Project evaluations are traditionally focused on economic attractiveness. However, increasing global concern on sustainable development has shifted focus to the overall sustainability, which includes economic, environmental and social aspects. Quantitative assessments are common for the first two aspects, but integrating the later together with the other two quantitatively is seldom found. Qualitative assessment is still common for the social aspect. Currently, weighting factors are assigned to the three aspects before summing them up, but this involves subjective judgment. Also, weighting factors might overemphasize a particular aspect and become misleading....[ Read more ]

Project evaluations are traditionally focused on economic attractiveness. However, increasing global concern on sustainable development has shifted focus to the overall sustainability, which includes economic, environmental and social aspects. Quantitative assessments are common for the first two aspects, but integrating the later together with the other two quantitatively is seldom found. Qualitative assessment is still common for the social aspect. Currently, weighting factors are assigned to the three aspects before summing them up, but this involves subjective judgment. Also, weighting factors might overemphasize a particular aspect and become misleading.

In this work, we propose using monetary unit to measure all the three aspects. It is quite often a basic requirement for a business to earn money, where economic evaluation is inevitable. We can integrate the other two aspects into the economic evaluation. On the other hand, a business that does not earn money may possibly be sustainable, if people realize its benefits to the society and the environment. Monetary unit can show how much a business is beneficial to the three aspects overall, it can also show if a business owes a society for creating negative impacts.

Quantifying environmental impacts in monetary unit have been studied by many scientists, but little is found for the social aspect. The challenging work for us is to propose methods for measuring the social aspect in monetary unit, so that the three aspects can be integrated, and a sustainable production process can be selected. The proposed method is demonstrated by using an example in biodiesel production.