Experiences of sustainability assessment: An awkward adolescence

Accounting for sustainability is approaching its (metaphoric) teenage years – keen to assert independence, yet still reliant on the security of its background disciplines and not quite mature enough to make its own judgements. One example is the Sustainability Assessment Model, a full-cost-accounting tool that monetizes externalities. This paper examines its application in case studies where it faced issues over assessment boundaries, data limitations, and stakeholder engagement. There is much development needed, especially around engagement and externalities, before such techniques can achieve independent lives of their own away from their research-based caregivers.