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Benchmarking for Continuous Environmental
Improvement
is a
second in a series, the first being Total Quality Environmental Management
(TQEM): The Primer (1993), expands upon GEMI’s first effort and introduces a
useful (TQEM) tool. This primer provides
a format and structure for conducting a benchmarking study. In addition, it demonstrates to environmental
managers and others that benchmarking is an important component of TQEM. Finally, its readers will learn that the inherent
nature of benchmarking makes it a useful process for identifying environmental
improvements, setting priorities among them, and making one’s own company as
successful as others.
This primer
was developed to teach the reader how to make environmental improvements based
on existing or publicly available information and resources. The primer will
serve as a road map for conducting a benchmarking study so that members of
company’s benchmarking team will understand what is expected of them and how to
meet effectively the objectives of the benchmarking study.
The first
section of the primer provides a definition of benchmarking – a process of
comparing and measuring an organization’s business processes against
best-in-class operations to inspire improvement in the organization’s
performance – and how it may be used for continuous environmental
improvement. In addition, some expected
results of benchmarking are described followed by examples of how these results
have led to the implementation of improvement programs in companies.
The second
section is the heart of the primer and provides a step-by-step process for
conducting a benchmark study. Each step
in the process is preceded by a “key tasks” section to enable the reader to
quickly scan the primer for the critical elements of the benchmarking process.
The third
section contains relevant case studies contributed by GEMI members and a
description of the relationship between benchmarking and TQEM.
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