Development of Integrated Sustainability Measurement Hierarchy (ISMH) for Sustainable Engineering

The word “sustainability” means different things to different people. Sustainability is an umbrella framework within which systems may run with longevity, thereby improving the sustainability of the system. The problem facing most people is that of measuring sustainability. Sustainability measurement has been practiced by several studies, but this review revealed that many researchers are applying methodologies outside of a cohesive model. This paper evaluates sustainability measurement, audit frameworks, and methodologies in an engineering context thus creating a cohesive hierarchy for sustainability. The developed Integrated Sustainability Measurement Hierarchy (ISMH) clearly positions hierarchical sustainability measurement systems against an influence level framework that extends from product to global influences. The ISMH would provide insight as well as a guideline to help devise a comprehensive sustainability measurement system for better decisions at various influence levels.