Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators

Bradley Ridoutt; Peter Fantke; Stephan Pfister; Jane Bare; Anne-Marie Boulay; Francesco Cherubini; Rolf Frischknecht; Michael Hauschild; Stefanie Hellweg; Andrew Henderson; Olivier Jolliet; Annie Levasseur; Manuele Margni; Thomas McKone; Ottar Michelsen; Llorenç Mila i Canals; Girija Page; Rana Pant; Marco Raugei; Serenella Sala

doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators

Bradley Ridoutt, Peter Fantke, Stephan Pfister, Jane Bare, Anne-Marie Boulay, Francesco Cherubini, Rolf Frischknecht, Michael Hauschild, Stefanie Hellweg, Andrew Henderson, Olivier Jolliet, Annie Levasseur, Manuele Margni, Thomas McKone, Ottar Michelsen, Llorenç Mila i Canals, Girija Page, Rana Pant, Marco Raugei, Serenella Sala

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36 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In recent years, footprint indicators have emerged as a popular mode of reporting environmental performance. The prospect is that these simplified metrics will guide investors, businesses, public sector policymakers and even consumers of everyday goods and services in making decisions which lead to better environmental outcomes. However, without a common "DNA", the ever expanding lexicon of footprints lacks coherence and may even report contradictory results for the same subject matter. The danger is that this will ultimately lead to policy confusion and general mistrust of all environmental disclosures.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2601-2603
Number of pages	3
Journal	Environmental Science & Technology
Volume	49
Issue number	5
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00163
Publication status	Published - 2015

Keywords

environmental impact
environmental management
life cycles
nomenclature

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10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

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Ridoutt, B., Fantke, P., Pfister, S., Bare, J., Boulay, A.-M., Cherubini, F., Frischknecht, R., Hauschild, M., Hellweg, S., Henderson, A., Jolliet, O., Levasseur, A., Margni, M., McKone, T., Michelsen, O., Mila i Canals, L., Page, G., Pant, R., Raugei, M., & Sala, S. (2015). Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators. Environmental Science & Technology, 49(5), 2601-2603. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

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Ridoutt, B, Fantke, P, Pfister, S, Bare, J, Boulay, A-M, Cherubini, F, Frischknecht, R, Hauschild, M, Hellweg, S, Henderson, A, Jolliet, O, Levasseur, A, Margni, M, McKone, T, Michelsen, O, Mila i Canals, L, Page, G, Pant, R, Raugei, M & Sala, S 2015, 'Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators', Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 49, no. 5, pp. 2601-2603. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

TY - JOUR

T1 - Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators

AU - Ridoutt, Bradley

AU - Fantke, Peter

AU - Pfister, Stephan

AU - Bare, Jane

AU - Boulay, Anne-Marie

AU - Cherubini, Francesco

AU - Frischknecht, Rolf

AU - Hauschild, Michael

AU - Hellweg, Stefanie

AU - Henderson, Andrew

AU - Jolliet, Olivier

AU - Levasseur, Annie

AU - Margni, Manuele

AU - McKone, Thomas

AU - Michelsen, Ottar

AU - Mila i Canals, Llorenç

AU - Page, Girija

AU - Pant, Rana

AU - Raugei, Marco

AU - Sala, Serenella

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - In recent years, footprint indicators have emerged as a popular mode of reporting environmental performance. The prospect is that these simplified metrics will guide investors, businesses, public sector policymakers and even consumers of everyday goods and services in making decisions which lead to better environmental outcomes. However, without a common "DNA", the ever expanding lexicon of footprints lacks coherence and may even report contradictory results for the same subject matter. The danger is that this will ultimately lead to policy confusion and general mistrust of all environmental disclosures.

AB - In recent years, footprint indicators have emerged as a popular mode of reporting environmental performance. The prospect is that these simplified metrics will guide investors, businesses, public sector policymakers and even consumers of everyday goods and services in making decisions which lead to better environmental outcomes. However, without a common "DNA", the ever expanding lexicon of footprints lacks coherence and may even report contradictory results for the same subject matter. The danger is that this will ultimately lead to policy confusion and general mistrust of all environmental disclosures.

KW - environmental impact

KW - environmental management

KW - life cycles

KW - nomenclature

UR - http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/uws:30862

U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

DO - 10.1021/acs.est.5b00163

M3 - Article

SN - 0013-936X

VL - 49

SP - 2601

EP - 2603

JO - Environmental Science & Technology

JF - Environmental Science & Technology

IS - 5

ER -

Making sense of the minefield of footprint indicators

Abstract

Keywords

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