Environmental Performance Indicators—Key Features of Some Recent Proposals

Abstract

The paper identifies some key features of the thinking in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development document "A Manual for Preparers and Users of Eco-efficiency Indicators" (2004). The UN approach is compared with that of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in the third generation of its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines issued October 2006 (GRI 2006) and with that set out in "Environmental Key Performance Indicators-Reporting Guidelines for UK Business" (DEFRA and Trucost 2006). Reference is also made to some of the performance indicators given as examples in the international standard on management evaluation of environmental performance issued in 1999 by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO 14031). The paper is intended to provide an overview rather than a detailed analysis. It looks at the extent to which the proposals under review are based on a conceptual framework, the principal impacts addressed, and the guidance provided as regards definition and compilation of the performance indicators. The differing approaches adopted in the proposals give rise to a number of questions: 1. Is there a prospect of convergence amongst "standard setters" on the key environmental performance indicators? 2. In the meantime, do any of the proposals assist organisations in identifying key environmental performance indicators and the information to be reported? The paper seeks to address some of the issues that arise in relation to these questions.