Environmental performance assessment: a case study in the paper industry

Abstract

The inherent complexity of environmental performance measurement makes it difficult to be gauged, sending it forth to methodologies supported on assessments of the various factors that could influence the overall performance. In association with the environmental performance lies the need to create methods that allows the assessment over the time in order to facilitate comparisons amongst different organizations or operations of a same company. Measurement of environmental performance comes from several sources thus a dominant approach widely recognized and accepted by the academic community and organizations can not be singled out. The purpose of this review is to test a method for assessing environmental performance in a manufacturer organization, performing a case study in the paper industry. The results can be compared with other operations and can be used, cumulatively, in supply chains. The specific objectives are (i) to model the environmental performance of the transaction, (ii) to use the model to measure performance, and (iii) to interpret the results and come to a conclusion. It begins with a review of the environmental performance measurement and then proceeds to the description of the research methodology and the results of its application. The method consists of five constructs, assessed by managers and processes experts according to their potential of environmental performance's improvement: solid waste, wastewater, gas emissions, deployment of natural resources, and legal compliance. The constructs are perceived by qualitative indicators categorically evaluated. The final result is an index of 76.69%, which represents the environmental performance of the operation.