Add to ORKGwww.euroeiiw.de JEL classification: Q 01, Q 56 Key words: sustainable development, sustainable economic growth, dematerialization, capital maintenance, environmental accounting Summary: The cornucopian paradigm of sustainable development eludes quantification and opens the door to advocacy and activism. Moreover, setting normative sustainability targets for an opaque development concept blurs assessment and analysis. Policy integration should focus, therefore, on what is measurable and comparable. Operational concepts of ecological and economic sustainability address the immediate interaction between environment and economy. Material flow balances and greened national accounts define and measure these sustainability concepts. Sustainable de...