Building sustainability composite indicators using a multi-criteria approach

• Building sustainability composite indicators is a complex process. • Equal ranking corresponding to different sustainability levels must be corrected. • A novel aggregation methodology for building composite indicators is proposed. • Best aggregate, maximum deviation minimization and normalized entropy are integrated. • The integration of the three different solutions leads to interesting results. Building sustainability composite indicators is a complex process that has been addressed according to different strategies. One interesting approach is based on the compromise between the maximum aggregate solution and the most balanced solution, by considering the most displaced indicator regarding the ideal. However, some shortcomings were identified in this approach. First, several decision-making units may present an equal composite indicator, and hence the same position in the ranking, while corresponding to different sustainability situations. Second, the use of only the maximum deviation to define the most balanced solution requires a more integrated approach. Thus, this paper proposes a novel aggregation methodology for building sustainability composite indicators, where a new normalized entropy indicator for the most balanced solution is proposed and integrated with the sustainability criteria of the maximum aggregate solution and maximum deviation. The method proposed was applied to two illustrative examples from the literature and provided promising and robust results.