It is generally well-accepted wisdom that what isn’t measured can’t be controlled. So measurement is important. But measurement provides more than just information on the effectiveness of controls; it also provides information on the values of the culture within which the measurements are being taken. Deciding upon environmental performance metrics can, in many cases, be not much more than a translation of regulatory requirements. However, while many, perhaps most, companies claim that their environmental performance is principally compliance driven, an examination of what they measure reveals that the organization’s concerns often go well beyond regulatory mandates. So it is important to understand not just what should be measured but also what we are trying to accomplish with our measurements. Obviously, it is important that what we measure and our management methodologies are internally and externally valid with respect our purpose for conducting these measurements. But in many cases for the results of our measurements to be useful there needs to be correspondence with earlier and subsequent measurements and, perhaps, at other locations. The subtopics in this research collaboratory will explore performance measurement and examine what we measure and why, what standards of practice exist or are developing and how we use the results of our measurements.
April 27, 2008 by
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ | Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | No Comments »
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 for companies to evaluate their supply chain and take initiatives to make their business practices more sustainable. As this article stresses the number one reason why companies want to measure the sustainability is to increase their bottom line.
Here are the eight steps to a greener supply chain: 1. business model, 2. transportation, 3. LEED-certified buildings and energy-reducing initiatives,. 4. packaging reduction, 5. education and training, 6. carbon credits, 7. waste reduction, and 8. recycling
What I find interesting is that Terreri does not say that being at either end of the spectrum in terms of progress of a sustainable supply chain is not a “good or bad” thing but depends on the business dynamics. This emphasizes the need for an industry scale as well as an absolute scale to comparatively gauge organizations. Some standards that are mentioned include the EPA’s Energy Star compliance, LEED certified buildings, and the US Department of Engery is referenced as a regulator. This article describes what organizations should measure but not necessarily how to measure them. Ideally these environmental performance indicators would be measured using globally recognized systems.
April 21, 2008 by
John Morelli ,
Mason Baziw ,
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ and
jsarkis | Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | 3 Comments »
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 approach that serves both current needs for measures and future trends because it will allow a company to be rated good or bad with respect to the others involved in similar activities, but also provide a way to compare the absolute performance compared to others across all industries and activities.
What are your thoughts about this?
April 17, 2008 by
Mason Baziw | Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | No Comments »
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 and ISO 14031 guidelines. Financial and non-financial indicators work hand in hand and both are good indicators of organizations effectiveness. However, the ISO 14031 guidelines are widely used and suggest three different indicators including: environmental condition indicators, operational performance indicators and management performance indicators. It is very important to consider all of these types of indicators when we try to define how to measure environmental performance.
April 2, 2008 by
Gabor Harangozo and
| Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | 1 Comment »
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 these aspects are important to get a complete view on the environmental performance of a corporation (there might be some more…) In many cases these aspects support each other, but not necessarily at all. Just consider a company going beyond regulation (as it is too loose, or missing regarding a special pollutant), we cannot say it would perform well, if pollution records are high. Or as another example, taking a company with high environmental load (pollution), partly because of industry characteristics, we cannot state, that its performance is for sure bad, if it launches at the same time lots of initiatives to control emissions and tries to cooperate also along the supply chain in this respect.
What you both address (whether 10 or 20 tons of emissions is good – Mason, or what metrics we should use – Lauren) is already focusing on a next step (how to measure? – and whether it is possible to establish a standardized metrics for that purpose) but this is relevant when we already agreed on what to measure? (and why?)
What I would recommend is to complete this list with some more aspects (if you find relevant ones). A good starting point can be to scan the suggested indicator systems of some environmental performance measurement systems. This will provide hint also on how to measure? But indirectly, we can also see what fields they recommend to measure. These systems can be for instance:
- Indicators ISO 14031 standard (the whole standard might not be available on the internet, but the indicator system should be in many places),
- Indicators of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) – http://www.globalreporting.org , (it is a guideline on sustainability reporting, but the suggested environmental indicators might suggest us what to measure!)
- Methodology of Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes – http://www.sustainability-index.com - Measuring eco-efficiency – for example http://www.wbcsd.org
- etc.
