The influence of facility-based environmental cost information on 'green' decision-making.

摘要

Environmental values are becoming increasingly important and strategic to many companies. This shift in corporate thinking is manifested by the public support for "Sustainable Development" as well as the establishment of corporate goals with environmental values. Understanding the driving factors that move facilities in "greener directions" is critical if these broad environmental goals are to be implemented at the facility level. This research focuses on one of the suspected driving factors: clear environmental cost information as it relates to facility decision making and business systems.; Cost information has been considered as an important signal to facility decision makers. The middle managers at an industrial facility were given three kinds of environmental cost information to see if that information would move the facility in a greener direction. Another control site facility that manufactured the same part in the same business unit was not given the cost information. The research tested the hypothesis that the recognition of cost information would induce an industrial facility to operate in a "greener," more environmentally conscious way. Greenness was measured by a Green Management Assessment Tool (GMAT) and other direct observations. The GMAT was developed from the Global Environmental Management Initiative's (GEMI) Environmental Self Assessment Program (ESAP). Based on a controlled case study approach with two facilities, this study concludes the following: The findings of the case study do not support the hypothesis. Cost information alone did not induce significant environmental change in a manufacturing facility that was already operating environmental systems beyond regulatory compliance. This conclusion is based on a limited horizon (five and a half month) experiment. Paradoxically, these findings are contradicted by managerial attitudes that cost information offers significant utility to business decision makers.; The author noted several important facility and product characteristics in an analysis of cost information as a driving factor including relative compliance with environmental regulations, the ratio of environmental to production costs, and the importance of customer environmental demands.; In addition, the research offered some insights into "green" or facility environmental measurement. GMAT was found to be comprehensive; to yield consistent results; to have management potential; and to be readily implementable.