Order Convergence of economic and environmental

Order Convergence of economic and environmental
1. What is eco-efficiency? How is it measured? Why is it measured? Where is it
reported?
2. List the main stakeholder groups in a company. Consider whether and why each
stakeholder group might be interested in corporate eco-efficiency indicators.
What level of information is each group most interested in for decision-making
and accountability purposes? Explain.
3. What is an environmental intervention? How are environmental interventions
and eco-efficiency related?
4. ‘Eco-efficiency provides a measure of “win–win”—an action is undertaken if it
saves money and environmental interventions are reduced.’ Is eco-efficiency too
concerned about saving money rather than helping to preserve the
environment?
5. What are the three steps that can be taken along a corporate eco-efficiency path?
How are the five modules related to development of a measure of eco-efficiency?
372 contemporary environmental accounting
Order Convergence of economic and environmental
6. Why is the distinction between general and specific indicators of eco-efficiency
important for accounting in (a) ecological and (b) financial terms?
7. Benchmarking of eco-efficiency indicators faces a number of practical problems. What are these? Can they be overcome? Why is internal benchmarking
more common than external benchmarking?
8. The objective . . . is not to develop one single approach to measuring and reporting
eco-efficiency. Rather it is to establish a general, voluntary framework that is flexible
enough to be widely used, broadly accepted and easily interpreted by the full range
of businesses.This is based on a recognition that the specifics of defining, measuring
and communicating eco-efficiency will necessarily vary from one business to another,
and that comparisons between different business must be approached with great care
(WBCSD 1999: 2).
Can there be one generally accepted set of eco-efficiency indicators for assessing
business performance? Give reasons for your view.
9. ‘Eco-efficiency provides necessary but not sufficient indicators of environmental
performance.’ What is environmental performance? Provide an example of
another type of information that is important when assessing a company’s
environmental performance.
10. How are the limits on using eco-efficiency indicators related to accounting?