Workshop: Sustainability Assessment

March 24-25, 2023, Virtual Mode

Are we using the world resources, or using it up? Can the current development continue? What are the unsustainable risks?

Sustainable development is put forward as an answer to above question. But the notion of sustainable development is not free from controversies― Sustainable development: what development and whose sustainability? Whether the people who sacrifice in the process of sustainability are the beneficiaries of sustainable development? Also the other important question remains: How can one assess sustainability of any society, development organization, or business enterprise?

This workshop covers principles of sustainable development; Evolution, perspectives, and challenges of sustainable development, Economic-environment-society interdependence, Unsustainability risks and their impact on economy, and society, and environment; Sustainable development frameworks; frameworks for measuring sustainability, SDGs, targets, and indicators; Sustainable development frameworks and metrics, Case studies from different sectors, Strategies for transitioning to a sustainable world – at individual, organizational, and societal level.

Modules and Topics

  • Notions of sustainable development: Development discourses; Sustainable development – origin and mainstreaming; Concepts of sustainability; Maximum sustainable yield.
  • Roots of unsustainability: Over consumption; Social limits to growth; Notion of positional goods; Public policy affecting positional externalities; Degrowth – an antithesis of consumerism and productivism.
  • Sustainability measurement: Sustainable development indicators (SDI), Conceptual frameworks for assessing sustainability, Selection criteria for SDIs, Applications of SDIs
  • Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Global to local level, Measurement of SDG indicators, Assessments based on SDGs.
  • Perspectives on sustainable societies: Climate change – supporters and skeptics; Rural - Urban sustainability; Developing country approach; Participatory appraisals
  • Case study of sustainability assessment of different sectors/domains: Mining; Sustainable human development; Sustainability campuses; Sustainability of social enterprises
  • Sustainability Transition: Stabilizing population; Economic restructuring – role of stakeholders; Demand side enablers – practices in everyday life; Sustainable policies; Efficiency vs. sufficiency

Who Should Attend

This workshop is meant for an interdisciplinary audience interested in sustainability and does not require any prior training in any of the fields of management or development. This workshop will appeal both academic researchers and practitioners in the field. This workshop has elements for academicians interested in development and management research; and executives at supervisory, middle, and senior levels from all walks of life: Corporates. Cooperatives, NGOs, Social enterprises, and Government organizations.

Resource Person

Dr Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan, Area Chair, Social Sciences, Institute of Rural Management, Anand.


Dr. Hippu Salk Kristle Nathan is an engineer-turned development researcher with an M Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and Ph.D. from the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai. He has won the Elsevier-National Academy of Sciences, India (NASI-Scopus) Young Scientist Award 2017 in Social Sciences. He was the Subir Chowdhury Post-doctoral Fellow at the London School of Economics for 2016–2017. Currently, as Associate Professor at IRMA, he teaches and researches on topics in the areas of development, energy, sustainability, and disarmament. Prior to IRMA he was working with NIAS, Bangalore. He had industry experience with Infosys Limited, Bangalore and Geometric Global, Mumbai.


Dr. Nathan’s broad areas of interest lies in energy, economic measurement, sustainable use of resources, and human development. His most significant research contributions are 'Conceptualized and developed frameworks for both, structuring and selection of sustainable development indicators'; in a co-authored works he proposed an alternative approach to measure human development index and conceived a novel method to assess energy poverty.