The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard as a Framework for Eco‐efficiency Analysis

Abstract

Summary To provide valuable support for successful decision‐making, managers need a balanced set of financial and nonfinancial measures that represent different requirements, strategic goals, strategies, resources, and capabilities and the causal relationships between these domains. The balanced scorecard is such a measurement system. As an open system the balanced scorecard facilitates the consideration of sustainability issues. But enhanced balanced scorecards require a new type of data. This is where eco‐efficiency analysis comes into play. This article discusses the relationship between so‐called sustainability balanced scorecards and eco‐efficiency analysis. Eco‐efficiency analysis not only provides a data source for sustainability balanced scorecards; in the perspective of environmental information systems it also serves as a link between the balanced scorecard and corporate environmental accounting systems so that eco‐efficiency as a component of an environmental information system becomes an adapter with two interfaces, which are characterized in this article. The main focus is on the principle of cause and effect, its different forms, and the implications for the design of appropriate information system components.

Green supply chain performance measurement using fuzzy ANP-based balanced scorecard: a collaborative decision-making approach

“…A BSc-based green-SC performance measurement approach is reported in Cheffi and Dey (2012). Relationship between sustainable BSc and eco-efficiency analysis is found in Möller and Schaltegger (2005). Ways to incorporate sustainable practices into BSc are reported in Butler et al (2011).…”

Tipos de divulgação da informação financeira e não financeira de responsabilidade social empresarial

“…It is in this long-term perspective that a recent and improved version of the BSC, the sustainability balance scorecard, emerges. While the BSC identifies and prioritizes the most relevant issues based on company strategy, assigning weights to each variable (FIGGE, HAHN, SCHALTEGGER et al, 2002;MÖLLER and SCHALTEGGER, 2005), the sustainability balance scorecard focuses on decision-making processes that are mirrored in the balance sheet, including financial and non-financial information and representing all strategic social and environmental information needs. By integrating environmental and social issues into this accounting system, the sustainability balance scorecard turns intangible assets into controllable financial factors (FIGGE, HAHN, SCHALTEGGER et al, 2002) and makes the information produced a more useful part for stakeholders.…”

Eco-balanced scorecard as supporting tool in EMAS system

“…A widely known BSC approach makes it possible to monitor the aspects of an organization's activities that have an impact on future success and allows specifying a purpose that goes beyond the area of financial planning. It is based on four main perspectives [Figge et al 2002;Moller and Schaltegger 2005;Epstein and Wisner 2001;Bieker 2008;Sidiropoulos et al 2004], as shown in Figure 1: 1. The financial perspective is focused on stakeholders' interests and indicates connection between strategy and economic success measured by financial indicators.…”

“…In all four key perspectives, the BSC contains set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) [Moller and Schaltegger 2005]. Correctly identified, the KPI should comply with the general principles: should relate to the organizational goals, be measurable and be the key to success [UNIFE 2011].…”