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Developing tangible measures for eco‐efficiency: the case of the Finnish and Swedish pulp and paper industry
Author(s) -
Helminen RiinaRiitta
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1099-0836(200005/06)9:3<196::aid-bse240>3.0.co;2-o
Subject(s) - operationalization , eco efficiency , valuation (finance) , sustainable development , environmental economics , environmental impact assessment , added value , gross value added , industrial ecology , business , industrial organization , economics , sustainability , economy , accounting , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , finance , biology
In this article, eco‐efficiency – ‘sustainable development at the company level’ or ‘value added per environmental impact’ – is operationalized at the production unit level. An eco‐efficiency index is developed and tested with 31 Finnish and 37 Swedish pulp, paper and board mills in 1993–1996. In essence, gross value added without a change in inventories is divided by environmental impact aggregated with seven valuation methods. The definition of eco‐efficiency as sustainable development at the company level appears to be problematic. [Eco] 2 ‐efficiency does not include the third, ethical dimension sustainable development, but only ecology and economy. Value added is a limited indicator of economic performance and very sensitive to changes in market prices, while environmental impact changes with valuation assumptions. The Swedish mills were generally more eco‐efficient, while the Finnish mills were more eco‐efficient in integrated woodfree paper, solid bleached sulphate board and liquid packaging board. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment