Abstract Sustainability assessment is a complex field and its uptake amongst agricultural producers limited. Furthermore, the scope of current sustainability assessment tools does not extend to systems in which food production is integrated with production of non-food biomass (e.g. agroforestry). Participatory approaches to tool development offer a means to overcome the subjectivity of researcher-led tool design and thus the potential to increase relevance and engagement. In this work we develop a Delphi-style methodology as a means to produce a sustainability assessment tool suitable to assess and feedback on an integrated food/non-food system. Using a widely accepted agricultural sustainability framework and an existing farm sustainability assessment tool as a base, stakeholders were engaged with across six countries and multiple stakeholder groups to identify key indicators to be added to the tool. The methodology developed is described in detail, framed in the setting of this tool development process but providing a novel framework applicable to any situation where indicators must be developed for a complex issue of interest across multiple perspectives and stakeholder groups. Feedback and learning from the experience is provided. It was found that, contrary to some opinion, the inclusion of a face-to-face discussion round as part of the Delphi procedure provides a valuable means for information exchange and a move towards consensus amongst stakeholders. By using a ‘snowball’ approach to the in person discussions, it appears too that the loss of the voices of more socially retiring individuals can be avoided. Final levels of agreement vary substantially across the different areas of sustainability, with indicators in some areas (e.g. environmental integrity) proving much less controversial than others (e.g. social wellbeing). Despite this, the methodology effectively reaches a level of consensus amongst diverse stakeholders sufficient to guide the selection of sustainability indicators with a good level of confidence.

中文翻译：

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开发综合食品/非食品系统可持续性评估工具的德尔福式方法

摘要 可持续性评估是一个复杂的领域，它在农业生产者中的应用有限。此外，当前可持续性评估工具的范围并未扩展到粮食生产与非粮食生物质生产（例如农林业）相结合的系统。工具开发的参与式方法提供了一种方法来克服研究人员主导的工具设计的主观性，从而有可能增加相关性和参与度。在这项工作中，我们开发了一种 Delphi 风格的方法论，以此作为一种手段来生产适用于评估和反馈综合食品/非食品系统的可持续性评估工具。以广泛接受的农业可持续性框架和现有农场可持续性评估工具为基础，利益相关者与六个国家和多个利益相关者团体进行接触，以确定要添加到该工具中的关键指标。所开发的方法被详细描述，以该工具开发过程为框架，但提供了一个新颖的框架，适用于必须针对跨多个观点和利益相关者群体感兴趣的复杂问题开发指标的任何情况。提供反馈和从经验中学习。结果发现，与某些观点相反，将面对面的讨论回合作为德尔菲程序的一部分，为信息交流和利益相关者之间达成共识提供了一种宝贵的手段。通过使用“滚雪球”方法进行面对面的讨论，似乎也可以避免失去更多社会退休人员的声音。可持续发展的不同领域的最终一致性水平差异很大，某些领域（例如环境完整性）的指标证明比其他领域（例如社会福祉）的争议要小得多。尽管如此，该方法有效地达到了不同利益相关者之间的共识水平，足以以良好的信心指导可持续性指标的选择。