Sustainability Assessment of Manufacturing Organizations Based on Indicator Sets: A Formal Concept Analysis

Organizations are struggling to survive in today’s competitive market. They are mostly obliged to meet customers’ expectations and demand for sustainable products from one side and comply with governmental rules and regulations regarding energy, resources, materials, etc. on the other. Therefore, measuring their sustainability performance and trying to keep up with the competitors is essential for their future development. Consequently, organizations perception of operational sustainability can reveal their strategies on how to be a sustainable organization, endeavouring the three pillars of economics, environmental and social internal assets. The present work investigates the role of indicators’ choice and their meaning for the purpose of the sustainability assessment of manufacturing organizations. To this point, an analysis is conducted on sustainability assessment of 100 manufacturing organizations using GRI indicators for assessing their sustainability state. A Formal Concept Analysis was run to look over the indicators and their interpretations to reach a given degree of sustainability of the organization.