Special issue on benchmarking the greening of business

Citation

(2008), "Special issue on benchmarking the greening of business", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 15 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij.2008.13115eaa.001

Special issue on benchmarking the greening of business

Article Type: Call for papers From: Benchmarking: An International Journal, Volume 15, Issue 5

Over the previous two decades businesses have felt increased pressure from a variety of stakeholders including regulators, communities, shareholders, employees, non-governmental organizations, and competitors on various natural environmental issues. Researchers and practitioners have implemented and studied a number of reactive and proactive measures to help organizations respond to these pressures. In fact, many organizations have come to realize that organizational strategies and practices that incorporate the natural environment can be a source of competitive advantage. Studies in this area have focused on financial, accounting, operations, marketing, labor, policy, technological and strategic topics that organizations are pursuing. Integral to the management of corporate environmental practices is the use of benchmarking. Corporate environmental benchmarking is becoming a major element in the environmental management of organizations. With the advent of environmental reporting, mandatory and voluntary reporting of environmental information, and ISO 14000 standards based performance evaluation, and "traditional" environmental organizational practices such as design for the environment and life cycle analysis, the role of benchmarking becomes even more critical.

Management and researchers can benefit greatly from exposure to the state of the art practices and research in Benchmarking Green Business. Thus, we are seeking to provide a single source of information on these latest practices and issues related to benchmarking corporate greening. We are looking for high quality papers and studies that can be valuable to both the management and research communities. We will not limit the type of papers since we are looking for a broad spectrum of practice and research in this evolving area. We wish to include conceptual and practical, applied studies including analytical, empirical and methodological papers. Case studies are also welcome contributions. The aim of this special issue is to cover a number of topical areas within corporate environmental benchmarking. Examples of topics that could be addressed in this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• •

  Strategic Benchmarking – how organizations use environmental benchmarking to guide organizational long-term development of competitive advantage based on environmental issues. Integration of environmental with other corporate goals, including other sustainability and social goals is especially encouraged. Using strategic environmental benchmarking data for research and evaluation of corporate financial and market performance may also fall within this category.

• •

  Environmental benchmarking's role in decreased governmental oversight of corporate environmental performance and as a voluntary tool.

• •

  The impact of the global reporting initiative and environmental reporting on corporate environmental performance. This issue may include the roles of internal and external benchmarking for managing environmental performance of organizations.

  • •

    Tools and models for corporate environmental benchmarking including:

  • •

    Life Cycle Analysis's role

  • •

    Performance Analysis (gap analysis tools) e.g. eco-efficiency ratios and measure

  • •

    Econometric models to evaluate the relative performance of environmental programs

  • •

    Frameworks for planning, design, implementation and maintenance of environmental benchmarking data and practices

  • •

    Industrial ecology and supply chain linkages

  • •

    The determination, selection and application of appropriate performance measures and metrics.

  • •

    Valuation and accounting of benchmarking measures.

• •

  The role of benchmarking and performance measurement across the supply chain, and the role of ISO 14001/14031 standards and certification, including continuous improvement analysis to moderate the influence of industrial greening performance.

• •

  Using the internet and other pervasive information technologies to aid in benchmarking.

• •

  The role of various governmental sources and programs to aid in benchmarking and monitoring corporate environmental behavior.

• •

  Environmental benchmarking practices across and within various industrial sectors including manufacturing, service, agricultural, and construction sectors.

The submissions will be subject to a double blind peer review process. Papers will be evaluated on their clarity, contribution, suitability to the special issue, and overall quality.

All submissions should be made through Manuscript Central (http:// manuscriptcentral.com/bij), following the guidelines at: www.emeraldinsight.com/info/journals/bij/notes.jsp

The deadline for submission is September 30, 2008.

Guest Editor: Professor Joseph Sarkis,Graduate School of Management, Clark University,950 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01610-1477, USATel: (508) 793-7659; Fax: (508) 793-8822;E-mail: jsarkis@clarku.edu