Industrial Environmental Performance Metrics Challenges and Opportunities (1999) / Chapter Skim
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10 A Hypothetical Model for Improving Aggregation and Presentation of Environmental Performance Metrics
10 A Hypothetical Model for Improving Aggregation and Presentation of Environmental Performance Metrics
Pages 169-182
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From page 169... ...
Industrial environmental performance metrics, on the other hand, are nonstandardized and very sector dependent. This chapter explores ways in which environmental performance metrics might be made more broadly useful through the selection of common metrics topics, normalization onto a common scale, and more effective presentation and aggregations.
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From page 170... ...
In Chapter 8 the committee suggested a generic set of metrics divided into seven categories: resource metrics for manufacturing, products, and product packaging; environmental burden metrics; human health and safety metrics; supplier performance metrics; and sustainability metrics. The seven categories are described more fully below.
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From page 171... ...
The situation is equally unsatisfactory with regard to water and energy, for which geographically influenced supply conditions as well as financially related factors could blur the environmental evaluation. Ideally, then, resource consumption-related metrics would be established by having industry consortia or other appropriate groups provide first-level maximum and minimum normalized values (for example, on a scale of 0 to 10~.
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From page 172... ...
has suggested several metrics of this type including · the use of recycled materials, · the use of renewable resources, and · the provision of services rather than goods. Metrics based on these measures may be strongly sector dependent, and industry consortia or other appropriate groups will need to establish moredescriptive definitions.
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From page 173... ...
, or other topics of interest. Resource Metrics for Product Packaging Packaging requirements differ greatly across industry sectors: It is obviously necessary to package a liquid chemical, but it is not so obvious that an automobile requires very much in the way of packaging.
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From page 174... ...
Human Health and Safety Metrics One or more metrics related to corporate health and safety performance is generally included in a company's environmental, health, and safety report. A common metric is the "recordable incidence rate," often expressed as the number of job-related injuries or illnesses per 100 employees.
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From page 175... ...
Examples include annual worker fatalities and the number of lost workdays per employee. Supplier Performance Metrics Corporations evaluate their suppliers on the basis of many characteristics, including financial stability, product quality, and manufacturing capacity.
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From page 176... ...
USE OF WEIGHTING SYSTEMS Some metrics may be more useful if weighting factors are applied. In the case of materials, for example, Me, as initially defined, values a pound of platinum (a rare metal often in short supply)
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From page 177... ...
of nonhazardous, moderately hazardous, or highly hazardous emissions, respectively. If weighting factors are to be used, it will be important to get community agreement on which material resources should be assigned to the scarcity categories and which emissions should be classed as hazardous.
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From page 178... ...
The major benefit of having a common metric is that the uniform rating scale permits the environmental performance of corporations in the same industrial sector to be directly compared and the environmental performance of a single corporation to be tracked over time. It is not a significant problem that the scales will differ for different sectors.
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From page 179... ...
Such a display has the potential to become a uniform and readily understood presentation of corporate environmental performance, much as the U.S. Department of Agriculture' s chart of daily minimum nutritional requirements efficiently presents the characteristics of foods or food products.
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From page 180... ...
Yet, as the four sector studies indicate, different users cast metrics in different forms, sometimes normalized to production, sometimes not, sometimes focused at the product or process level, other times at an entire facility, business unit, corporation, or nation. This model is presented to show what may be possible and how such a scheme may be used.
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From page 181... ...
IMPROVING AGGREGATION AND PRESENTATION OF METRICS TABLE 10-1 Hypothetical Metrics Data, 1995-1998 181 1995 1996 1997 1998 M1 2.1 2.3 2.3 2.4 M2 4.6 4.5 5.7 5.8 M3 5.9 6.1 6.2 6.3 M4 5.1 5.2 5.4 6.1 M5 3.6 4.5 5.8 6.2 M6 3.5 3.7 4.1 4.3 M7 1.6 1.8 2.1 2.2 Me 7.2 7.6 7.9 8.1 M9 4.4 4.4 4.3 3.9 Mlo 8.4 8.6 8.7 8.8 1 995 1 996 1 997 1 998 FIGURE 10-2 Triangular scoring display of hypothetical data, 1995-1998.
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From page 182... ...
on ~ on TABLE 10-2 Hypothcdc~ Agg~cp~c H~dcs Scows, 1995-1998 1993 1996 1997 1998 46.4 48.7 32.3 34.1 56 54 52 50 48 46 44 42 1 gg6 1 gg7 Year 1 gg8 1 coo FIGURE 10-3 Hypo~eUc~ aggregate environments medics slung (~m)
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