Organizations Environmental Performance Indicators

The book provides a collection of individual chapters from the participants in the OEPI project, which represent a mix of academic and practical chapters and contributions. The first part of the book is dedicated to a theoretical introduction to Organisations' Environmental Performance Indicators and to a state-of-the-art overview in literature and practice. The second part of the book contains several chapters describing information systems and their components supporting the management of Environmental Performance Indicators, especially in inter-organizational contexts. The third part is dedicated to three case studies from practice, and the book concludes with part four, in which practical guidelines for the innovative management of Environmental Performance indicators in organizations and in inter-organizational contexts are presented.

Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics is a corporate-focused analysis that brings clarity and practicality to the complex issues of environmental metrics in industry. The book examines the metrics implications to businesses as their responsibilities expand beyond the factory gateâ€"upstream to suppliers and downstream to products and services. It examines implications that arise from greater demand for comparability of metrics among businesses by the investment community and environmental interest groups. The controversy over what sustainable development means for businesses is also addressed. Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics identifies the most useful metrics based on case studies from four industriesâ€"automotive, chemical, electronics, and pulp and paperâ€"and includes specific corporate examples. It contains goals and recommendations for public and private sector players interested in encouraging the broader use of metrics to improve industrial environmental performance and those interested in addressing the tough issues of prioritization, weighting of metrics for meaningful comparability, and the longer term metrics needs presented by sustainable development.

Environmental and social performance measurement and reporting by business has become a high-profile issue during the 1990s. It is increasingly being requested by stakeholders and required by governments. Companies too are finding that they need better environmental and social performance data for effective internal management. And there are a growing number of standardisation initiatives – such as the ISO 14031 guidelines on environmental performance evaluation or the CERES Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) template for sustainability reporting – that are aimed at making it easier for more companies to take action, and for stakeholders to compare their progress.Sustainable Measures collects together most of the key work and individuals concerned with the topic from around the world. Contributions include: environmental and social reporting by John Elkington and colleagues at SustainAbility; the GRI discussion draft; Roger Adams and Martin Houldin on the FEE study of environmental reporting; Janet Ranganathan of the World Resources Institute on sustainability measures; and Martin Bennett and Peter James on ISO 14031 and the future of environmental performance evaluation. There are also chapters examining current practice in Austria, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa, developments in electronic reporting, as well as case studies of Baxter, Kunert, Niagara Mohawk, Unox, The Body Shop and the UK water industry, and an analysis of leading social reports.The book is essential reading for all academics, campaigners, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in issues such as:The standardization and comparability of environmental and social performance measuresMeasuring and reporting on sustainable businessEco-points and other means of evaluating product impactsThe implementation of measurement and reportingBest practice in corporate environmental and social reportingNew means of communicating environmental dataEnvironmental performance evaluation in developing countries

One of the most important issues in developing sustainable management strategies and incorporating ecodesigns in production, manufacturing and operations management is the assessment of the sustainability of business operations and organizations’ overall environmental performance. The book presents the results of recent studies on sustainability assessment. It provides a solid reference for researchers in academia and industrial practitioners on the state-of-the-art in sustainability appraisal including the development and application of sustainability indices, quantitative methods, models and frameworks for the evaluation of current and future welfare outcomes, recommendations on data collection and processing for the evaluation of organizations’ environmental performance, and eco-efficiency approaches leading to business process re-engineering.

The book contains the proceedings of the OECD Conference that was held in Rome in December 1999. It presents the wide range of initiatives and indicators that are already in place, and outlines the challenges that remain in measuring progress towards sustainable development.

Environmental issues can present some daunting operational concerns for all types of organization, whether in the private, public and voluntary sectors. Managing them requires environmental professionals with a working knowledge of the rapidly developing body of regulatory measures. This new edition of Environmental Management in Organizations provides all the management tools, performance measures and communication strategies that organizations need to manage their environmental responsibilities effectively. Leading experts on each topic provide focused explanations and clear practical guidance, as well as setting out the context and the key environmental and management drivers. This edition significantly updates the original handbook to take account of developments in the environmental agenda, including new dedicated chapters on climate change, energy, transport, biodiversity and chemicals. Published with IEMA.

Twenty years ago, environment and sustainable development issues were marginal concerns for businesses and public bodies, requiring a relatively narrow range of personnel, knowledge and skills. Today, these issues are key operational concerns for all but the smallest organizations and apply to all sectors - the private, public and voluntary sectors. Managing them requires a growing army of environmental professionals to manage them with knowledge of a rapidly developing body of regulatory measures.Environmental Management in Organizations provides the basic resource needed by organizations and the managers they employ on the issues and on the management tools, performance measures and communication strategies available. Leading experts on each topic have provided focused explanations and clear practical guidance, as well as setting out the context and the key environmental and management drivers.

A new field of integrated performance measurement is rapidly evolving, in which sustainability is defined in terms of contextually relevant economic, environmental, and social indicators. There is a corresponding international momentum for progress on sustainability-related performance measurement, with a requirement for the development of methodologies and indicator sets that are comparable across various scales and sectors. This publication is a compendium of indicator initiatives and publications which is intended to provide up-to-date and essential information needed by practitioners to establish partnerships and orient themselves in this field. The section on experts and initiatives is arranged geographically by continent, with separate subsections for Canada, the United States, United Nations, and other initiatives with a global mandate. Information given for each initiative or expert includes project and contact name, addresses (including electronic mail) and phone numbers, description of initiative, and publications if any. The bibliographic section is arranged alphabetically by author under topics including theory and methods of sustainable development indicators, ecosystem and ecoregion-based indicators, geographically based indicators, and livelihood system indicators. Includes author, subject, and organisation index, and a list of acronyms.