What is Eco-efficiency?
Eco-efficiency assessment is a methodology which utilises various performance indicators to determine whether an operation is progressing in a sustainable manner. The methodology which Enterprise Ireland uses is one developed by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) as described in their report ‘Measuring eco-efficiency: a guide to reporting company performance '.
What does ‘Eco' imply?
Sustainability has three dimensions – social, economic and environmental (ecological). Eco-efficiency is concerned with the latter two, because these have well-established units of measurement. For a given enterprise it sets economic gains (turnover, production) against ecological losses (energy, water, materials consumption; greenhouse gases emissions, waste generation etc.), with the objective of ensuring that increases in the former result in less than pro-rata increases in the latter.
What is the scope of Eco-efficiency assessment?
It incorporates traditional concerns such as energy and materials consumption, together with major current environmental concerns such as global warming, waste handling, eutrophication, packaging etc.
What are the benefits?
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Environmental: Reduced emissions and materials consumption per unit of manufacturing or service output.
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Financial: Unfavourable eco-efficiency trends may be an early warning of competitive decline. The eco-efficiency discipline brings together the financial, production, resource consumption and environmental damage aspects of an operation in a unique way. This allows a new overview of a company's performance to be obtained.
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Perception: Opportunity to show quantitatively, using internationally recognised indicators, the favourable development of the enterprise. (Many major companies have published their eco-efficiency profiles on the internet).
Who does the work?
Apart from completion of the questionnaire, all data processing will be done by Enterprise Ireland. The client will receive our completed report which will be updated at two year intervals. However it is likely that clients who understand the eco-efficiency process and see the benefits will wish to install it into their internal management systems.
Contact Details
Robert Geraghty Tel. 01 727 2618
eco-efficiency@enterprise-ireland.com
More Information
Eco - Efficiency Assessment 533kB
Eco-efficiency Assessment Brochure 140kB
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