Total Cost Indicators - Operational Performance Indicators for managing environmental and economic efficiency

Abstract: In this Licentiate Dissertation presents a new model for selecting environmental performance indicators in order to improve environmental management. The suggested Total Cost Indicators support a support a preventive approach to environmental management, where environmental issues are addressed before they arise - and before they become costs. The method of selecting indicators builds on earlier work on Total Cost Assessments, but uses indicators as substitutes for costs, which can be difficult to allocate and evaluate. Another novelty in the approach is the suggestion of an Environmental Information Review, in which existing information systems, including both financial and production information, are reviewed for existing environmental information. The research presented in the dissertation shows that much of the necessary environmental information often already exists in companies, but for various reasons, it has not been available or useful in its current form to the environmental management. Total Cost Indicators are selected by a process that involves: • an Environmental Information Review • an input-output analysis • activity-based costing of environmental drivers • an environmental risk analysis • an environmental stakeholder analysis • an on-site environmental assessment