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Measuring sustainability is an integral part of decision-making processes in order to promote sustainable development. The present paper focuses on sustainability indicators as these are measured on local level and explores two main issues: firstly, the subjective measurement of indicators focusing especially on social dimensions of sustainability, secondly, the incorporation of local perceptions in sustainability assessments. These two issues are explored in the Asopos River basin in Greece, an area where significant environmental degradation has been observed in the past decades and is also under financial pressure due to the ongoing national recession. A large-scale research study was conducted measuring environmental, economic and social indicators while, at a second stage, a model was developed, estimating new indicators that incorporate local communities' perceptions on what they considered as important for their area. The results of the study reveal that the most important indicators for the sustainable development of the area, according to locals' perceptions, are environmental quality as well as quality of life. By contrast, trust in local and central institutions and also local enterprises were not considered as important by locals. These results illustrate the importance of combining global and national scale assessment with locally focused social measurements of sustainability in order to better understand what is important for local communities prior to embarking on public policy planning.

Local enterprises can play a key role in the economic development of communities in which they are situated but simultaneously, they are often a contributor to negative impacts on the natural environment. Several studies have highlighted the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in order to strike a balance between socioeconomic and environmental impacts in such communities. However, there is very limited literature exploring community perceptions of local businesses. We consider this to be a key topic as such information can be used in order to develop socioeconomic and environmental policies based on the principles of sustainable development. In this paper, the results of an empirical study examining local community perceptions of business activities are presented and also perceptions regarding the contribution of firms, through CSR actions, to environmental quality restoration. The empirical study was conducted in communities located in the environmentally degraded area of the Asopos river in Greece.

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