ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the issue of measuring environmental performance at a company level. Environmental concerns now figure alongside a number of other key business objectives, and many organizations now contribute through in-house projects and area-based schemes to the improvement of local environmental conditions. Environmental management systems have been one of these routes followed by many organizations in the United States and Europe. The United Nations statistical office has put forward proposed indicators of sustainable development as have other international organizations, but on a global scale rather than at an organization level. Ashford & Meima suggest sustainable envirometrics must possess a binary thresholds function which indicates whether a practice is altogether sustainable. The European Green Table developed a reference framework of environmental performance indicators. Within a framework developed by, adapted to individual industry sectors, such an environmental performance indicator system, based on self-assessment, can both enhance the businesss own decision making and provide the elements for consistent communication with stakeholders.
