Charting Progress: Understanding Sustainability Management, Measurement, and Environmental Risk

When examining the issue of sustainability metrics and sustainability management, the proper unit of analysis is the organization. The specific sustainability measures used by organizations to chart progress toward sustainability goals should someday be subject to common and generally accepted definitions. The ability to measure operational commitment to sustainability is important to reinforcing the regulations needed to enforce environmental protection. A typical set of sustainability measures would include physical, organizational, and community impact indicators. This piece provides detail on the definition of such sustainability measures and discusses the use of these metrics in routine organizational management, looking at both the inclusion of environmental risk in general financial risk management and in organizational management structures.