List of relevant sustainability indicators in remediation processes and their validation by stakeholders

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 317; p. 128440
• Main Authors: Braun, Adeli Beatriz, Visentin, Caroline, William da Silva Trentin, Adan, Thomé, Antônio
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.10.2021
• Subjects: Contaminated sites management; Experts survey; Indicators weighting; Sustainable remediation; Triple bottom line assessment; Contaminated sites management; Sustainable remediation; Indicators weighting; Triple bottom line assessment; Experts survey
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.128440

Sustainable remediation designed to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts and benefits of remediation processes is increasingly being recognized in the traditional management of contaminated sites. However, there are difficulties with some aspects of its design in terms of practical implementation. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a complete list of indicators for sustainable remediation and to validate these indicators with different stakeholders. We selected and categorized 63 sustainable remediation indicators based on a systematic literature review and surveyed experts around the world via email to validate them. The participating experts were characterized according to their country of origin to analyze the relationships in the obtained validations. Based on the perceptions of these experts, the list of indicators was rearranged, considering in addition to the traditional sustainability tripod, also the categories of integration. In addition, the weighting for all indicators was determined using the Likert scoring scale and average ranking. The results indicated the comprehensive knowledge of the research participants about the concepts of sustainable remediation. There was also a greater importance given to environmental and social indicators than economic ones, but the difference was not significant, indicating that we are closer to achieving a balance between the dimensions of sustainability. However, it can be said that there is a big concern with respect to social issues, as when the hypothetical scenarios of contaminated sites to be remedied were analyzed, Scenario 1, which involves a site located in an urban center surrounded by a large population, obtained the highest number of indicators with the highest scores. It can therefore be concluded that this study provides an extensive list of validated indicators, categorized and weighted, that is ready to be used in the context of sustainable remediation, thus reinforcing the discussion about a future standardization of a list of indicators focused on this theme. [Display omitted] •A document analysis is carried out to diagnose indicators aimed at sustainable remediation.•A new complete list of characterized and categorized indicators is developed.•A questionnaire survey is applied to specialists in the field around the world for the indicators validation.•The analysis of the indicators is based on two hypothetical scenarios of contaminated sites to be remedied.•A detailed graphical representation of the weighted indicators is presented for future use in sustainability assessments.