A Process Methodology for Assessing Sustainability

Assessing the sustainability impact of any system - factory, business, institution, supply chain, industry, city, province, country - is essential to setting a policy for sustainability. This assessment can be made by using a set of indicators, but selecting indicators is not straightforward. The Process Analysis Method considers the system as a group of processes causing triple-bottom line impacts. The indicators are then related to these impacts. The Method provides a set of sustainability indicators and metrics tailored to the particular system, but which will be similar for similar systems, facilitating comparison and benchmarking. The method has been applied in a variety of Case Studies: manufacturing operation, transport system, river basin management, community water purification, which demonstarte its flexibility and usefulness.