A Triple-Bottom-Line Approach-Based Clustering Study for the Sustainable Development Goals of the European Countries: Sustainable Development Concept

Introduction

Increasing demand in parallel with the increasing world population has increased the production rate. This situation has led to the emergence of global competition with the effect of globalization. In this competitive environment where industrialization has accelerated, economies have focused on quantitative dimensions to survive. However, environmental and social values were mostly ignored. In the early twentieth century, negotiations started at the global level in order to prevent the damage of industrial production to nature and ecological balance (National Geographic Society, 2020).

While the countries are primarily focused on growth and economic activities, production continues with snowballing speed and innovative products. Although most people living in OECD countries have standards that enable them to access goods and services along with some basic needs, poverty and deprivation problems still cannot be eliminated worldwide (Brundtland Commission, 1987). In order to eliminate the destructive results that occur with the increasing global competition, the fact that natural resources are not an inexhaustible raw material should be accepted and development strategies should be determined while making use of resources for needs (OECD, 2012).

In order to create a global agenda program under the leadership of the United Nations, the World Commission on Environment and Development met for the first time in Stockholm in 1987 under the chairmanship of the then Norwegian Prime Minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland. As a result of the conference, the concept of sustainable development was officially defined for the first time and the World Environment and Development Commission Our Common Future Report was published in order to examine critical issues related to both environment and development and to find solutions to problems (OECD Environmental Outlook, 2012).

The United Nations is developing policies in order to maintain sustainability and development balance by moving away from the devastating policies of the current order and it is also working to ensure that all member states adopt Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) centered on environmental, economic and social development.

Ensuring corporate sustainability requires radical changes in social, economic and environmental performance. The relationship between social and environmental issues and corporate reporting has gained a new dimension after the definition of the concept of sustainable development in the report. A movement towards sustainability reporting is emerging in companies and government agencies in various countries. The multidimensional approach of sustainability and the aim of sustainable development raise the issue of how to balance institutional goals and how to evaluate the success or failure situation. The concept of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL), which deals with the measurement of corporate sustainability with its social, environmental and economic dimensions has guided the way businesses, nonprofits, and governments measure sustainability and the performance of projects or policies (Elkington, 1997).

There are some difficulties in implementing the TBL. These difficulties are; measuring each of the three categories separately, obtaining the data to be implemented, and calculating the contribution of a project or policy to sustainability. These difficulties aside, the TBL framework allows organizations to evaluate the consequences of their decisions in the long term from a different perspective (Slaper and Hall, 2011).

The aim of this study is to measure and analyze the sustainability performances of the European countries in the context of Sustainable Development Goals. In this respect, In this direction, it is aimed to cluster the countries according to their success in achieving the sustainable development goal in social, economic and environmental dimensions.