Environmental performance indicators for enhancing environmental management

Traditionally, environmental issues and concerns have been viewed as a constraint to businesses. This has resulted in environmental managers relying heavily on a reactive, compliance-based approach to justify change. Businesses are now recognizing that efficient management in the environmental arena can benefit the entire company and open new opportunities for increased profits. Managers have acknowledged that environmental issues can be integrated into daily business trends and activities. Not only does sound environmental management decrease liability, but also in current markets a “green” image can attract investors and customers. This article shows how one tool that progressive companies are focusing attention on—environmental performance indicators—is being used to convey the current status of environmental issues and improve the management of these issues for the benefit of the company as well as the environment.     

Environmental management in an international consumer goods company

Many management processes and tools can provide companies with information to support their environmental decision making. Risk assessment, environmental auditing, life cycle assessment and environmental reporting are but a few examples. Each of these has typically evolved independently as the need for it has arisen. Today, however, this abundance of tools can lead to confusion: What is the exact objective of each tool? How do they differ? Are some ‘better’ than others? Should they be used in parallel, sequentially or in place of each other? More importantly, how do they fit together into a coherent environmental management framework that will ensure sound environmental and economic decision making in a company? This paper seeks to answer these questions. It describes the overall environmental framework that has been developed internally within Procter & Gamble and which allows the company to make coherent economically and environmentally sound decisions, in both the short- and long-term.     

Measuring environmental success

Process improvement, environmental results, and customer satisfaction all can—and need to—be measured in order to achieve total quality environmental management. This article details why and how to take such measures, with examples of leading company practices.     

ISO 14000 and information systems—where's the link?

Two of the most frequently heard questions from environmental managers are “What should my company do about ISO 14000?” and “How can I use computer systems to reduce my staff's paperwork burden?” There are experts available to answer each of these questions, but thus far there has been little attention paid to how the two intersect and reinforce each other. This article explores this intersection and helps environmental managers implement information systems that have lasting value and, at the same time, support the ISO 14000 effort.     

Think Global,Buy National: CSR,Cooperatives and Consumer Concerns in the Norwegian Food Value Chain

In a world where issues of food safety and food security are increasingly important, the social responsibility of central actors in the food chain—producers and the main grocery chains—becomes more pressing. As a response, these actors move from implicitly assuming social responsibilities implied in laws, regulations and ethical customs, towards explicitly expressing social responsibilities. In this paper, we discuss the ethical values relevant for the social responsibility of central food producers and retailers in Norway, one of the most subsidized and protected areas of food production in the world. How do the actors perceive and express their social responsibility, and—given their position in the local, national and global market—how should they handle these responsibilities? We analyze Tine and Nortura, two producers owned by farmer cooperatives with market regulator function, as well as Coop—a dominant grocery chain in Norway, with basis in the same public ownership model as the farmer-owned cooperative producers. While the complex roles of these key actors in the Norwegian food market have been criticized from several angles, we argue that these multifaceted roles put them in a good position to promote informed consumer choices in a globalized market.     

A Semiotic Approach to Food and Ethics in Everyday Life

The aim of this paper is to explore how food can be analyzed in terms of signs and codes of everyday life, and especially how food can be used to express ethical concerns. The paper investigates the potential of a semiotic conceptual analysis: How can the semiotic approach be used to analyze expressions of ethics and food ethics in everyday life? The intention is to explore from a theoretical point of view and with constructed cases, how semiotics can be used to analyze the role of food as an expression of ethics in everyday life among families, friends, and colleagues: How do foodstuffs function as signs of ethics in everyday life? How is food used to send signals about care and concern? How are the signs of food ethics perceived? It is concluded that analyzing ethical considerations with respect to food with the help of the semiotic model can show us perspectives that otherwise would be difficult to see and thus we can address everyday food ethical issues that otherwise might not be noted. The semiotic approach to food ethics in everyday life is a conceptual framework that can be used to draw attention to certain domains and fields of food ethical behavior that otherwise would tend to remain implicit and unspoken.     

Business-oriented environmental performance metrics: Building consensus for environmental management systems

Today, environmental managers are learning new ways of adding value to their organizations. Before, the environmental department was an overhead expense—an indirect support group required for complying with burdensome regulations. Now, such departments add insights and value during strategic planning sessions, identify efficiency improvement opportunities, provide a superior return on investment, and—bottom line—improve profits. The primary approach to meeting the challenge is a new environmental management system (EMS) that identifies, measures, and manages a diverse set of internal and external customer needs. These needs include environmental cleanups, regulatory compliance, pollution prevention, and design for the environment—and each represents a potential improvement opportunity. Unfortunately, most organizations have so many such needs that all cannot be addressed at once, given the resource constraints of a competitive business climate. Thus, priority is a key concept of an effective EMS. This article describes an innovative application of consensus-building tools that quickly identify and set priorities for diverse environmental programs. The article also shows how appropriate performance measures will align these programs with corporate goals and objectives.     

