THE STANDARDISATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTING: WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE UK WATER INDUSTRY?

Abstract

The ability to utilise corporate environmental reports to benchmark environmental performance requires the development and inclusion of standardised environmental performance indicators. Most systems for benchmarking corporate environmental reports are measures of environmental activities rather than performance. The UK Water Industry has considerable experience in measuring and reporting standardised environmental performance indicators to the regulator and publishing corporate environmental reports. An analysis of corporate environmental reports shows that the inclusion of industry standardised environmental performance indicators is patchy and inconsistent. Moreover, slight differences in units of measurement make comparisons very difficult. A new set of standardised environmental performance indicators developed by the water industry itself, shows similar findings when compared against corporate environmental reports. At the current time corporate environmental reports cannot be used to benchmark performance. There is no reason why corporate environmental reports could not be adjusted to include the two sets of standardised environmental performance indicators examined. In their absence there seems to be little purpose in benchmarking corporate environmental reports.