So what we might do now is a sort of literature review based on these sources. These also can provide information on our second and third concerns (why to measure and examples for commercial benefits of good env. perf.).
For further quality readings (also to Lauren’s question) I can recommend databases like ABI/Inform Global or EBSCO if these are subscribed by RIT, but almost all management or business databases should contain relevant material.
If you have any questions or comments pls feel free to put them
Gábor
Ps: on Lauren’s question regarding final product on the workshop I can copy Professor Morelli’s information on the role of this discussion now.
- “Based on their findings, the students will have to identify and describe goals for the workshops to be held at the Symposium and post their findings on the EnvironmentalManager.org website.
- Then other students in the class will review the posting and participate in discussions to further flesh out and develop the topic.
- The deliverable will be due Monday, April 28th and will include workshop goals (note: these may be long term goals), objectives, and strategies for the workshop.
- The assigned grad students will participate in the workshops and keep notes on the discussion.”
Frankly saying I do not have exact information on the format of our “product” but I will forward this question to Professor Morelli.
March 21, 2008 by
Gabor Harangozo ,
Mason Baziw ,
amathew and
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ | Filed under: Collaboratory,What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | 2 Comments »
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 corporate environmental performance measurement.
The question „What should be measured and why?” is a key issue for an environmental manager.
First of all, one has to address the question: “What to measure?”, “What do I regard as (good) environmental performance?” What we need is to cover the main characteristics of good environmental performance to be able to have a description on what do we talking about. It does not have to be a scientific definition, rather a brainstorming on the main characteristics of (good) corporate environmental performance (production vs. products, environmental load vs. efforts of the management etc.)
Secondly, we should try to consider as many aspects as possible why environmental performance measurement can be beneficial for the company (or the environmental management).
Thirdly, we should consider ways how good environmental performance can contribute to the improvement of corporate performance. Actually that is a key issue, as otherwise how to convince company management to support “greening”? To get started, it might be useful to collect some short practical examples, and then try to systemize them somehow.
I am looking forward to your ideas and comments. In the meantime I wish you all happy Easter!
Gabor
March 20, 2008 by
LAUREN KERWAWYCZ and
Mason Baziw | Filed under: What Should Be Measured and Why? [1,3] | 1 Comment »
Hello Gabor, Anju, and Diane. I would like to start discussions about this topic. I am going to start on some research and learn about potential performance measurements and why one would want to put a measurement on environmental responsibility.
Any idea’s/thoughts to start with?
January 15, 2008 by
John Morelli | Filed under: Overview,Standards of Practice | No Comments »
Welcome to the discussion!
Researchers working on this important subtopic include:
TBA_________________________
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TBA_________________________
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Listed below are the various postings from the research team. Some will be abstracts of and links to relevant literature. Others will be original work posted here for comments, criticisms, suggestions, questions, etc. from professional environmental managers who visit this site.
If you are interested in participating on this professional research team, or learning more about it, please contact us by clicking here.
January 15, 2008 by
John Morelli | Filed under: Comparison and Consistency,Overview | No Comments »
Welcome to the discussion!
Researchers working on this important subtopic include:
TBA_________________________
TBA_________________________
TBA_________________________
TBA_________________________
TBA_________________________
TBA_________________________
Listed below are the various postings from the research team. Some will be abstracts of and links to relevant literature. Others will be original work posted here for comments, criticisms, suggestions, questions, etc. from professional environmental managers who visit this site.
If you are interested in participating on this professional research team, or learning more about it, please contact us by clicking here.
January 15, 2008 by
John Morelli | Filed under: Overview,RESEARCH CATEGORY: ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT | No Comments »
Welcome to the Research Collaboratory for ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT. This is one of six principle research topics initially posted on EnvironmentalManager.org. The research team for this topic includes:
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There are three sub-topics within this collaborative research effort, each with a research team leader.
What Should be Measured and Why? – TBD: __________________
Comparison and Consistency – TBD: __________________
Standards of Practice – TBD: __________________
Please click on the Environmental Performance Measurement subtopics on the right to learn more about what the research teams are attempting to accomplish.
If you are interested in participating on one of our professional research teams, or learning more about them, please contact us by clicking here.
