Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics: Opportunities and Challenges

✍ Scribed by Committee on Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics, National Academy of Engineering and Natio

• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 264
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

"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 gate - 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 industries - automotive, chemical, electronics, and pulp and paper - 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.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter......Page 1
Preface......Page 5
Contents......Page 9
Executive Summary......Page 13
1 Why Study Environmental Metrics?......Page 31
2 What Are Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics?......Page 41
3 Guide to the Industry Studies......Page 61
4 The Automotive Industry......Page 65
5 The Chemical Industry......Page 97
6 The Electronics Industry......Page 119
7 The Pulp and Paper Industry......Page 141
8 Summary of Metrics Used by the Four Industry Sectors......Page 159
9 Observations, Trends, and Challenges......Page 165
10 A Hypothetical Model for Improving Aggregation and Presentation of Environmental Performance Metrics......Page 181
11 The Sustainable Enterprise Paradigm Shift......Page 195
12 A Framework for Action......Page 213
APPENDIX A Current Reporting and Use of Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics: Global Scale......Page 231
APPENDIX B Current Reporting of Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics by U.S. Semiconductor Companies......Page 239
APPENDIX C Current Reporting and Use of Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics: Company Scale1......Page 245
Biographical Data......Page 249
Index......Page 255