Abstract

In order to foster sustainable development inpolitics, society, technology (e.g. energy, mobility, industrialproduction) and other fields, it is essential to analyze and assessthe sustainability of products, processes, strategies,organizations and actions regarding these fields. For thatpurpose, there are numerous approaches to sustainabilityassessment. A growing focus lies on multi-method or combinedapproaches. They offer the potential for integrated and holisticassessments regarding multiple sustainability dimensions, lifecycle phases or input types. The variety of approaches impedescomparison and selection of the suitable approach for therespective assessment situation. This can lead to assessmenterrors and incredibility of results and thus, delay sustainabledevelopment. Systematization and comparison frameworks areneeded to overcome this gap. This paper provides three mainoutcomes. Firstly, a review of existing multi-methodsustainability assessment approaches gives insights into thestatus quo and the characteristics of existing approaches.Secondly, a review of frameworks for systemizing andcomparing assessment approaches provides an overview ofperspectives and criteria for such frameworks. Finally,considering characteristics of multi-method approaches andcriteria from existing frameworks, a comprehensive criteria-setis developed. The criteria-set marks the starting point for thedevelopment of a holistic systematization and comparisonframework in future works.