies are not feasible. As such, efficient management of energy from waste can facilitate the circular economy (CE) transition. Efficient waste and energy management can assist sustainable development by curbing environmental degradation and resource depletion, improving energy security and health and safety conditions and creating new jobs and income. European countries have put substantial efforts and investments to improve their management efficiency of energy from waste and align to CE. To this end, this study develops a robust composite indicator to clarify and quantify this nexus, calculating European countries' achievements and filling a literature gap. A set of statistical techniques is employed to analyze a large panel dataset of 17 countries and 14 energy efficiency variables for 15 years. One may observe that Denmark, the Netherlands, Austria, the UK and Germany get positive outcomes. Conversely, the remaining 12 European countries get negative performances at the global level. Results vary across the different sub-indexes. 5 sensitivity and robustness analyses corroborate the results and confirm the hypothesis. The findings can assist the CE transition and may be used for research, management and policy purposes. This work's rationale. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Main problem addressed in this paper is assessment of quality of current methodologies for expressing environmental tax revenue, since measurements' outcomes have significant influence on the future environmental policies and legislation. The main goal of this paper is to analyze the existing way of measuring financial effects of environmental taxation in EU27 and propose new methodology approach, based on use of ETE – Environmental Taxation Efficiency as a new indicator suggested by authors. The first phase of the study involves the analysis of quality of measuring two existing methodologies (based on the use of GDP and total revenues). In second research stage, the authors apply the newly proposed methodology for determining a composite ETE indicator that, apart from existing indicators, takes into account the environmental taxation effects per capita, as an indicator unjustifiably neglected in previous methods of measuring. Measurement of environmental taxation by using a newly-proposed composite indicator shows significant differences in ranking compared to two current methodologies in use. Only 6 countries showed a very similar rank, regardless of the methodology applied. Differences by more than ten ranking positions were found in 12 countries. The overall results showed significant differences in ranking of all EU-27 countries by using all four indicated methodologies, which clearly points to the conclusion that further improvements are needed. ETE methodology limits predominant role of GDP and introduces a social component which should serve as a basis for further development of a unique methodology for establishing efficient environmental taxation implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role that cities play in the transition to more sustainable growth is gaining increasing recognition. Measuring progress towards sustainable urban development requires quantifying this multi-dimensional phenomenon with the help of composite indicators. The purpose of this study is to propose an integrated approach to build a sustainable cities' interval of composite indicators that rely on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. In addition, we propose to overcome the problem of calculating a single number by constructing a strong-weak sustainability performance interval depending on the choice of the compensability level in the aggregation stage of individual indicators. One of the advantages of this interval is that it provides information on both the average performance and the worst value of the set of indicators considered for each SDG. Moreover, it also extends the analysis for the people, planet, prosperity, peace, and partnership dimensions defined by the 2030 Agenda. As an example of application, we constructed these intervals for 50 Spanish cities, which are provincial capitals. This application lets us get a more accurate vision that can serve as a valuable tool for better urban planning design. [Display omitted] • SDGs-based composite indicators foster knowledge and insight on urban sustainability. • Monitoring SDGs performance by an interval of composite indicators support urban planning. • Strong and weak aggregation rules are applied to deal with compensability among criteria. • Warning signals on the SDGs low performance are highlighted by the lower bound of the interval. • A comprehensive picture of urban sustainability for 50 Spanish capitals of province is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the local and regional levels, planning for sustainable development rests on the structural peculiarities of territories following a development model that lays its foundations on the notion of the Marshallian industrial district. Recently, this form of production organization has been recognized as also featuring an organic agricultural sector, where the creation of ecoregions (or bio-districts) emphasizes the territorial dimension of sustainable development. Nevertheless, whilst ecoregions are acquiring substantial relevance at the international level, a comprehensive methodological approach for their analytical identification is still missing, thereby affecting the ability of policymakers to effectively identify territories suitable to enter an ecoregion. The few studies available on this topic adopt a narrow perspective when identifying ecoregions, considering only the dimensions that are strictly related to organic production and ignoring substantial variables that are able to capture the activities and elements that generate positive externalities and feed the economic, social and environmental life of a potential ecoregion. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper makes two innovative contributions. First, the paper discusses the notion of an ecoregion by stressing its relationship with other territorial features (i.e., environmental, social, and economic) that complement the agricultural dimensions. Second, the paper proposes a comprehensive methodological approach for the analytical identification of ecoregions considering not only the biological and agricultural features of territories but also crucial aspects related to their environmental, social and economic contexts. In this regard, the paper develops a new composite indicator – the Ecoregional Vocation Index (EVI) – to assess the vocation of territories to enter an ecoregion. As an illustrative example, the EVI is employed to analyse 29 municipalities belonging to the area of the Bologna Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region, Italy). The results of the analysis provide a ranking that classifies these municipalities from best to the worst in terms of their suitability to belong to an ecoregion. The results are presented and discussed to show how this methodological approach can be generally employed in sustainable