One of the hallmarks of context-based sustainability (CBS) as an approach to performance accounting in business is that it features the use of organization- or company-specific metrics. Indeed, a basic tenet of CBS is that no two organizations are exactly alike and it makes sense, therefore, for them to use different metrics to assess their performance, all in accordance with their own materiality determinations.

Critics of this approach sometimes allege that a shortcoming of CBS is that it cannot allow for inter-organizational comparisons of performance, since the metrics used to measure and report performance are liable to be different across organizations. Instead, they call for the use of one-size-fits-all alternatives where everyone is using the same metrics.

Read the full article by Mark W. McElroy, Ph.D. is the founder and Executive Director of the Center for Sustainable Organizations and the original developer of the Context-Based Sustainability method.