Earthenterprise Tool Kit - International Institute for Sustainable ...

EarthEnterprise Tool Kit
TOOL
Smith & Hawken
Source Solutions Group
Stonyfield Farm Yogurt
Sullivan & Worcester
The Summit Group
Sun Company, Inc.
The Timberland Company
Tom’s of Maine
Town Creek Industries
Tree-Free EcoPaper
United States Trust Company of Boston
VanCity Savings Credit Union
Walnut Acres
The WATER Foundation
County of Westchester, NewYork
– Mail Order Distribution
– Financial Services
– Yogurt
– Legal Services
– Marketing
– Petroleum
– Outdoor Clothing
– Personal Care
– Electric Vehicle Research
– Paper Products
– Banking & Investing
– Banking
– Organic Farming
– Radio Programming
– Municipal Government
For further information contact Judy Kuszewski, Coalition for Environmentally
Responsible Economies (CERES), 711 Atlantic Ave., 5th Floor, Boston, MA,
02111. Telephone: (617) 451-0927, Fax: (617) 482-2028.
Measure and Report on Your Progress and Performance
Internal and external communictions and seminars can report on company
progress in achieving social, financial and environmental goals. By developing
benchmarks against which to measure progress, and reporting on successes
and failures, companies reinforce their commitment to stated objectives and
alert employees and other stakeholders to areas where additional effort is
needed. Just as financial reports help employees focus on cutting costs and
maximizing return on investment, environmental and social reports — and
audits — also sharpen company focus.
A growing number of large corporations are starting to issue annual reports of
e nv i ronmental performance. By defining short and long-term goals and
d eveloping tools to measure pro g re s s , these companies gain a better
understanding of how their operations affect the environment and where they
can improve performance, often reducing costs.
The U.S. Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, passed in
1986, has proved a valuable stimulus for measuring progress. The law requires
10,000 manufacturers to report their annual releases of 317 toxic chemicals to
air, water, and land. The plant-specific data are accumulated in the publicly
available Toxics Release Inv e n t o ry. After compiling their first pollutant
i nv e n t o ry, these companies had a baseline for establishing quantitative
ADOPTING NEW BUSINESS PRACTICES AND RELATIONSHIPS
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