Evaluation of Existing Indexes of Sustainable Well-Being and Propositions for Improvement

Abstract

The relationship between sustainability and well-being is inconclusive in the literature, with some studies showing consonance while others show dissonance. On top of differences of scale (micro or macro) and of methods, part of this conflict in narratives is due to differences in measurement. In this paper I evaluate the quality of existing indexes linking both concepts at a macro level (Happy Planet Index (first generation and second generation), Sustainable Development Goals Index, Human Sustainable Development Index, Sustainable Development Index, Gaucher’s index). Recognizing the limits of all of them and acknowledging that the current landscape of measures is over-oriented towards cognitive measures on the well-being side and ecological footprint-oriented on the environmental side, I propose some alternatives to complete the current measures and I discuss possible implications.