Ready for Some Environmental Rap? — How Well Can You Sing Your Eco-Measurement Terminology?

It’s been 40 years since Marvin Gaye wrote and produced his hit single “Mercy Mercy Me” – subtitled “The Ecology Song”.* Forty years later this beautifully crafted song is still as fresh and as relevant today as it ever was but what has dramatically changed since 1971 is the establishment of Eco-Standards – specifically new Eco-Measurement Standards – that companies, consumers, and governmental agencies alike are continually working on in order to compare the environmental impacts that different products, processes, and social initiatives have on planet Earth. The health of our environment is now being quantified and here are but a few of the more interesting eco-measurement developments that are appearing more and more in our everyday lexicon.

1-Carbon Footprint Standard- Introduced in 2008 by The Carbon Trust, the BSI British Standards, and the UK Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, the Carbon Footprint Standard is a new standard intended to help businesses assess the greenhouse gas emissions embedded in their goods and services throughout their entire life cycle.

2-Eco-Efficiency Ratio- Introduced in 1992 by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, it is essentially a Ratio comparison of ‘Product or Service Value / (Divided By) ‘Environmental Influence’. The numerator, ‘Product or Service Value’, is defined as “Net Sales” – the Quantity of Goods or Services Produced or Provided to Customers – and the denominator, ‘Environmental Influence’, is defined as Energy Consumption plus Materials Consumption, Water Consumption, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Ozone Depleting Substance Emissions.

3-Eco-Index- Launched in 2010 by the OIA (Outdoor Industry Association) and the European Outdoor Group, the Eco-Index is an Outdoor Industry Environmental Assessment Tool designed to be used by companies to incorporate environmental considerations and to advance sustainable practices across a product’s life cycle. It incorporates Environmental Guidelines, Performance Indicators, and Footprint Metrics to assess environmental impacts and improvements within six product life cycle stages: Materials, Packaging, Product Manufacturing and Assembly, Transport and Distribution, Use and Service, and End of Life.

4-Eco-Innovation Scoreboard (Eco-IS)- First published in 2010, the Eco-Innovation Scoreboard developed by the Eco-Innovation Observatory in Belgium is the first tool to assess and illustrate eco-innovation performance across the 27 European Union Member States. The Eco-IS shows how well individual Member States perform compared to the EU average and presents their strengths and weaknesses as well as identifies the barriers and drivers to eco-innovation. The core part of the Eco-IS is the “performance profile”, which contains indicators in five areas: eco-innovation inputs, eco-innovation activities, eco-innovation outputs, environmental outcomes, and socio-economic outcomes. The 2010 version of the Eco-IS is based on 13 sub-indicators in these five areas. The 2011 version of the Eco-IS, which is updated on an annual basis, is based on 16 sub-indicators.

5-Ecological Footprint (EF)– First introduced in the 1990’s, it is a measure of the human demand for natural resources versus the planet’s ecological capacity to regenerate – the amount of biologically productive land and sea area necessary to supply the resources for human population consumption and the absorption of accompanied waste.

6-Ecometrics- Based upon the principles of resource management and various mathematical and statistical applications, Ecometrics is a quantitative analysis of evaluating economic, social, and environmental opportunity costs of a given activity. In short Ecometrics is a way to identify sustainable trends in consumption and production of a given activity.

7-Energy Star Label-Introduced by the US government agency, the Environmental Protection Agency in the early 1990’s, this government-backed symbol has become an international standard that identifies energy efficient consumer products that generally use 20% to 30% less energy than required by federal standards.

8-Environmental Performance Index (EPI)- First introduced in 2002 and developed by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, the EPI index ranks 163 countries on 25 performance indicators to see how close countries are to established environmental policy goals.

9-Global Warming Potential (GWP) – is a relative measure of how
different greenhouse gases trap heat in the atmosphere. GWP’s compare the heat-absorbing ability of each mass of gas relative to a similar mass of carbon dioxide (CO2) as well as their associated decay rate.

10-Green Stock Index- Launched just last year in 2011 by Luxembourg-based Living Planet Fund Management Company and the European broker, Cheuvreux – the Green Stock Index consists of a portfolio of 50 European listed companies that are active in finding eco-friendly solutions to the world’s most important environmental challenges as it relates to renewable energies and transportation, water and waste management, and various eco-products and services.

11-Happy Planet Index (HPI) – Introduced in July of 2006 by the New Economics Foundation, this index is a ”measure of the environmental efficiency of supporting human well-being”. It incorporates Life Satisfaction and Life Expectancy together with Environmental Costs per capita – the natural resources required to sustain a country’s lifestyle.

12-LEED Certification – Introduced by the U.S. Green Building Council in 1998, the Leadership in Energy and Conservation Design (LEED) Certification is an internationally recognized mark of excellence that provides independent, third party verification that a building, home, or community has been designed and built in accordance to a rating system of high performance indicators in the areas of design innovation, sustainable site development, water efficiency, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. In summary, LEED Certification is a quantitative measurement of a building’s performance based on the number of “points” that a building is able to achieve in each of the above six areas.
13-Net-Zero Home- A home or building which generates as much energy as it consumes.

14-Sustainable Society Index (SSI) – Introduced in 2006 by The Sustainable Foundation based in the Netherlands, The Sustainable Society Index, SSI, includes three ‘wellbeing’ dimensions: Human Well-Being, Environmental Well-Being and Economic Well-Being. Utilizing 24 key indicators, The SSI measures the actual level of sustainability of 151 countries and the distance of each country to sustainability over time.

15-Triple Bottom Line Accounting (TBL/3BL) – Introduced in 2007 by the United Nations and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, this corporate accounting includes social, economic, and environmental costs and benefits in its management reporting.

16- Water Footprint – First introduced in 2002 by Professor Arjen Hoekstra of The UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education in the Netherlands, the Water Footprint is a multidimensional indicator that indicates how much freshwater volume is consumed, evaporated, and/or polluted per unit of time at a specific location. It can be calculated for any defined individual, family group, business, community or nation. Thus the water footprint provides a basis for assessing the impacts of goods and services on freshwater systems and formulating strategies to reduce those impacts. In 2009 a ‘Global Water Footprint Standard’ was introduced by the Water Footprint Network, an international network of governments, corporations, non-governmental organizations and UN bodies – but just this year it has been updated, revised and expanded after extensive consultations with partners and researchers worldwide.

Yes, Marvin Gaye – Your lyrics still ring in our ears but now they are in our eco-standards of measurement and accountability.

Marvin Gaye’s “Mercy Mercy Me” Lyrics
Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Woo, things ain’t what they used to be
No, no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows
From the north and south and east
Woo, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain’t what they used to be
No, no
Oil wasted on the oceans and in our seas
Ah, Fish full of mercury
Ah oh, Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain’t what they used to be
No, no
Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh, mercy mercy me
Oh, things ain’t what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land?
How much more abuse from man can she stand?
My sweet Lord
My sweet Lord
My sweet Lord