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Home / Calculating Eco-efficiency Indicators: A Workbook for Industry

Calculating Eco-efficiency Indicators: A Workbook for Industry

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RELEASED 2001

 		 This document was prepared for the NRTEE by IndEco Strategic Consulting , Inc. and Carole Burnham Consulting Many leading companies have already developed key eco-efficiency indicators for their businesses and are routinely tracking and reporting energy, waste and water intensity indicators. Because these indicators have been developed internally within businesses or business sectors, the results are not readily comparable. The standardization of definitions and decision rules for calculating and reporting eco-efficiency indicators could help companies to set measurable eco-efficiency targets and facilitate comparisons between companies and business sectors - essentially, it would result in widely accepted, quantifiable, verifiable and transparent indicators that could be widely used. Ultimately, reporting of eco-efficiency could become as standard and routine as reporting currently accepted indicators of financial performance. Canada's National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE), with the active cooperation of volunteer companies, has developed and tested decision rules and definitions for energy, waste and water intensity indicators. The NRTEE's work builds on the development of principles and a framework for eco-efficiency indicators undertaken by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). Participants in the NRTEE indicator program agreed that other companies in Canada and internationally should be encouraged to measure and report energy, waste and water intensity using the consistent approaches tested. Participants also agreed that it would be useful to develop a user-friendly workbook that companies could use in calculating and reporting the indicators. This workbook has been developed in accordance with that advice. It outlines and defines the energy, waste and water indicators that were developed duringthe NRTEE program and provides basic instructions for companies that wish to calculate these indicators for their organizations.