Is there a method in our measurement? The use of indicators in local sustainable development planning

'Sustainability indicators' are being used in local communities to serve multiple and sometimes vague or contradictory objectives. This can add to confusion about sustainable development among the public and policy makers. The case of Seattle, USA is used to illustrate how a set of well-developed indicators can fail to meet their objectives if they are unrelated to a methodical planning process. The cases of the State of Oregon, USA and Santa Monica, USA are then presented to demonstrate how indicators can be used effectively in sustainable development planning to measure performance and to promote positive change. The author concludes that, at the local level, indicators are ideally suited for performance measurement. Indicators are a sub-optimal tool for technical assessment and even public education. Applications of indicators for these two purposes can compromise the performance measurement function.     

The electric utility business case for investigating EMS: ISO 14000 and beyond

This article will focus on how a systems approach can be used as a strategic tool for environmental improvement that makes sense from a perspective of bottom-line financial performance. The author will discuss some real-world experience concerning how electric utilities are attempting to align environmental management more closely with business management theory and practice. The ISO 14000 standards have been proposed and, in many instances, finalized as global voluntary standards. How important will they be to the U.S. electric utility sector? ISO 14001, the EMS standard, has been promoted as a necessary “certificate” for those who sell products and/or services overseas. In fact, to be of value to most organizations, the standard must show that it can make a positive financial contribution, whether the service or product is marketed globally, nationally, or locally. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Conservation of Biodiversity: How Are We Doing?

A question rarely raised in discussions on biodiversity conservation, but surely the biggest question of all, is “How much time do we have left before the mass extinction underway surpasses our best efforts to contain it?” This prompts a further prime question because—and unlike all other problems, whether environmental or otherwise—the biotic crisis threatens to leave a severely impoverished planet for millions of years ahead; “Why do we not undertake the necessary actions to get on top of the problem before it gets on top of us?”     

Mining and social development: Refocusing community investment using multi-criteria decision analysis

This paper addresses the question: How can mining companies assess social investment projects so that projects create value for the company and communities in which they operate? Mining companies are still wrestling with the limits of their responsibility in relation to social development even though they accept the business case for community investment at a general level. Fully aware of the practical hazards involved in taking an active role in facilitating local development, companies increasingly avoid methods that are overly paternalistic or assume the functions of the national or local governments. Gaining senior management's commitment to long-term social projects, which are characterised by uncertainty and complexity, is made easier if projects are shown to benefit the site's strategic goals. Case study research on large global mining companies, including interviews with social investment decision makers, has assisted in developing a Social Investment Decision Analysis Tool (SIDAT), a decision model for evaluating social projects. Multi-criteria decision analysis techniques integrating business planning processes with social impact assessment have proved useful in assisting mining companies think beyond seeking reputational benefits, to how they can meet their business goals and contribute to sustainable development.     

THE STRUCTURE AND PRACTICE OF WATER QUALITY TRADING MARKETS1

ABSTRACT: The use of transferable discharge permits in water pollution, what we will call water quality trading (WQT), is rapidly growing in the U.S. This paper reviews the current status of WQT nationally and discusses the structures of the markets that have been formed. Four main structures are observed in such markets: exchanges, bilateral negotiations, clearinghouses, and sole source offsets. The goals of a WQT program are environmental quality and cost effectiveness. In designing a WQT market, policy makers are constrained by legal restrictions and the physical characteristics of the pollution problem. The choices that must be made include how trading will be authorized, monitored and enforced. How these questions are answered will help determine both the extent to which these goals are achieved, and the market structures that can arise. After discussing the characteristics of different market structures, we evaluate how this framework applies in the case of California's Grassland Drainage Area Tradable Loads Program.     

The business implications of implementing ISO 14000

The ISO 14000 standards for environmental management systems (EMS) are voluntary standards intended to aid companies that wish to improve their environmental performance. The standards owe their existence, at least in part, to three widely shared views: (1) that existing environmental management systems are either inadequate or ineffective; (2) that companies will want to improve environmental performance for economic or social reasons; and (3) that governments and stakeholders will require companies to exercise greater control of the impacts to the environment through new regulations. ISO 14000 offers a solution—an ?integrated”? EMS, with components designed to effect sound management in any size organization and in any country. The standards are an embodiment of both the policy and practice of environmental management. This article is a consideration of the business implications of the ISO 14000 series of standards. How will a movement toward an integrated EMS be realized? Who will be in the best position to respond? ISO 14000 is a management system, and it carries with it business consequences.     

Corporate performance standards at Kodak

Creating an effective and consistent corporate health, safety, and environment program for a decentralized, international company poses unique challenges. This article describes how, with global company input, Kodak has established a set of twenty-eight corporate HSE performance standards. Worldwide facility compliance with these standards is monitored through Kodak's Corporate HSE Assessment Program and through the Corporate Self-Appraisal Program.     

Environmental performance benchmarking for electric utilities

Electric utility companies in the United States and Canada are participating in a unique environmental benchmarking program (EBP) designed to comparatively assess environmental performance. Each company annually provides data on emissionslwastes, compliance, and other environmental aspects to an independent consultant, Research Triangle Institute (RTI), whose staff compiles the data and computes approximately 80 discrete environmental performance metrics for each company. RTI provides a confidential report for each participant presenting the results of the assessment. In addition, RTI conducts a follow-up assessment to determine “best-practices” of each of the top performers for each metric. The EBP provides each participant with useful information on its strengths and weaknesses relative to the other companies in the program as well as ideas on how to improve its environmental performance. Annual participation in the program allows a company to measure improvement in performance on an annual basis. This article summarizes the evolution of the EBP and describes the study methods and reporting approach. Our goal in sharing this information is to demonstrate the usefulness of the program and encourage further participation by all major North American electric utilities.     

Development of an Earthen Dam Break Database

Earthen embankment dams comprise 85% of all major operational dams in the United States. Assessment of peak flow rates for these earthen dams and the impacts on dam failure are of high interest to engineers and planners. Regression analysis is a frequently used risk assessment approach for earthen dams. In this paper, we present a decision support tool for assessing the applicability of nine regression equations commonly used by practitioners. Using data from 108 case studies, six parameters were observed to be significant factors predicting for peak flow as a metric for risk analysis. We present our work on an expanded earthen dam break database that relates the regression equations and underlying data. A web application, regression selection tool, is also presented to assess the appropriateness of a given model for a given test point. This graphical display allows users to visualize how their data point compares with the data used for the regression equation. These contributions improve estimates and better inform decision makers regarding operational and safety decisions.     

Uncertainties of Nutrigenomics and Their Ethical Meaning

Again and again utopian hopes are connected with the life sciences (no hunger, health for everyone; life without diseases, longevity), but simultaneously serious research shows uncertain, incoherent, and ambivalent results. It is unrealistic to expect that these uncertainties will disappear. We start by providing a not exhaustive list of five different types of uncertainties end-users of nutrigenomics have to cope with without being able to perceive them as risks and to subject them to risk-analysis. First, genes connected with the human body or nutrients can have different functions in interaction with their environment (for instance, one nutrient can be healthy for the heart, but can also be a high risk in relation to cancer). Secondly, uncertainties are formed by risk analyses. Will it be possible to calculate a certain risk of getting a certain condition with a certain lifestyle? Will it be difficult to separate the genetic component and the lifestyle component? How high will these risks be? How will these risks be handled by the actors? In the case of personal genotyping, it is unclear how frequent an adverse polymorphism will occur. Will every individual have a certain vulnerability to a certain disease or will it only be applicable to a small group of the population or particular populations? Thirdly, dietary advices are subject to uncertainties and still to be developed professional standards: some will have adverse outcomes, some will not delay the disease, and some will assume uncertain associations between nutrients, lifestyle, and genetic vulnerabilities. Fourth, with regard to the usefulness of tests it is uncertain to what extent risks indications about obesity and diabetes and other vulnerabilities really influence people to live healthier and therefore will help to prevent these conditions. Fifth, it is uncertain how and what nutrigenomics products will be developed and used. Will it be possible to develop more effectively health improving products? Or is this too difficult and will nutrigenomics continue to be used in not always justified health claims as a commercial and marketing tool? Present-day ethics and theories of responsibilities presuppose that uncertainties will disappear and concentrate on what seems to be fixed and stable in science. We develop provisional thoughts that assume that the dynamic of science to produce uncertainties and dilemmas is endemic, and we stress the need for consumers to institutionalize value searching, exploring, and deliberating devices in the health and food sector to find out the most important uncertainties and correspondingly socially desirable research priorities.     

Assessing ICT risk through a Monte Carlo method

To assess and manage the risk due to an information and communication system before its deployment, data of interest can be produced by a Monte Carlo method. This paper presents Haruspex, a software tool that applies a Monte Carlo method to simulate intelligent and adaptive threat agents that reach predefined goals through plan with several attacks. The samples that Haruspex collects are used to compute statistics on the agent’s impacts and their plans as well as to select cost-effective countermeasures. We describe the rationale and the implementation of Haruspex, the inputs it requires and the simulation of how the agents select and implement their plans. After discussing the validation and the performance of the first version of Haruspex, we present a case study and the first set of experimental results.     

Using ISO 14000 for improved organizational learning and environmental management

Since the adoption of ISO 14001, companies have examined the standard and considered certification. Although the framework is useful and enhancing environmental management systems is beneficial, the adoption of ISO 14001 alone will not provide maximum company benefits. Companies must strive for an improvement in environmental performance and financial performance that can be accomplished only through significant changes in corporate culture, structure, and systems. By developing core capabilities such as skills and knowledge, physical technical systems, managerial systems, and values and norms, companies can develop organizational learning to increase sustainable competitive advantage. This article examines how the ISO 14000 series of standards can be used to improve organizational learning and environmental management.