Comparison of Supermarkets Based on Environmental Impact, Economic Performance, and Social Responsibility

In this thesis, I compare the sustainability of two United States supermarket chains by means of the composite sustainable development index proposed by Krajnc and Glavic. The performance comparison is carried out based on the three pillars of sustainability postulated by the World Commission on Environment and Development: environmental impact, economic performance, and social responsibility. Using data from company annual reports and from sustainability and social responsibility publications, I systematically identify the deficiencies and successes in the environmental, economic, and social performances of one supermarket chain against the other. With more data this analysis can be extended to a large number of supermarkets, other businesses, and other public entities in order to construct a global best practices benchmark, or performance frontier, in all three dimensions of sustainability and in an overall measure of sustainability.