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The exclusive concept and criteria of sustainability does not seem enough to cope with the need and the complexity of our modern society, which seeks a balance between material and non-material values.A conceptual model is presented for the development and evaluation of goals for sustainable development by combining explicit notions of governance and ethics in the complex field of sustainability. Thus, the paper is aimed at exploring the interlinkages established among sustainability, governance and ethical variables. The chaotic arena of these variables – although dependent on each other – is systematised in distinct and discrete fields. The framework represents a back-to-basis approach, transferable to any condition, in which the functions are: (1) sustainability (S), a field of macro-variables underlying normative targets and criteria to enhance social, economic and environmental sustainability; (2) governance (G), a field of macro-variables pertinent to the organisation of the civil society and influencing the organisation of the social system to ensure sustainability; (3) ethics (€), a field of principles used to explicitly orient goals and targets of sustainable development towards a higher level of values that clearly determine the future paths of sustainability. The outcome of the methodology consists of a matrix that translates some of the S–G–€ interlinkages into multidimensional criteria to be used for framing sustainable development into specific multidimensional goals for project or strategy development. An application of the theoretical model is given in the last part of this paper
ethics, governance, sustainability, sustainable development, water resources
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