Light-Weight Composite Environmental Performance Indicators (LWC-EPI) Solution: A Systematic Approach towards Users Requirements

The acceleration of change in the environment, the consequent legislation, and the thereby improved social awareness have challenged companies to enhance their business strategies with respect to improvements in sustainability. A clear and comprehensive communication of a company´s sustainability efforts has become an increasingly important factor for success in today´s markets. Performance indicators, aligned with sustainable topics and a company´s ability for sustainability reporting, are a way to face this challenge. The paper elaborates on the increased demand of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) for an environmental management information system (EMIS), which adequately assesses the applications of relevant regulations to successfully curtail and reduce the enterprise´s impact on the environment while running its business. Based on a comprehensive survey of 272 companies, user requirements for an LWC-EPI solution are derived by applying an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), The results of the EFA are the foundation of the EMIS requirements model. This model helps companies focus on relevant issues when implementing or extending an environmental management information system.