Acknowledgments ................................................ xi
Introduction ................................................. xiii
1 Systems for Disclosure ....................................... 1
The Concept of Materiality ................................... 2
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) ........................ 4
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) ............ 10
Comparing GRI-G4 and SASB in Two Industries: Media and
Mining ...................................................... 16
Metrics for Sustainability Disclosure ....................... 18
Discussion .................................................. 19
2 Corporate Ratings and Rankings .............................. 25
The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices ........................ 26
ASSET4 ESG and the Thomson Reuters Corporate
Responsibility Indices ...................................... 28
FTSE4Good Indices ........................................... 30
Global 100 Most Sustainable Companies in the World .......... 32
Newsweek's Green Rankings ................................... 35
Discussion .................................................. 37
3 Organizational Certifications ............................... 40
ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems .................. 41
AASHE's STARS Program for Universities ...................... 42
Underwriters Laboratories UL 880 for Manufacturing Firms .... 45
В Corporations .............................................. 46
Discussion .................................................. 47
4 Philosophies of Sustainability: The Values and Worldview
Behind a Standard ........................................... 50
The Ethics of Sustainability ................................ 52
Derivative Ethics ........................................... 65
Discussion .................................................. 67
5 Indicators and Measurement Systems .......................... 70
Types of Indicators ......................................... 71
Scales of Measurement ....................................... 77
Measures for Indicators ..................................... 81
Methods of Aggregation for Subcategories, Categories,
and Summative Measures ...................................... 89
The Quality of Data for Indicators and Summative Measures ... 96
Discussion .................................................. 99
6 Greenhouse Gas Assessment and Energy Accounting ............ 102
The Greenhouse Effect ...................................... 103
The Regulation of GHG Emissions Drives the Need
for Accurate GHG Assessment ................................ 104
The GHG Protocol ........................................... 108
Accounting for Carbon Offsets: The Alternative to Buying
Carbon Permits ............................................. 116
Renewable Energy Certificates in the United States ......... 119
GHG Calculators and Guides ................................. 120
Energy Accounting .......................................... 120
Discussion ................................................. 123
7 Water ...................................................... 127
The Water Cycle ............................................ 128
Water Scarcity, Water Stress, and Water Risk
as Contextual Measures ..................................... 129
Contemporary Metrics for Water Use ......................... 133
Tools for Reporting on Water ............................... 140
Discussion ................................................. 142
8 Waste ...................................................... 149
Types of Waste and Their Measurement ....................... 150
Waste Metrics in the Standards for Disclosure .............. 156
Waste Metrics in the Corporate Rating Systems .............. 159
Waste Metrics in the Certification Standards ............... 160
Integration of Waste Metrics in Life-Cycle Analysis ........ 162
Discussion ................................................. 164
9 Social Impacts ............................................. 169
Stakeholders for Corporate Social Responsibility ........... 170
Standards Specific to Social Impacts ....................... 174
Social Indicators in the GRI and SASB ...................... 178
Social Indicators in the Corporate Ratings ................. 180
Social Indicators m the Corporate Certifications ........... 186
Discussion ................................................. 188
10 Issues in the Analysis of Metrics for Sustainability ....... 197
Sustainable Business and Sustainable Development ........... 197
Materiality and the Stakeholder Concept .................... 199
ESG Does Not Represent Sustainability ...................... 201
Categorizing Indicators: Refining ESG and PPP .............. 202
The Data-Reduction Problem ................................. 210
Conclusions ................................................ 211
List of Abbreviations ......................................... 217
Bibliography .................................................. 223
Index ......................................................... 235
|
