Sustainable Value in Europe: Sustainability Performance of theCzech Republic Versus the Europe of Fifteen

The concept of sustainable development has been developed during the last twenty years mainly on a macro-economic level. The objective of this concept is to increase or at least to stabilize the well-being per capita of the planet over time while preserving the interests of present and future generations. The measurement of the contribution of an economic entity (State, Institution, Enterprise, etc.) to the sustainability poses a problem today and is subject to several debates. The mass of information to treat and to integrate in the political strategies private and public is such that it is impossible in the reality of all days. It is that a series of actors are beginning to identify tools and scoreboards which, through a series of indicators, allow guide them in their daily work. Based on the information provided by the organizational entities themselves and the information made public, the approach of sustainable value constitutes today the approach most accomplished to assess the sustainable performance. The aim of this research is to adapt this methodology to the assessment of sustainability of countries. The sustainability performance of the fifteen European countries (EU-15) will be analyzed based in the sustainable value approach. The case of a country of the Eastern Europe (Czech Republic) is also analyzed. The study period is five years (2002-2006) in order to see the evolution of the integration of sustainable development in Europe since the last Summit in Johannesburg. Sustainable value is a monetary measure of the actual value created by the country’s use of a bundle of economic, environmental and social resources. A country creates positive (or negative) Sustainable value if it earns a higher (or lower) return than the average (EU-15) with its available economic, environmental and social resources. The analysis of country’s sustainability performance based on the Sustainable value approach looks at the use of nineteen different economic, environmental and social resources. The results reveal a mixed pattern when it comes to the sustainability performance of each country. Germany and Netherland are the countries leaders respectively in terms of the absolute Sustainable value and the Sustainable value margin. Both countries create extremely positive Sustainable value over the entire reviewed period. Germany use the majority of economic, environmental and social resources considered in a value creating way. Czech Republic is the country that improved the efficiency of the use of its economic, environmental and social resources most.