Prioritizing Sustainable Development Goals Indicators for the Automobile Sector

ABSTRACT Ten years after adopting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a consistent prioritization approach for business sectors is still lacking. This study develops a prioritization method for SDG indicators for industry sectors based on the criteria of “footprint” and “urgency.” Urgency is defined as the distance between indicator performance and the target level. To determine the target level, a decision‐making process is developed. This method is used to prioritize 23 environmental SDG indicators for the automobile sector in the European Union. The highest‐priority topics are microplastic emissions, greenhouse gas emissions, and land take. We advise the automobile sector to integrate these topics into its strategies and implement improvement measures. The urgency assessment reveals that, for eight out of 23 indicators, the European Union's performance is closer to the worst‐performing countries than to the target level. In particular, the fundamental environmental topics of land and water quality and use exhibit the highest urgency.