Sustainable_Competitiveness_Index_2013

The Sustainability of a Nation
Methodology
Sustainability models
The three-dimensional sustainability model of
reconciling the economy, the environment
and the society is often used and applied in
the corporate world to evaluate and
manage sustainability issues and
performance.
However, corporations are entities that
operate in very different boundaries and with
different goals than states and nationeconomies.
The elements of the model
therefore have to be adapted to the
characteristics of nations and their fundament
of sustained prosperity.
Sustainability model usually applied in corporate
sustainability evaluation
While corporate or economic entities
(depending on the nature of their business)
are working with natural capital, they do not
depend on the location of the capital, and
therefore can move any given moment to
where the external conditions are most
favorable, both in terms of physical location
(offices/factories) and markets, as well as in
terms of business fields. Transport and
international trade have made countries and
people less dependent on their immediate
environment through international trade of
resources, including water. However,
countries and population cannot simply move
on should fundamental resources (water,
agricultural output) become scarce or the
country inhabitable due to climate change.
At the end of the day people rely on, and live
off, the natural capital of their environment for
better or worse.
For the purpose of evaluating the
sustainability and sustainable development
level of a country (which is equal to sustained
economic development), a fourth element –
the natural capital – has therefore been
added to the three elements of innovation
competitiveness, resource efficiency and
social sustainability.
Sustainability model of nations: an additional element is
added: natural capital as the basis for a countries ability for
self-sustaining existence
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The Sustainable Competitiveness Index 2013
Table of contents
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