The BEAR Assessment System Software as a platform for developing and applying UN SDG metrics

Abstract

Abstract There are avoidable obstacles delaying realization of the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals (https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/) which have been introduced by the methods used in measuring sustainability impacts and in monitoring progress toward the UN goals. Scientific measurement offers practical advantages based in rigorously defined and meaningful quantitative units that facilitate close management, trust, and efficient communication. Were improved metrics to be incorporated in systems of metrological traceability, legally binding conformity assessments could eventually provide a basis for new sustainability accounting standards, economic models, and the means for tracking returns on investments in sustainability impacts. Toward these ends, there is a need for making access to improved measurement principles, methods, and results much more widely available. That purpose could be served by the BEAR Assessment System Software (BASS), which provides an online environment offering practical tools for instrument development, administration, calibration, and quality improvement; data analysis and measurement; and reporting. Each variety of sustainability stakeholder could make use of the system for their diverse purposes, advancing their unique self-interests further by cooperatively competing with other stakeholder groups than they could working alone.