The sustainable development goals between multidimensionality and transversality

This work aims to explore the key dimensions of the concept of sustainability, from both a theoretical and a statistical point of view. The concept of sustainability has changed substantially over time. In its origins, it was mostly related to environmental issues and subsequently analysed through economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP); but soon the contradictory and ambiguous nature of sustainability became apparent, involving issues related to social equity and justice. Moreover, after the failure of the Millennium Development Goals, it became clear that the issue of sustainability cannot just refer to developing countries, but has to include developed nations. Thus, in 2015, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) were created by the United Nations, which have successfully integrated environmental, social and economic components, definitively affirming the principle "no one left behind" to underline the need for a joint and transversal effort. The multidimensionality of the concept of sustainability and the transversality of the proposed indicators has allowed, theoretically, to hypothesise the proximity of the concept of sustainability to other related relevant sociological concepts, as well as to suppose the existence of latent dimensions or sub-dimensions in the data structure. The analysis of the data collected on SDGs includes a first phase of selection of indicators based on their theoretical relevance and statistical consistency, a phase of harmonisation and standardisation of data and finally a phase of application of multivariate statistical techniques with the aim to build empirical indexes that are transversal to one or more pillars of the SDGs. The multivariate analysis techniques, together with an accurate theoretical reflection, allow us to explore the dimensions of sustainability underlying the 17 objectives identified by the UN. Based on this, we can proceed with a comparison between the involved countries regarding the state of achievement of the objectives. The analysis limited to the OECD countries also allows us to integrate the UN database with other OECD statistical sources. In conclusion, the understanding of the interactional relationships between the different components of the concept of sustainability through statistical analysis can help to develop multithematic and transversal governance policies for the countries involved in achieving the 17 sustainable development objectives.