A Sustainability Performance Indicator (SPI) can be used to condense the large amount of environmental, economic and social information that many companies obtain down into a small number of key indicators. SPIs can be grouped according to the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainability (the latter will be dealt with separately). and can be used by companies to measure their sustainability performance and guide decisions regarding further progress.

Economic performance indicators encompass all aspects of an organisation’s economic interactions and focus on how the economic status of the stakeholders changes as a consequence of the organisation’s activities. Examples of these types of indicators include company turnover, profit, and the amount of products sold can be used. Economic accounting and reporting is well established and the data required for using economic performance indicators can be retrieved from a company’s financial department.

Social performance indicators are concerned with an organisation’s impact on the social systems it operates within. These would include labour practices, human rights and broader issues affecting consumers, the community and other stakeholders in society. Data for calculating social performance indicators may be retrieved from, among others sources, human resource and safety and occupational health departments.

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Strengths and weaknesses

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How you can take action

Sustainability performance indicators can help in monitoring the overall activities of a company. Assessing the data these indicators yield over time can reveal to what extent the company’s economic and social performance is sustainable. SPIs can also be used to assess the sustainability of CSOs themselves. Given that many small and medium sized enterprises lack the awareness, time and resources required to implement sustainability performance measurements, CSOs could provide support and guidance on their usage. SPIs are also an effective tool for campaigning and can be used by CSOs as the basis from which to encourage companies to improve their policies. CSOs are in a strong position to get involved with political developments by lobbying for laws and regulations that call for coherent indicators and reporting standards. Monitoring using SPIs provides an additional channel for networking with businesses and other CSOs.

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Case study: The Global Reporting Initiative

One of the most successful applications of a SPI is the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which pioneered the world’s most widely used sustainability reporting framework. The GRI framework sets out the principles and indicators that organisations can use to measure and report their economic, environmental, and social performance. Started in 1997 by the non-profit CERES, the GRI quickly gained both support, from international organisations such as UNEP and Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), and acceptance from companies around the world. The number of organisations which have released sustainability reports based on these freely available guidelines has increased from 20 in 1999 to over 850 in 2006. Sustainability reports based on the GRI framework can be used to benchmark organisational performance with respect to laws, norms, codes, performance standards and voluntary initiatives; demonstrate organisational commitment to sustainable development; and compare organisational performance over time.

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Learn more and get inspired

Global Reporting Initiative

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

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You can download the whole paper on indicators “Measuring Performance towards Sustainable Consumption and Production – Types of Indicators and Indicator Sets” and other interesting papers of the Action Town project in the Library!