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The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard as a Framework for Eco‐efficiency Analysis
Author(s) -
Möller Andreas,
Schaltegger Stefan
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of industrial ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.377
H-Index - 102
eISSN - 1530-9290
pISSN - 1088-1980
DOI - 10.1162/108819805775247927
Subject(s) - balanced scorecard , sustainability , process management , computer science , performance measurement , business , accounting , risk analysis (engineering) , marketing , ecology , biology
Summary To provide valuable support for successful decision‐making, managers need a balanced set of financial and nonfinancial measures that represent different requirements, strategic goals, strategies, resources, and capabilities and the causal relationships between these domains. The balanced scorecard is such a measurement system. As an open system the balanced scorecard facilitates the consideration of sustainability issues. But enhanced balanced scorecards require a new type of data. This is where eco‐efficiency analysis comes into play. This article discusses the relationship between so‐called sustainability balanced scorecards and eco‐efficiency analysis. Eco‐efficiency analysis not only provides a data source for sustainability balanced scorecards; in the perspective of environmental information systems it also serves as a link between the balanced scorecard and corporate environmental accounting systems so that eco‐efficiency as a component of an environmental information system becomes an adapter with two interfaces, which are characterized in this article. The main focus is on the principle of cause and effect, its different forms, and the implications for the design of appropriate information system components.