Towards a holistic sustainability index for measuring sustainability of manufacturing companies

Competition from low wage countries and the adoption of free market strategies have forced manufacturing firms to recognise and implement productivity enhancement strategies. This research defines a holistic sustainability index embedding several performance indices. The aim of this study was to establish a relevant framework that would assess the current situation of an industry through aggregation of environmental, social, economical as well as manufacturing variables. The proposition has its roots in trends and gaps in the sustainability literature of manufacturing industries and is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method. A list of indicators measuring the industry performance based on an AHP scoring methodology is proposed. The next stages include grouping industries according to common deficiencies across the four dimensions and establishing a cooperation framework. The food manufacturing industry is the main target in this study and will benefit from adopting sustainable long-term policies. By recognising the importance of social–environmental sustainability and taking the initiative to pursue it, profits will grow as a positive effect of such policies. The added value is twofold: (1) coupling all sustainability dimensions, often addressed in silos and (2) integrating manufacturing indicators which enable the analysis of interrelationships with sustainability.