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One of the longest standing challenges facing both research and practice in sustainable development is the design and implementation of methods for measuring progress towards sustainability. While the overarching goals of sustainable development have been clearly articulated since the 1980s (WCED 1987), conceptually coherent measurement systems for tracking progress towards those goals have lagged significantly behind. But goals without measures mean that the idea of sustainability is often used as buzzword and dismissed as meaning whatever anyone wants it to mean, or worse co-opted to greenwash activities that are decidedly unsustainable. If sustainability is to be anything more than a slogan, society must build and maintain a stronger capacity to measure it. Such a capacity is needed to support at least four tasks: i) to assess whether current development pathways are consistent with the normative goals of sustainability; ii) to evaluate whether proposed interventions are likely to foster sustainable development pathways in the future; iii) to signal where improved well-being in one context (e.g. place or time) comes at the expense of damaging the well-being of others elsewhere or for future generations; and iv) to serve as a basis for collaboration and negotiation of transboundary and intertemporal sustainability challenges. This working paper provides a high-level overview of the state of research on measuring sustainable development as well as insights from the past half century of practice in the field. The paper is designed as a jumping off point for a seminar series on Capacity for Sustainable Development (C4SD) organized by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, the Sustainability Science Program, Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Center for International Development, and the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School. For more information about the seminar series see this link: /centers/mrcbg/programs/sustainability-scienceprogram/c4sd-seminar-series