Sector-Specific Metrics Efforts

The adoption and dissemination of sustainable manufacturing technologies and best practices is hampered by the inability of governments and business to accurately quantify the costs and benefits of such programs in a universal fashion. As such, there is a need for quantitative metrics that would assist industry and government to track and benchmark sustainable manufacturing programs to better understand its effectiveness, profitability, environmental benefits and overall costs.

Frameworks for how to measure sustainable manufacturing from a holistic viewpoint have been explored, concluding that large advancements have been made, but there is a need for framework unification. Indicators have been constructed, but little has been done on the interrelationship between the environmental, economic and social aspects of sustainability. Despite its importance, industry analysis in the field of sustainable manufacturing has been sporadic.

The United States, working with other countries through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), has begun an effort to address critical information gaps in the sustainable manufacturing arena. A current OECD study, proposed by the U.S. in 2006, will define the scope and extent of sustainable manufacturing, including natural resource and energy use, highlight relevant trends in the social and economic environment, and compile data on initiatives from government, business and NGOs on the basis of a feasible and meaningful standard practice. The final product will be a series of sector-specific, voluntary toolkits that will allow countries to build their own monitoring systems using the OECD indicators as a template for evaluating the costs and benefits of sustainable manufacturing initiatives or policies.

The OECD Project on Sustainable Manufacturing and Eco-Innovation aims to accelerate sustainable manufacturing by diffusing knowledge and providing industry with a means to benchmark their products and production processes. As a first step, the OECD recently conducted a stocktaking of indicators and tools applied in implementing sustainable manufacturing practices. This stocktaking included a conference in Rochester, NY aimed at hearing from leading companies' efforts in this arena.

At the end of the conference, members of the OECD Advisory Expert Group (AEG) on Sustainable Manufacturing and Eco-Innovation, comprised of representatives nominated by OECD member countries, met to discuss the results of the conference. The knowledge gained from industry participation in the conference and subsequent focus groups provided important input for the future development of this OECD project and will be taken into account in a framework and review paper to be released in early 2009.

For more information on this study and project, please visit
http://www.oecd.org/document/37/0,3343,en_2649_34173_ 40695077_1_1_1_1,00.html