Dealing with the eco-design paradox in research and development projects: The concept of sustainability assessment levels

Although plenty of research has been carried out to develop a multitude of sustainability assessment methods, few guidelines and criteria have been established to help practitioners and researchers find the most appropriate method for a specific case. Studies have shown the importance of integrating sustainability assessments when conducting research and development activities, but have not provided direct links to available sustainability assessment methods. To address the so-called eco-design paradox, this paper describes a systematic classification system for the available sustainability assessment methods. To support the early integration of sustainability assessments in research and development, we inductively derived the concept of sustainability assessment levels from the well-known concept of technology readiness level. In total, 33 sustainability assessment methods were considered. We performed an expert-based correspondence analysis based on the availability of information to perform these methods and the demand for specific information at respective technology readiness level. Thereafter, a cluster analysis was performed, creating four distinct clusters which were finally interpreted as sustainability assessment levels. The provided concept supports interdisciplinary research projects in that it provides an overview of and guideline for possible sustainability assessment methods that match the respective technology readiness level. This enables researchers to integrate sustainability assessment into respective research and development projects and further modify and develop the theoretically synthetized concept based on empirical case studies. (C) 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Automated summary

This paper presents a systematic classification system for existing sustainability assessment methods and introduces the concept of sustainability assessment levels. Through a study of 33 sustainability assessment methods, a cluster analysis was performed, resulting in the identification of four distinct sustainability assessment levels. This concept supports interdisciplinary research projects by providing an overview and guideline for matching sustainability assessment methods to respective technology readiness levels.