territorial planning to support policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in the participatory processes concerning the creation of ecoregions. • Discussion of the Ecoregion notion as a territorial form of production organization. • Development of a methodological approach for the analytical identification of Ecoregions. • Construction of a new composite indicator: the Ecoregional Vocation Index (EVI). • Application to the case of the Bologna Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region, Italy). • Identification of a potential Ecoregion within the study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents an innovative procedure to assess the evolution of the social performance of firms over time using a Benefit-of-the-Doubt Composite indicator specified with a Directional Distance Function and the Malmquist index. In recent years, the social indicators of large corporations are increasingly being used to evaluate corporate performance. Reputation issues associated with the firms' impact on society, including local employment and contribution to local economic development are considered critical. This paper develops a composite indicator of social performance that can be used both for benchmarking comparisons among firms within an industry and to monitor the evolution of performance over time. Both desirable and undesirable factors can be taken into account in the performance evaluation. An illustrative application involving the assessment of 24 large mining firms in the years 2011 and 2012 is discussed. The specification of indicators reflecting social burdens and benefits of mining firms is based on international standards and guidelines for large corporations. The managerial implications of the results obtained are discussed. Image 1 • Development of a framework to assess the social performance of large mining firms. • Benefit of the Doubt composite indicator estimated with Directional Distance Functions. • Reformulation of the Malmquist index for evaluations with Directional models. • Assessment of the evolution of social performance of mining firms over time. • Identification of innovative firms using quantitative criteria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vulnerability has garnered an increasing attention from academia, international community and industry. Nonetheless, formal definition, mainstreaming, and measurement of vulnerability are still flawed in the economic literature. Energy vulnerability, intended as the exposure of an energy system to adverse events and change, often overlaps with other energy policy concepts such as resilience, security, poverty, justice, and sustainability. This paper improves understanding of vulnerability in economics, energy, and sustainability studies by: i) constructing a dataset on energy vulnerability made of 180.000 observations; ii) formally defining energy vulnerability, while considering the regulatory framework and development agenda; iii) building a composite indicator on energy vulnerability; iv) analyzing and ranking the energy vulnerability of a vast number of OECD and non-OECD countries; v) testing for robustness checks. The analysis suggests that GDP is not necessarily a leading driver for energy vulnerability, whilst resource embedment is, since fossil and renewable energy producers are less vulnerable. Eventually, the paper validates that green countries are less vulnerable, differently from cold, heavily-industrialized, and highly-consuming countries. • GDP is not a strong driver for energy vulnerability. • Green, scarcely consuming, warm, non-industrial countries perform better. • Resource endowment and electricity access matter. • Fossil and renewable energy exporters display a lower vulnerability. • Rankings for the single energy vulnerability pillars vary widely. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To manage progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), sustainability indicators and indices are useful analytical tools. Indices proposed in the literature rarely comprise all three contentual domains of sustainable development (environment, society, and economy), fail to enable comparisons of agents at multiple levels, and exhibit methodological shortcomings. Comparability of micro, meso, and macro agents is crucial because the macro SDGs can only be achieved if micro and meso agents contribute. Contributions must be measured in a methodologically sound manner to avoid misled decision making. To overcome these deficiencies, we develop the comprehensive and comparable Multilevel Sustainable Development Index (MLSDI). A novel information-theoretic algorithm is shown to outperform established multivariate statistical weighting methods such as the principal component analysis (PCA). The application of the MLSDI to 62 industries in the German economy reveals that the chemical industry requires urgent action with regard to environmental performances, and the agricultural industry demands assistance and action in all three domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rubber replanting is a key factor in sustaining natural rubber supplies because it replaces less productive rubber trees with fully productive ones. However, the time taken for rubber trees to become fully productive (approximately 6 years) can cause significant impacts on shorter-term rubber supplies. In addition, replanting can have environmental impacts, such as reduction of carbon stocks because immature trees convert less CO 2 than mature ones, and social impacts, such as reduced need for tappers, the highly skilled employees who harvest latex from rubber trees, during the immature phase of trees' lives. Early discussions with Indonesian natural rubber stakeholders highlighted a demand for methods and tools that allow the consideration of these impacts when formulating replanting policies. This paper proposes an approach to support the formulation of sustainable replanting policies in the Indonesian natural rubber supply network that allows users to consider trade-offs between three factors: economic, social and environmental. The approach uses the composite indicators method to represent the impacts of replanting on the sustainability of the supply network. These indices are used to drive computer simulations with a view to finding optimal replanting policies for given situations. The approach is illustrated through an application to the formulation of sustainable replanting scenarios in the Langkat, Deli Serdang, Asahan, Simalungun and South Tapanuli Districts at North Sumatera Province Indonesia. • Rubber trees have three lifecycle phases: immature, productive, less productive. • The balance of trees in a supply network is managed with replanting quotas. • Replanting quotas and policies impact all three dimensions of sustainability which are quantified using composite indices. • These indices are utilized in network simulations that use a novel hybrid approach to find optimal allocation quotas. • Simulation results identified different optimal quota allocations for each district. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]