ABSTRACT
Sustain Ability and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) stress the urgency in developing environmental performance indicators by charting the development and implementation of environmental management tools by the business community. The original theoretical Environmental Performance Measurement Framework (EPMF) described in Azzone et al. had four measurement areas: environmental policy, environmental management system, processes, products and services, and state of the environment. The chapter assesses these measurement areas as to how they fit into the post-field-trials EPMF. It summarises the strengths and weaknesses of the post-field-trials EPMF. There are four types of environmental performance indicator: absolute, aggregated, relative and index/ weighted. The chapter discusses the issue of benchmarking. Benchmarking the company's environmental policy to an external business charter will not produce an indicator that can be used over time. Benchmarking gives managers a methodology that can be applied to any measure, financial or non-financial, but non-financial measures should be emphasised.
