Indicators for measuring environmental sustainability A case study of the pharmaceutical industry

Ten years after the Earth Summit, a frequently asked question is how much, if any, progress has actually been made toward sustainable development. This article provides insight into the progress made by business in addressing and measuring progress toward sustainable production. Using a ®ve-level indicator hierarchy developed at the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, the authors analyzed the environmental sustainability indicators voluntarily-reported by six pharmaceutical companies, half of which are Global Reporting Initiative pilots. Results demonstrate that most indicators currently being publicly reported address performance or ecoef®ciency (Level 2), a few indicators look at environmental effects (Level 3), only the Global Reporting Initiative pilots are beginning to address and report on supply-chain and product lifecycle effects (Level 4), and no companies are addressing carrying capacity issues (Level 5). Based on their experience with other companies, the authors feel that the results of this small, singleindustry survey re ̄ect the current state-of-the-art in terms of developing more sustainable production systems. Introduction After the Brundtland Commission ®rst introduced the concept of sustainable development 15 years ago and ten years after Agenda 21, a growing number of national and international organizations, governments, communities and businesses are embracing sustainability. Although still lacking a precise de®nition, the concept has inspired many to search for ways to develop more sustainably and to use tools for measuring and evaluating their progress. Sustainability indicators have emerged as one widely accepted tool at all levels ± national, community, organization, and company. Among businesses, a growing number of voluntary initiatives and companies have begun developing and using environmental sustainability indicators (Veleva and Ellenbecker, 2000). Such indicators might be used to The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1463-5771.htm The authors would like to thank Sustainable Measures Inc. and the Lowell Center for Sustainable Production, University of Massachusetts Lowell, for supporting this research. Measuring environmental sustainability