Evaluating sustainability in local public projects: Performance indicators, transparency, and the risk of greenwashing

AbstractPurpose: This paper aims to analyze how sustainability is measured and verified in local territorialprojects funded by European, national, and regional resources. Although the supranational andnational levels promote the integration of sustainability principles, their actual verifiability at thelocal level often relies on indicators that are poorly structured or entirely absent. Methodology:The study adopts a qualitative approach based on a multiple case study design, conducted ex-clusively through desk analysis of the 2021,2027 European programming period. The Amminis-trazione Trasparente section or OpenBilanci are both sources of data, as well as project-level dataextracted from OpenCoesione and strategic planning documents released by individual munici-palities. Three municipalities from the Lazio Region (C1, C2, and C3) are included in the sample,which is categorized by demographic size according to ISTAT data and picked based on trans-parency, data availability, and project traceability. The analysis develops in three stages: classifi-cation of projects according to the three dimensions of sustainability; mapping and evaluation ofperformance indicators (KPIs) reported in public documentation; and identification of potentialgreenwashing risks through the linkage between identified KPIs (or their absence) and fundedprojects. Results: The findings highlight significant difficulties in verifying sustainability withinfunded projects and the risk that sustainability remains merely formal, thereby increasing exposureto greenwashing. Relevance and Implications for Research and Practice: The originality of the studylies in treating the absence of sustainability measurability indicators not as a methodologicalshortcoming but as an empirical result in itself, capable of linking the lack of KPIs with greenwashingrisk. The framework that is developed allows for a joint assessment of KPI presence andgreenwashing risk, making it a comparative tool to assess the reliability of sustainability claims at thelocal level.