Environmental performance measurement indicators in construction

Environmental management system (EMS) has been suggested for promoting effective environmental protection. Environmental performance assessment (EPA) is a critical tool of the EMS in checking, reviewing, monitoring and evaluating environmental performance of organizations. In order to implement EPA, performance measurement indicators (PMIs) that show the environmental performance outcome are required, which, however, are lacking in the construction industry. By conducting a structured survey, in the form of a questionnaire and interviews, this paper attempts to identify three key output indicators, namely "regulatory compliance", "auditing activities" and "resources consumption", and nine sub-indicators. On the basis of their relative importance, the top five sub-indicators are "fines and penalties", "complaints/warnings", "non-compliance records of inspection", "non-conformance reports", and "reports of marginal cases put under observations". The first three sub-indicators fall into the "regulatory compliance" category and the latter two into the category of "auditing activities".