Four Perspectives of Applied Sustainability: Research Implications and Possible Integrations

How is applied sustainability being understood and implemented in academics' and practitioners' circles? Participants to the workshop "Sustainability Performance Assessment" within the ICCSA 2017 conference are confronted with this overarching question, which they address from their specific backgrounds and theoretical standpoints. In this article, the organizers of the workshop first introduce the debate in which the workshop positions itself, and next offer a glimpse of how the main question can be addressed from four different academic perspectives and disciplines. The variety of perspectives here presented is only a small reflection of the broader diversity of themes and topics tackled by articles submitted to the workshop. Therefore, it provides the reader with an outlook over the wider academic debates that surround the sustainability concept, in a concerted effort to operationalize the concept itself.