Measuring Up: Toward a Common Framework for Tracking Corporate Environmental Performance

A universally accepted set of environmental performance indicators could increase overall corporate environmental performance through greater resource efficiency, improved pollution prevention, and increased product stewardship, so says this report prepared by the World Resources Institute in 1997.

The report calls for a new framework for measuring and communicating corporate environmental performance based on four standard categories: materials use, energy consumption, nonproduct output, and pollutant releases. The authors support their argument with practical examples, illustrating how firms are already using these indicators to improve environmental performance while increasing profitability. Read examples from around the world of how governments, communities, financial institutions, and others are using environmental performance indicators to gauge and communicate progress towards environmental goals. The authors also propose several recommendations and provide guidelines for measuring corporate environmental performance.

Order the report, which costs $20, online.