The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress sought to identify the limits of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, including the problems with its measurement; and to consider what additional information might be required for the production of more relevant indicators of social progress. The Commission believes that choices between promoting GDP and protecting the environment may be false choices, once environmental degradation is appropriately included in our measurement of economic performance. GDP is an inadequate metric to gauge well-being over time particularly in its economic, environmental, and social dimensions, some aspects of which are often referred to as sustainability. Its report distinguishes between an assessment of current well-being and an assessment of sustainability and makes 12 recommendations on how well-being and sustainability can be applied in developing better metrics of economic and social progress.
