2 Operationalisation of Sustainable Development Goals
The United Nations agreed on a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in
2015 comprising 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators [11, 12]. The SDGs aim
to cover a wide range of sustainable development problems [12–14]. Overall, the
SDGs are intended to be universal with a shared common vision of progressing
towards a safe, just and sustainable operating space for human societies [12, 16].
However, the SDGs have been criticised as being difficult to implement due to
having too many goals and targets, lacking clarity, and having overlapping
objectives [16]. Additionally, the SDG proposed for safeguarding the Earth system
have been criticised as being neither sufficiently comprehensive nor ambitious [13,
14]. For instance, many of the SDG indicators have been proposed without a
relevant environmental boundary. Researchers therefore have begun exploring how
to operationalize the SDGs within the Earth’s carrying capacity, and specifically
how to link them to the PBs and then to LCA [13, 15]. Dong and Hauschild
classified the indicators proposed in the SDGs, PBs and LCA using an DPSIR
(Drivers-Pressures-State of the Environment-Impacts-Responses) impact pathway
framework (see [20] for DPSIR impact pathway framework) and showed that all
three approaches overlap in terms of seven impact categories (climate change,
acidification, ozone depletion, eutrophication, chemical pollution, freshwater use
and change in biosphere integrity) [15]. However, the study used the older version
of the SDGs listed in [11] and until recently, no studies have explored the interlinkages between the latest SDGs listed in [12], the PBs and LCA. Additionally, the
potential for operationalizing the SDGs using an ASAM had not been explored yet.
Therefore, this study identifies the SDG indicators that evaluate environmental
problems, and then systematically explores the interlinkages with the PBs.
To that end, the rest of the paper is organised as follows: Sect. 3 outlines the
ASAM framework presented in [17], Sect. 4 establishes the interlinkages between
the environmental SDGs and PBs, and Sect. 5 summarises how this work underpins
the development of the proposed ASAM.
3 Outline of the Proposed Approach
The aim of the proposed ASAM is to operationalize the SDGs at sub-global levels
(e.g. country, region, organisation, product) by estimating environmental boundaries at these different levels [17]. These boundaries can then be used to calculate
distance-to-target measurements through benchmarking the system’s (e.g. country,
region, organisation, product) performance against the estimated boundaries. This
involves, firstly, identifying the SDG indicators concerned with the conventional
areas of protection (AoPs) used in LCA i.e. human health, ecosystem quality,
resource scarcity and man-made environment [18].
Exploring the Linkages Between …
415
The United Nations agreed on a set of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in
2015 comprising 17 goals, 169 targets and 232 indicators [11, 12]. The SDGs aim
to cover a wide range of sustainable development problems [12–14]. Overall, the
SDGs are intended to be universal with a shared common vision of progressing
towards a safe, just and sustainable operating space for human societies [12, 16].
However, the SDGs have been criticised as being difficult to implement due to
having too many goals and targets, lacking clarity, and having overlapping
objectives [16]. Additionally, the SDG proposed for safeguarding the Earth system
have been criticised as being neither sufficiently comprehensive nor ambitious [13,
14]. For instance, many of the SDG indicators have been proposed without a
relevant environmental boundary. Researchers therefore have begun exploring how
to operationalize the SDGs within the Earth’s carrying capacity, and specifically
how to link them to the PBs and then to LCA [13, 15]. Dong and Hauschild
classified the indicators proposed in the SDGs, PBs and LCA using an DPSIR
(Drivers-Pressures-State of the Environment-Impacts-Responses) impact pathway
framework (see [20] for DPSIR impact pathway framework) and showed that all
three approaches overlap in terms of seven impact categories (climate change,
acidification, ozone depletion, eutrophication, chemical pollution, freshwater use
and change in biosphere integrity) [15]. However, the study used the older version
of the SDGs listed in [11] and until recently, no studies have explored the interlinkages between the latest SDGs listed in [12], the PBs and LCA. Additionally, the
potential for operationalizing the SDGs using an ASAM had not been explored yet.
Therefore, this study identifies the SDG indicators that evaluate environmental
problems, and then systematically explores the interlinkages with the PBs.
To that end, the rest of the paper is organised as follows: Sect. 3 outlines the
ASAM framework presented in [17], Sect. 4 establishes the interlinkages between
the environmental SDGs and PBs, and Sect. 5 summarises how this work underpins
the development of the proposed ASAM.
3 Outline of the Proposed Approach
The aim of the proposed ASAM is to operationalize the SDGs at sub-global levels
(e.g. country, region, organisation, product) by estimating environmental boundaries at these different levels [17]. These boundaries can then be used to calculate
distance-to-target measurements through benchmarking the system’s (e.g. country,
region, organisation, product) performance against the estimated boundaries. This
involves, firstly, identifying the SDG indicators concerned with the conventional
areas of protection (AoPs) used in LCA i.e. human health, ecosystem quality,
resource scarcity and man-made environment [18].
Exploring the Linkages Between …
415