Environmental performance measurement
As environmental performance measurement (ger .: Environmental Performance Measurement, EPM ) the acquisition, evaluation and assessment is of environmental services understand a company or organization to achieve specific environmental objectives are carried out. Environmental goals are anchored in the company's own environmental policy and integrated into the company's environmental management system. The performance measurement is based on specific environmental indicators that are identified, recorded and evaluated by the company. Information on environmentally relevant business activities can be obtained from such key figures. Thus, the environmental performance measurement can be used to assess the performance of an environmental management system, to verify the achievement of environmental goals and to provide approaches for improvements. Another goal is to enable internal or external benchmarking .
Definitions
According to Günther, environmental performance measurement can be defined in the narrower and broader sense:
Environmental performance measurement in the narrower sense
This definition only relates to the points of recording, evaluating and assessing environmental performance. This means that environmental indicators are defined, recorded and evaluated by the company and then subjected to an evaluation and assessment. The results can then be communicated internally or externally, for example as part of an environmental report .
Environmental performance measurement in the broader sense
In addition to the above definition, environmental performance measurement can be expanded to include the point of acting. Here, based on the results of the preceding steps, alternative courses of action are derived, for example in order to optimize operational processes to achieve the environmental goals, or to revise the starting point of the environmental management system if, for example, environmental indicators have proven to be insufficiently informative. Based on this definition, environmental performance measurement can be seen as a cycle process that aims to improve corporate environmental performance.
Process model
Günther proposes the following cyclical, five-stage process model for the environmental performance measurement process (see figure):
- Setting of goals: The environmental goals to be achieved are set on the basis of the demands of internal and external stakeholders.
- Recording: The company's environmental influences are recorded according to the principle of ecological profit sharing.
- Evaluation: The recorded environmental influences are evaluated on the basis of quality objectives. These goals can result from legal requirements, the company's own environmental goals or from the goal of sustainability.
- Assessment: To assess performance, a target / actual comparison between the environmental goals and the company's environmental impact is carried out with the help of a deviation analysis.
- Decision-making: The evaluation of the determined degree of target achievement reveals alternative courses of action that are integrated in a further iteration step of the process model. At the same time, this requires a review of the environmental goals set in the previous iteration step.
Measure and display environmental performance
In order to obtain a comprehensive picture of the ecological consequences of entrepreneurial trade, a holistic perspective must be shown. This is not only geared to the perspective of a company location, but also includes cross-value chain and product life cycle-oriented aspects. For this reason, the analysis of ecological material and energy flows is based on the process-oriented corporate understanding and the “cradle-to-grave” concept. Based on these basic models, various concepts for recording and evaluating environmental performance that are widespread in scientific and operational practice have emerged.
Acquisition concepts
The recording of the environmental performance in a company is the neutral description of the ecological effects of operational processes and products. They therefore differ significantly from the evaluation concepts presented later. Acquisition concepts only provide the data on the basis of which the relevant material and energy flows can be assessed.
Ecological splitting of success
In order to determine the causes of ecological success after a measure, it is advisable to carry out an ecological success split. The ecological success, which represents the absolute difference between a PLAN and an ACTUAL value, is split up according to the criteria of operational relevance, regularity and performance-relatedness. The operational relevance indicates which share of the ecological success can be ascribed to the company's area of direct responsibility and influence (criterion of the system boundary). In the next stage of the investigation, the regularity differentiates between regular (intended) and irregular (unintentional, non-influenceable) business transactions (criterion of influencing). In the last step, the remaining intended success is subjected to the classic variance analyzes of business administration (mixed, efficiency and quantity variance ).
Environmental Performance Evaluation (EPE)
The EPE is a non-certifiable methodology proposed by the ISO which "was developed to provide management with reliable information on a continuous basis as to whether the environmental performance of an organization meets the criteria set by the management of the organization". The EPE considers the environmental performance in the sphere of influence of the organization. Furthermore, it describes the process of target-oriented recording, processing, assessment and communication of environmental performance in accordance with the needs of environmental management. The aim of the EPE is to systematize, record and describe the environmental performance in companies using indicators. A distinction is made between environmental performance indicators, which in turn are subdivided into management performance indicators (1) and operational performance indicators (2) and environmental status indicators (3).
- Management Performance Indicators (MPI) : They contain information about the environmental performance and efforts of the management to achieve the set environmental goals. Typical examples of MPIs include a. Training activities, internal audits, degree of target achievement and reporting.
- Operational Performance Indicators (OPI) : The operational system comprises physical plants, equipment and infrastructures as well as their operation. The operational key performance indicators are an expression of the ecological efficiency and effectiveness of individual processes that run within the operational system. Starting points here are, for example, the energy consumption for product manufacture, the use of materials, the amount of waste or risks and incidents.
- Environmental Condition Indicators (ECI) : They provide information about the state of the local, regional, national or global environment. They are therefore an important point of reference for a company's ecological goal-setting process. ECIs do not have to be explicitly developed by companies. Organizations can usually refer to indicators of the state of the environment that have been collected, for example, by state or scientific institutions.
It should be noted that all three categories of indicators are closely related. Accordingly, the efforts of management have an impact on the operational provision of services. The absolute company performance (in the form of direct and indirect environmental aspects) then in turn affects the environmental status, which is measured using the environmental status numbers. A change in the state of the environment then in turn results in a variation in the environmental protection measures within the environmental management system.
