Why metrology? Fair dealing and efficient markets for the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

Abstract

Abstract Why metrology? What special value does it offer to the design and use of sustainability impact metrics, and so to the realization of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals? One answer in short, is, “For justice.” The balance scale is a universal symbol of fairness, development and equality. A second brief reply is, “For efficient markets.” Common currencies for the exchange of value are well known as a key factor in lowering transaction costs and supporting property rights, both essential to market formation. The repeatedly encountered dilemma, of course, is how to design, calibrate, and use measures of economic, environmental, human, and social value that lower costs and are just in more than name alone, serving some but not others. Longer answers justify metrological traceability to consensus unit standards as a key factor in realizing the SDGs by showing how it contributes to (a) the cultivation of shared meanings and improved communication; (b) the grounding of pragmatic expressions of verified trust; (c) making real, reproducible developmental trajectories visible and manageable; and (d) creating the multilevel systems of systems required for managing and governing complex, adaptive, self-organizing forms of social, political, legislative and economic life. A more complete answer to the question, “Why metrology?,” then focuses on how the SDGs’ diverse stakeholder interests may be most effectively fulfilled via collective actions facilitated on the basis of shared values.