A life cycle approach to measuring sustainability

Achieving sustainability requires balancing economic, environmental and social aspects. The awareness of and interest in sustainability are growing but the main questions still remains unanswered: what economic and industrial activities could be considered sustainable and how could progress towards sustainability be measured? This paper looks into the subject of measuring sustainability using a life cycle approach. Three sectors are discussed - energy, transport and food - and various options within these sectors compared on the basis of their carbon footprints. The paper demonstrates how the results of sustainability measurement could help industry and consumers to identify more sustainable options.