International environmental performance measurement in theelectronics industry

摘要

The electronics industry is under increasing pressure to reduceits environmental impact. Assemblers demand that component manufacturersdocument their environmental performance. Performance measures areneeded to sort out good from bad environmental performance andpractices. We present an approach to characterize the environmentalburdens associated with materials, products and processes based onmaterial use and environmental discharge data from manufacturingfacilities. Each chemical is weighted by its toxicity, a first orderapproximation to the health burden on the population. We illustrate thismethod with a time trend analysis for the electronics industry, usingdata from the US Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) and the Census ofManufacturers. We find that the sector's environmental emissions areshowing a downward trend. Comparable data availability in othercountries (e.g., Canada and the Netherlands) are discussed. We examinethe possibility of international environmental performance measurementand benchmarking using discharge data from different countries. Thelimitations of the approach are mentioned. Our indices provideinformation to electronics firms in making decisions about environmentalcontrol investments and plant performance. They facilitate internal andexternal benchmarking and allow for better environmental informationabout the industry