Sustainable development connecting practice with theory

The desire to demonstrate performance with respect to sustainable development has led to a profusion of approaches. The widespread use of quantitative indicators often appears unconnected to any theory of sustainable development. One reason for this disconnect is that theoretical treatments have tended to focus on global and national scales whereas practical attempts to report on sustainable development tend to operate at smaller scales such as regions, industries and corporations. The relevance of existing theory to those reporting at smaller scales is not widely recognised. This paper develops an approach to reporting that is motivated by a theoretical interpretation of sustainable development in terms of assets. The approach is illustrated with a hypothetical example. The asset-based approach can be applied in a variety of contexts (national, regional, industry, corporation and product) and provides a common framework for linking what have been regarded as disparate approaches to reporting on sustainable development. The recognition that different players have responsibilities for different mixes of assets is the key to understanding how performance should be measured and how information can be combined to report at different scales.