The Role of Indicators and Scientific Research in the Sustainable Development of Croatia: An Overview

Sustainable development (SD) and social responsibility (SR) are like twins: sustainable environment is one of the seven core subjects in ISO 26000, and SR is necessary to support it. Good indicators are necessary to assist the process. This chapter presents an overview of the development of indicators of sustainable development (SDI), as well as scientific research on SD, in Croatia. The analysis of the indicators is based on a national set of sustainable indicators developed recently by several different developers, with a focus on the EU in comparison with other regions in the world. Key challenges include: (1) comparability and aggregation variability of SDI in relation to the quality of data, determined by the SD policies; (2) impacts and reflections of compiled SDI on different kinds of user needs; and (3) contributions of R&D to sustainability. This overview of scientific research summarizes data provided by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports, and other available studies. The paper concludes with consideration of the critical role of scientific research in SD, together with key lessons learned concerning the implementation of SDI, which can be highly contextual and dependent on the needs of the end-users.

Keywords: Croatia, economic growth, energy efficiency, European union, holism, human welfare, indicators, interdependence, ISO 26000, measurement, natural resources preservation, public documents, pollution prevention, R&D, social responsibility, sustainable development, statistics, values, waste minimisation, well-being.