ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY INDEX (ESSI)

Sustainable development and globalization are becoming important subjects for policy makers to formulate the worldwide strategies and rubrics for ensuring simultaneous adoption of its components and monitoring of its consequences. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) published by United Nations are the guidelines to incorporate the assurance of sustainable development and its globalization. This study analyzes the sustainability from the perspective of not just the environment and the ecosystem of globe but also from the health and social aspects of humans. Indexes such as Environmental Performance Index (EPI) and Social progress Imperative (SPI) measure the performance of different countries based on the environment and the ecosystem by following Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and social goals, separately. However, the parameters used in those indices have significant limitations. In this work, the proposed Environmental and Social Sustainability Index (ESSI) offers a new model whereby new relevant sustainability parameters including social progress indicators are used to measure the performance of countries based on SDGs by using reliable data from international organizations. Finally, countries are categorized according to sustainable development goals that highlight the importance and significance of each sustainability parameter especially for developing and under developed nations.