IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v15y2011i5p2385-2396.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A confusion of tongues or the art of aggregating indicators--Reflections on four projective methodologies on sustainability measurement

Author

Listed:
  • Özdemir, Enver Doruk
  • Härdtlein, Marlies
  • Jenssen, Till
  • Zech, Daniel
  • Eltrop, Ludger

Abstract

To achieve consensus on the broad term sustainability abstractness is required. In turn, to take sustainability as an action guiding mandate for implementation it needs to be concrete. The paper seeks to bridge the gap from theory of sustainability to practical application by implementing four different methods, i.e. social cost analysis, ecological footprint analysis, exergy approach and multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA). These methods will be exemplarily applied for sustainability analysis of household heating technologies focusing on wood pellet boilers, wood chip fired district heating stations and natural gas fired condensing boilers. Based on the integrated assessment of exemplary heat supply technologies a critical outlook on the four projective approaches is given.

Suggested Citation

  • Özdemir, Enver Doruk & Härdtlein, Marlies & Jenssen, Till & Zech, Daniel & Eltrop, Ludger, 2011. "A confusion of tongues or the art of aggregating indicators--Reflections on four projective methodologies on sustainability measurement," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(5), pages 2385-2396, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:15:y:2011:i:5:p:2385-2396
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364-0321(11)00063-3
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kowalski, Katharina & Stagl, Sigrid & Madlener, Reinhard & Omann, Ines, 2009. "Sustainable energy futures: Methodological challenges in combining scenarios and participatory multi-criteria analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 197(3), pages 1063-1074, September.
    2. Terrados, J. & Almonacid, G. & Pérez-Higueras, P., 2009. "Proposal for a combined methodology for renewable energy planning. Application to a Spanish region," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(8), pages 2022-2030, October.
    3. Pearce, David W. & Atkinson, Giles D., 1993. "Capital theory and the measurement of sustainable development: an indicator of "weak" sustainability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 103-108, October.
    4. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808, Decembrie.
    5. Krewitt, Wolfram, 2002. "External costs of energy--do the answers match the questions?: Looking back at 10 years of ExternE," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 839-848, August.
    6. Brown, Thomas C. & Gregory, Robin, 1999. "Why the WTA-WTP disparity matters," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 323-335, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Stefan Dragos Cîrstea & Calin Moldovan-Teselios & Andreea Cîrstea & Antoniu Claudiu Turcu & Cosmin Pompei Darab, 2018. "Evaluating Renewable Energy Sustainability by Composite Index," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Fabrizio, Enrico & Seguro, Federico & Filippi, Marco, 2014. "Integrated HVAC and DHW production systems for Zero Energy Buildings," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 515-541.
    3. Edivando Vitor do Couto & Pablo B. Oliveira & Luciane Maria Vieira & Marcelo H. Schmitz & José Hilário D. Ferreira, 2020. "Integrating Environmental, Geographical and Social Data to Assess Sustainability in Hydrographic Basins: The ESI Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(7), pages 1-16, April.
    4. Michiel C. Zijp & Reinout Heijungs & Ester Van der Voet & Dik Van de Meent & Mark A. J. Huijbregts & Anne Hollander & Leo Posthuma, 2015. "An Identification Key for Selecting Methods for Sustainability Assessments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-23, March.
    5. Diaz-Balteiro, L & González-Pachón, J. & Romero, C., 2017. "Measuring systems sustainability with multi-criteria methods: A critical review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 258(2), pages 607-616.
    6. Alberto Melane-Lavado & Agustín Álvarez-Herranz, 2018. "Different Ways to Access Knowledge for Sustainability-Oriented Innovation. The Effect of Foreign Direct Investment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-30, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ribeiro, Fernando & Ferreira, Paula & Araújo, Madalena, 2013. "Sustainability assessment of electricity production using a logic models approach," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 215-223.
    2. Ishizaka, Alessio & Siraj, Sajid & Nemery, Philippe, 2016. "Which energy mix for the UK (United Kingdom)? An evolutive descriptive mapping with the integrated GAIA (graphical analysis for interactive aid)–AHP (analytic hierarchy process) visualization tool," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 602-611.
    3. Toman, Michael & Pezzey, John C., 2002. "The Economics of Sustainability: A Review of Journal Articles," RFF Working Paper Series dp-02-03, Resources for the Future.
    4. Georgiadou, Maria Christina & Hacking, Theophilus & Guthrie, Peter, 2012. "A conceptual framework for future-proofing the energy performance of buildings," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 145-155.
    5. Baumgärtner, Stefan & Quaas, Martin F., 2009. "Ecological-economic viability as a criterion of strong sustainability under uncertainty," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2008-2020, May.
    6. Koji Tokimatsu & Louis Dupuy & Nick Hanley, 2019. "Using Genuine Savings for Climate Policy Evaluation with an Integrated Assessment Model," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(1), pages 281-307, January.
    7. Eugenio Figueroa B. & Enrique Calfucura T., 2002. "Depreciación del Capital Natural, Ingreso y Crecimiento Sostenible: Lecciones de la Experiencia Chilena," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 138, Central Bank of Chile.
    8. Carlo Carraro & Lorenza Campagnolo & Fabio Eboli & Elisa Lanzi & Ramiro Parrado & Elisa Portale, 2012. "Quantifying Sustainability: A New Approach and World Ranking," Working Papers 2012.94, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    9. Nick Hanley & Louis Dupuy & Eoin McLaughlin, 2015. "Genuine Savings And Sustainability," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 779-806, September.
    10. Aronsson, Thomas & Cialani, Catia & Löfgren, Karl-Gustaf, 2012. "Genuine saving and the social cost of taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 96(1), pages 211-217.
    11. Hamilton, Kirk & Atkinson, Giles, 1996. "Air pollution and green accounts," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(7), pages 675-684, July.
    12. Mariusz Dacko & Aleksandra Płonka & Łukasz Satoła & Aneta Dacko, 2021. "Sustainable Development According to the Opinions of Polish Experts," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-18, August.
    13. Céline Antonin & Thomas Melonio & Xavier Timbeau, 2012. "L'epargne nette ré-ajustée," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(1), pages 259-286.
    14. Frits K. Van Evert & Daniel Gaitán-Cremaschi & Spyros Fountas & Corné Kempenaar, 2017. "Can Precision Agriculture Increase the Profitability and Sustainability of the Production of Potatoes and Olives?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(10), pages 1-24, October.
    15. Arrow, Kenneth J. & Dasgupta, Partha & Goulder, Lawrence H. & Mumford, Kevin J. & Oleson, Kirsten, 2012. "Sustainability and the measurement of wealth," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 317-353, June.
    16. Collins, Ross D. & Selin, Noelle E. & de Weck, Olivier L. & Clark, William C., 2017. "Using inclusive wealth for policy evaluation: Application to electricity infrastructure planning in oil-exporting countries," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 23-34.
    17. Perrings, Charles, 2014. "Environment and development economics 20 years on," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 333-366, June.
    18. Damien Bazin & Emna Omri & Nouri Chtourou, 2015. "Solar Thermal Energy for Sustainable Development in Tunisia," Post-Print halshs-01070616, HAL.
    19. Van Passel, Steven & Nevens, Frank & Mathijs, Erik & Van Huylenbroeck, Guido, 2007. "Measuring farm sustainability and explaining differences in sustainable efficiency," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 149-161, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:15:y:2011:i:5:p:2385-2396. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.