Umweltkennzahlen in der Praxis

Translated Title: Environmental Indicators in Practice: a guide for applying environmental indicators in environmental management systems with an emphasis on EMAS.

How environmentally friendly does an automobile manufacturer operate? How efficiently does mechanical engineering company handle scarce resources? What contributions do service providers and public agencies make to climate action? Businesses and other organisations today must pose themselves these and further questions on social responsibility from stakeholders like consumers, clients, financial investors, employees, and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Making environmental management measurable and controllable and reporting on the organisation’s own performance are thus central tasks for any organisation seeking to fulfil its social responsibility. Performance indicators are proven means of measuring, controlling, and representing environmental performance. Their use has been established as good practice.

This guide should serve to support organisations of all types, sizes, and from all industries in applying environmental indicators. It explains the indicators contained in the EMAS regulation and introduces other indicators tried and tested by organisations in practice. The guide picks up on the wide-ranging experiences EMAS-registered organisations have had in selecting and applying indicators. Using the selected indicators presented in the indicator catalogue contained in this guide, organisations can portray ecological risks and identify the opportunities offered by doing business sustainably.