Title: A systematic literature review of sustainability indicators in sustainability reporting

Authors: Manish Kumar; Parikshit Joshi

Addresses: Graphic Era Hill University, Haldwani Campus, Tularampur, Near Mahalaxmi Mandir, Opp. Midas Square Mall, Haldwani, Uttarakhand, 263139, India ' Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad Campus, LT 3204, Devghat, Jhalwa, Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, 211015, India

Abstract: In the past decade studies related to sustainability indicators (SIs), as a measure of sustainable development (SD), have steeply risen across several domains. Therefore, a systematic literature review (SLR) is required to assess the current state of studies on SIs. The current SLR identifies, evaluates, and synthesises the available literature on SIs published between 1994-2020 with an aim to explore the current development in the field and assess future research directions. The published literature from Web of Science and Scopus database was identified through automatic and manual search techniques and a total of 248 usable studies were finalised after inclusion-exclusion and quality assessment. Thematic analysis of the studies revealed that majority of the studies were from the theme - urban development area, followed by water resources and environment development, and the themes like social sustainability, social equity, dairy, green accounting and biotechnology are less explored.

Keywords: sustainability indicators; systematic literature review; SLR; economic sustainability; environmental sustainability; social sustainability; sustainability indicator themes.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSDES.2022.128523

International Journal of Sustainable Design, 2022 Vol.4 No.3/4, pp.253 - 284

Received: 15 Jul 2021
Accepted: 23 May 2022
Published online: 25 Jan 2023 *

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