Key performance indicators for sustainability : a metrics proposal focused on the logistic sector

Sustainability is nowadays a topic and objective of many industries and countries; the concept has been changing along the years passing from a green idea to an integral multiphase concept. Ignoring the importance of a sustainable behavior lead to environmental, financial and social issues at many different levels. Sustainability means equilibrium, different authors definitions hint at ideas such: ecosystem carrying capacity considerations; present needs fulfillment with out cost transferred to future generations, environmental concern, human rights respect, social equity, quality and corporate responsibility, just for mentioning some. The three pillars that define sustainability are: environmental, social and economical aspects, their weights have been equalizing and when achieving an overlap the state of sustainable development takes place. Measuring sustainability requires measuring those three pillars. Numerous organizations aim at rating sustainability of companies or single products; however benchmarking them based on the proposals presented is rather ambiguous since must of them are guidelines, greener practices but not measurable, comparable or accessible indicators. This work focuses on building a set of key performance indicators taking into consideration mainly four worldwide initiatives; the global reporting initiative (GRI), the Walmart Sustainability Initiative, the Corporate Responsibility Index and the Dow Jones SAM Questionnaire, additionally it was briefly considered the ISO-14001. Logistics sector is the special focus in this work; a proposal for measuring sustainability in a logistics company is presented; benchmarking for setting the indicator’s scales were fixed by analyzing four major worldwide logistics companies. The Sustainability Index presented is a framework in evolution; the details for its composition are presented in these chapters, however its assessment and further evaluation and adjustment are still required. The objective of this Work is to provide logistic companies with a tool that supports its corporate responsibility strategy, allowing them to enhance sustainable development and ultimately the satisfaction of all stakeholders.