Sustainability assessment in manufacturing under a strong sustainability perspective—an ecological neutrality initiative

Abstract

The concept of strong sustainability establishes ecosystem conservation as the basis for socioeconomic development. Despite the increase in the number of studies on this subject, the qualitative approach used in studies on strong sustainability makes the introduction of this theme difficult in the industrial context. The absence of a model of sustainability evaluation in manufacturing based on the concept of strong sustainability was the gap identified by this research. The objective of this study was to develop a model that embeds strong sustainability within the sustainability assessment of manufacturing companies. The research used survey methodology to obtain the opinion of experts on the relevance of sustainability metrics. Information collected from experts was used to calculate the weights of indicators and of the participation of each dimension in strong sustainability. The results indicated that strong sustainability consists of 48% of environmental, 29% of social, and 23% of economic factors. The model has been applied in a study of multiple cases in factories in the automotive sector, two in Brazil and two in Italy. The results revealed that the four companies were rated regular in the strong sustainability scale. However, the sustainability performances of the companies showed different patterns over five years. Furthermore, analysis of the individual performance of the dimensions showed that the economic growth of the two Brazilian factories was superior to the socio-environmental development. The result of the Italian units emphasized different priorities. A firm reached the best result in environmental performance and the other one on the social dimension.