Evaluation concepts for environmental performance measurement
Evaluation concepts should serve to evaluate the various environmental aspects of a company. However, the existing concepts differ with regard to some criteria, such as the underlying data or the type of assessment. For this reason, the recommendations for action with regard to one and the same environmental aspect can vary from process to process. This means that there is no one method to be favored. Rather, the selection of the process depends on the requirements and goals of the respective company.
Examples of such evaluation concepts are:
- Ö.BU concept (concept of the Swiss Association for Ecologically Conscious Corporate Management)
- IÖW concept (concept of the Institute for Ecological Economic Research )
- Concept of the quality-target relation
- Concept of material intensity per service unit (MIPS)
- Critical Volume Concept
- Concept of impact indicators
A problem with these concepts is that they are often based on very complex assumptions and require a large amount of data. These circumstances often do not allow them to be used in practice, as they represent too great a hurdle, especially for small and medium-sized companies. The development of EPM-KOMPAS aims to counteract this problem.
Only the IÖW concept has been widely used to this day, but only in a somewhat simpler form in order to reduce complexity.
The aim of this concept is the complete recording of all exchange relationships between the object under consideration and the environment. The operational balance sheet, process balance sheet, product balance sheet and substance balance serve as the data basis for the assessment.
During the assessment, the individual items in the respective balance sheet are then viewed / assessed from seven different perspectives:
- Compliance with environmental legal framework
- Meeting social requirements
- Impairment of the environmental media air, water and soil and toxicity at normal ecological risk
- Impairment of the environment through potential accidents
- Level of internalized environmental costs
- Impairment of the environment in the context of the upstream and downstream stages
- Amount of material losses
These criteria can be A, B or C in each case.
- A: Particularly relevant ecological problem with great need for action
- B: ecological problem with medium-term need for action
- C: The environmental impact is so low that social demands do not require any action
After the ABC assessment, a quantitative assessment is usually carried out, which compares the environmental relevance with the volumes (use, turnover) assessed with priority levels.
Software-based environmental performance measurement with EPM-KOMPAS
The EPM-KOMPAS software was developed at the Technical University of Dresden in cooperation with a group of Saxon industrial partners and supraregional industrial associations. It is a supporting tool for systematic environmental management for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing industry. The software is used both for entry and for the integrated management of environmental, quality and risk aspects that the software pursues the expansion of environmental management in SMEs.
The abbreviation EPM stands for Environmental Performance Measurement and thus means the analysis, measurement, evaluation and improvement of operational environmental performance required by all formalized and non-formalized environmental management approaches. The abbreviation KOMPAS stands for the conception, operationalization and multiplication of the developed software and the development of a PAS ( Publicy Available Specification ). At the same time, this abbreviation should also stand symbolically for the navigation system that was developed with the software. This navigation system should show the way for more systematic and efficient environmental management as well as better operational environmental performance.
- The following tasks are supported by the EPM-KOMPAS software:
- Handling of hazardous substances, waste, emissions
- Creation of material and energy flows (balances)
- Setting environmental goals
- Assessment of environmental measures
- Generation of reports (for authorities)
- Researching conspicuous material and energy flows
- Checking the results / successes
- There are also functions for individual needs:
- Selectable system limits (operation, process, product)
- Openness to other valuation methods
- Independence from consulting services: software works with a "silent moderator"
- Decision support software
- Improvement and control of work areas of risk and quality management
- Getting started and aids to expand and promote an environmental management system
- Customizable reports and free research
- Assignment of individual rights when working with the software
literature
- Edeltraud Günther : Ecology-oriented management. Environmental (world-oriented) thinking in business administration . Lucius & Lucius, 1st edition, Stuttgart, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8282-0415-7
- Edeltraud Günther u. a .: Performance and success in corporate environmental management. The EPM-KOMPAS software as an instrument for medium-sized industrial companies for measuring environmental performance and monitoring success . Josef Eul Verlag GmbH, 1st edition, Cologne, 2006, ISBN 3-89936-462-7
- Edeltraud Günther, Anke Sturm, Paola Thomas and Wolfgang Uhr: Environmental Performance Measurement as an instrument for sustainable business . WiWi-Online.de, Hamburg, Germany, 2005
- Edeltraud Günther and others: From the conception to the EPM-KOMPAS. Implementation of environmental performance measurement with small and medium-sized companies . In: Dresden contributions to business administration . No. 75/03, 2003, ISSN 0945-4810 , ( online ).
- Edeltraud Günther u. a .: Conceptual principles of environmental performance measurement in small and medium-sized enterprises - interim report of the EPM-KOMPAS research project. 2002
- Rene Gastl: Continuous improvement in environmental management . vdf Hochschulverlag AG at the ETH Zurich, 1st edition, St. Gallen, 2005, ISBN 978-3-7281-3034-1
- Anke Sturm: Performance Measurement and Environmental Performance Measurement - Development of a controlling model for in-house measurement of corporate environmental performance , Technische Universität Dresden, 2000
- ISO 14031: 1999
Web links
swell
- ↑ http://www.umweltdatenbank.de/lexikon/
- ↑ a b Günther: Environmental Performance Measurement as an instrument for sustainable business . 2005
- ^ Günther: Achievement and success in corporate environmental management. The EPM-KOMPAS software as an instrument for medium-sized industrial companies for measuring environmental performance and monitoring success . 2006, p. 1ff.