Sustainable Measures

Book excerpt: Environmental and social performance measurement and reporting by business has become a high-profile issue during the 1990s. It is increasingly being requested by stakeholders and required by governments. Companies too are finding that they need better environmental and social performance data for effective internal management. And there are a growing number of standardisation initiatives – such as the ISO 14031 guidelines on environmental performance evaluation or the CERES Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) template for sustainability reporting – that are aimed at making it easier for more companies to take action, and for stakeholders to compare their progress.Sustainable Measures collects together most of the key work and individuals concerned with the topic from around the world. Contributions include: environmental and social reporting by John Elkington and colleagues at SustainAbility; the GRI discussion draft; Roger Adams and Martin Houldin on the FEE study of environmental reporting; Janet Ranganathan of the World Resources Institute on sustainability measures; and Martin Bennett and Peter James on ISO 14031 and the future of environmental performance evaluation. There are also chapters examining current practice in Austria, Denmark, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Netherlands and South Africa, developments in electronic reporting, as well as case studies of Baxter, Kunert, Niagara Mohawk, Unox, The Body Shop and the UK water industry, and an analysis of leading social reports.The book is essential reading for all academics, campaigners, policy-makers and practitioners with an interest in issues such as:The standardization and comparability of environmental and social performance measuresMeasuring and reporting on sustainable businessEco-points and other means of evaluating product impactsThe implementation of measurement and reportingBest practice in corporate environmental and social reportingNew means of communicating environmental dataEnvironmental performance evaluation in developing countries