Assessment of Overall SCP State of Company: Results of Application of New Integrated Sustainability Index ISCP in 2 Enterprises

Abstract

The challenge for every company on the way to sustainable consumption and production (SCP) is not only to use appropriate methods and measures to solve their specific sustainability problems, but first of all to select appropriate performance indicators and implement an effective sustainability performance evaluation system. It may be useful to use an integrated indicator as a single comparable index, reducing the number of sustainability decision-making criteria that need to be considered.

Since there is still no comprehensive framework for integrated sustainability assessment of the overall company state on the basis of manufacturing processes, products/services as well as relationship with various stakeholders, the algorithm for integrated sustainability assessment of the overall company state that can help to solve the most significant problems in 3 levels - manufacturing processes/company’s activities, products/services and relationship with various stakeholders - was presented in an earlier author’s publication. This framework proposes the assessment of current sustainability conditions of a company on the basis of sub-indices of the composite index I_SCP for sustainability evaluation and, according to them, can help to select and introduce the most suitable sustainable development tools for a particular enterprise to achieve its environmental and social performance goals.

As the subjected algorithm was still theoretical, there was an urgent necessity to verify its real potential in particular enterprises. Therefore, the results of its verification procedure performed in 2 large, well-known Lithuanian joint-stock companies (JSC) from different business sectors are presented.

The preliminary results of algorithm verification, despite all the limitations, are enough to propose that it is universal enough to be adapted for companies from various sectors of activities. Calculated values of the I_SCP indicated an average level of the sustainability state in both companies. As the results of the sub-indices showed similar moderate results, both enterprises are strongly recommended to reconsider all 3 levels of their performance by applying some of the recommended measures and tools or at least by correcting the management and operation of already implemented ones.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.71.2.12332