Envirometer is well-crafted

Mr Bertens, account manager at EIM on the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Consumption site, has reviewed the quality of the Envirometer. This is what he has to say:

Based on what I've seen of the Envirometer to date, it appears to be a well-crafted tool. I've read the background report by CE Delft and when I see how many categories are cited, I certainly couldn't have dreamt up that many. I know of no other system as detailed as the Envirometer. So it's certainly got a lot going for it.

To my mind the Envirometer is a useful tool for monitoring the ISO 14001 process and makes things a whole lot easier.

I think the Envirometer is particuarly useful for medium-sized industries with a substantial environmental footprint as well as for sectors where robust environmental targets have been set.

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Background

History

"The environment" is generally invisible. Most entrepreneurs have no clear picture of how they are performing environmentally, whether or not they are doing well when it comes to protecting the Earth's ecology. Creating a visual and readily understandable record of that performance is a good way of encouraging businesses and other organisations to roll out environmental policies and make environmental care a structural part of their operations. Insight into environmental performance is therefore essential for sustainable business operations. And so in 1999 the Stimular Foundation came up with the idea of creating an easy-to-use 'Envirometer'.

This environmental 'barometer' can serve as an extremely practical stimulus for companies to make use of the available options not only for cutting costs but also for implementing measures that are cost-neutral or even cost money in pursuit of improved environmental performance. By designing the Envirometer such as to satisfy government requirements on environmental registration, it van serve two purposes simultaneously.

The model behind the Envirometer

The Envirometer was developed by the Stimular Foundation in collaboration with environmental  consultants CE Delft. The scientific underpinning of the calculation methodology is described in a background report (presently available in Dutch only, as a download at http://www.milieubarometer.nl/). If you are interested in the details, please contact us. 

Relationship with European environmental policy

The Envirometer converts Dutch environmental policy targets (which are largely in line with European environmental policy) to an easy-to-understand chart for use by the business community. The Envirometer also dovetails with the Dutch government's objective of monitoring national progress on environmental policy.