On 23 March, members of the ARIES4 project organised an online workshop to reflect on the definition of sustainability and the challenges of measuring it, as well as to exchange information and ideas on the work to be done in the project and its development. The day opened at 9am (CET) with a series of presentations by Prof. Avit Bhowmik from Karlstad University, Prof. Nuria Osés from UPNA and Prof. Martin Hannibal from SDU on the definition of sustainability, its dimensions, how sustainability is measured and how the different work packages of the project are trying to answer the different questions. The day continued with an open discussion among the team members.
The main conclusion of the workshop was that, despite the many definitions and debates on what sustainability is, the project needs a common framework for understanding and analysing sustainability. This common framework considers three dimensions: social, environmental and economic. All three pillars are relevant. Furthermore, the project will align itself with views that seek strong sustainability (i.e. progress in overall sustainability cannot be achieved at the expense of one of the three pillars).
