May 28, 2008 by
Brian Butler
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?, Overview
For this workshop, the underlying assumption was that as a society we need to measure the environmental performance of every company, due in part to the concept that we cannot manage what we cannot measure properly. There were multiple examples of “what to measure” discussed during this workshop; for example, outcomes vs. drivers, absolute vs. relative indicators, industry specific vs. company specific, as well as measuring improvements over time.
To answer the “why” portion of this topic, the results of the workshop give the following examples of why to measure environmental performance: measuring performance can help to show the quality of the environment; regulatory compliance is another reason for performance measures; competitive advantage, as well as risk management (reduction of environmental liabilities) were also given as examples during this workshop.
With regard to the role of the environmental manager in performance measures, the workshops produced the following examples of how the environmental manager figures into this topic:
the EM is responsible for linking targets between environmental performance and corporate performance;
EMs must convince corporate managers on returns on environmental performance measurement and improvement;
EMs must communicate the results of performance measurement to stakeholders;
EMs must work toward organizing the performance management process;
EMs must also set attractive targets, specify indicators, quantify indicators, make reports for managers, and help to shift the corporate culture toward acceptance of environmental responsibilities.
You can view the symposium powerpoint HERE.
January 15, 2008 by
John Morelli
and
Brian Butler
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?, Overview
Welcome to the discussion! Researchers working on this important subtopic include: Gábor Harangozó, Lauren Kerwawycz, and Mason Baziw. Listed below in reverse order are the various postings from the research team. If you are interested in articipating on this professional research team, or learning more about it, please contact us by clicking here.
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April 28, 2008 by
Mason Baziw
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?, General
Jean-François Henri, Alexandre Giasson. “Measuring environmental performance: a basic ingredient of environmental management. ” CMA Management 1 Aug. 2006: 28-32. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. RIT Lib., Rochester, NY.. 28 Apr. 2008
Again, I am looking into the use of environmental performance indicators for measuring environmental performance. I have had some experience with ISO [...]
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by
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?
As April Terreri describes in her article, Eight Steps to a Green Supply Chain, it is quite evident that companies are carefully being instructed to make improvements throughout their business processes. The author points out that no universally accepted standards exist to calcualte the carbon footprint of a company. This article exists to be a guide [...]
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April 21, 2008 by
John Morelli
,
Mason Baziw
,
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ
and
jsarkis
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?
Anju Mathew, Brian Butler and I have been reading your interesting posts and discussing your topic. One thought comes to mind: should there be two scales of measurements, one that focuses on how a company performs within its particular industry and another on how it performs on an absolute scale. This might be an interesting [...]
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April 17, 2008 by
Mason Baziw
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?
Jean-Francois Henri, Marc Journeault, Environmental performance indicators: An empirical study of Canadian manufacturing firms, Journal of Environmental ManagementVolume 87, Issue 1, , April 2008, Pages 165-176.
This article seems to be quite informative regarding using EPIs for measuring environmental performance and their importance. The entry explains that there are two different classifications of EPIs: financial/non-financial indicators [...]
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April 2, 2008 by
Gabor Harangozo
and
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?
Dear All,
Thanks for your comments on my initiative post. You already covered partly my first concern, regarding “what to measure?”, i.e. what do we regard as environmental performance, as some aspects were indirectly already formulated as follows:
- Level of emissions, pollution (Mason)
- Legal compliance (Mason)
- Environmental initiatives (Lauren)
- “Greenness” of supply chain (Lauren)
Information on all [...]
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March 21, 2008 by
Gabor Harangozo
,
Mason Baziw
,
amathew
and
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ
| Filed under: 1, 3-What Should Be Measured and Why?, Collaboratory
Welcome all to the topic „What should be measured and why?” Let me introduce myself very briefly. My name is Gabor Harangozo, working at the Dept. of Environmental Economics at the Corvinus University of Budapest in Hungary. I was honoured by Professor Morelli to be able to co-think with you all on the mysteries of [...]
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