ABSTRACT In the context of global climate change and increasing resource constraints, the concepts of strong and weak sustainability have become vital frameworks for assessing the effectiveness of national sustainable development policies. However, significant gaps persist in understanding how to evaluate the progress toward implementation of these two sustainability approaches, especially in comparative studies covering diverse economic systems. This paper seeks to fill this gap by assessing the sustainability performance of OECD and BRIC countries through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) based on by‐production technology. The study employs the by‐production model, utilizing a logarithmic transformation to improve representation of the productive technology. The results show that OECD countries, driven by technological innovation and favorable policies, tend to exhibit higher sustainability efficiency. Conversely, BRIC countries face considerable challenges in balancing economic growth with environmental preservation. This research provides policymakers with a more comprehensive framework for optimizing sustainable development strategies, highlighting the critical importance of conserving natural resources for long‐term sustainability.
Chen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.