Recognizing the importance of environmental management practices for government operations, the Canadian government has drafted a guidance document to assist a wide variety of government departments in evaluating their environmental performance. An interesting part of the guidance deals with proposed environmental performance measures—a series of performance metrics for indicating the level of environmental action for different attributes. These performance measures are generic in nature and could be readily applied to the private sector.
Through its Environment Canada ministry, Canada has identified 12 key environmental issues: contaminated sites, hazardous wastes, water efficiency, solid waste management, ozone-depleting substances/ halocarbons, fleet management, energy use in facilities, green procurement, storage tanks, releases, wastewater, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Each environmental issue has a corresponding "toolbox" of proposed measures. These indicators reveal the extent to which the environmental issue is addressed and controlled.
| Environmental Issue | Metric | Toolbox of Proposed Measures |
| Contaminated Sites | PI | Number of properties that contain Class I sites |
| %PI | Percentage of properties that contain Class I sites | |
| PC | Number of properties that contain Class 1, 2, or 3 sites | |
| %PC | Percentage of properties that contain Class 1, 2, or 3 sites | |
| S1 | Number of Class 1 sites | |
| S2 | Number of Class 2 sites | |
| S3 | Number of Class 3 sites | |
| SN | Number of Class N sites | |
| L | Liability | |
| CL | Contingent Liability | |
| TL | Total Liability | |
| Hazardous Wastes | HF | Number of hazardous waste facilities |
| HFC | Number of hazardous waste facilities in compliance with regulations, policies, and procedures | |
| %HFC | Percentage of hazardous waste facilities in compliance with regulations, policies, and procedures. | |
| Water Efficiency | VBA | Volume of water used per building area |
| VPA | Volume of water used per property area | |
| VO | Volume of water used per occupant | |
| CBA | Cost of water supply per building area | |
| CPA | Cost of water supply per property area | |
| CO | Cost of water supply per occupant | |
| SA | Number of buildings subject to a water savings audit | |
| %SA | Percentage of buildings subject to a water savings audit | |
| CP | Number of building with a water conservation plan | |
| %CP | Percentage of buildings with a water conservation plan | |
| Solid Waste Management | WG | Amount of solid waste generated |
| WGO | Amount of solid waste generated per occupant | |
| CD | Cost of solid waste sent to disposal | |
| CDO | Cost of solid waste sent to disposal per occupant | |
| WD | Amount of solid waste sent to disposal | |
| WDO | Amount of solid waste sent to disposal per occupant | |
| DD | Amount of solid waste diverted from disposal | |
| %DD | Percentage of wasted diverted from disposal | |
| %DSU | Percentage of local diversion services utilized | |
| WR | Number of buildings with waste reduction programs | |
| %WR | Percentage of buildings with waste reduction programs | |
| Ozone-Depleting Substances / Halocarbons | TDP | Total Ozone-Depleting Potential – Weighted Inventory of Ozone-Depleting Substances |
| RR | Number ODP- weighted reportable ODS releases | |
| AR | Amount of ODP-weighted reportable ODS releases | |
| %AR | Percentage ODP-weighted reportable ODS releases, based on the total ODP-weighted inventory | |
| OI | Number of buildings with ODS inventories | |
| %OI | Percentage of buildings with ODS inventories | |
| MP | Number of buildings with ODS Management Plans | |
| %MP | Percentage of buildings with ODS Management Plans | |
| Fleet Management | TV | Total Number of vehicles |
| TK | Total fleet kilometers | |
| FC | Average fuel consumption | |
| AFV | Number of alternative fuel vehicles | |
| %AFV | Percentage of alternative fuel vehicles | |
| FFC | Fleet fuel costs | |
| FFK | Fleet fuel costs per kilometer | |
| Energy Use in Facilities | EBA | Energy consumed per building area |
| EPA | Energy consumed per property area | |
| EO | Energy consumed per occupant | |
| CBA | Cost of energy consumed per building area | |
| CPA | Cost of energy consumed per property area | |
| CO | Cost of energy consumed per occupant | |
| EA | Number of buildings which have completed, or are undergoing, an energy audit | |
| %EA | Percentage of buildings which have completed, or are undergoing, an energy audit | |
| BER | Number of buildings having completed, or currently undergoing, an energy efficiency retrofit | |
| %BER | Percentage of buildings having completed, or currently undergoing, an energy efficiency retrofit | |
| ES | Amount of energy saved | |
| %ES | Percentage of energy saved | |
| Green Procurement | GS | Number of specifications with green statements |
| GSL | Number of products included in approved green source lists | |
| GE | Number of trained, or "green aware" employees with procurement responsibilities | |
| %GE | Percentage of trained or "green aware" employees with procurement responsibilities | |
| GP | Dollar value of green purchases reported | |
| %GP | Dollar value of green purchases as a percent of total procurement budget | |
| Storage tanks | ST | Total Number of storage tank systems |
| TC | Number of storage tank systems in compliance | |
| %TC | Percentage of storage tank systems in compliance | |
| Releases | BEP | Number of buildings with emergency plans |
| %BEP | Percentage of buildings with emergency plans | |
| PEP | Number of properties with emergency plans | |
| %PEP | Percentage of properties with emergency plans | |
| NR | Number of releases | |
| QR | Quantity of releases | |
| Wastewater | PWW | Number of properties with discharges of untreated wastewater |
| %PMP | Percentage of properties covered by monitoring programs, where monitoring programs are required | |
| %CDG | Percentage of properties in full compliance with discharge guidelines | |
| Greenhouse Gas Emissions | TGHG | Total greenhouse gas emissions |
| %TGHG | Greenhouse gas emissions as a percentage of 1990 levels |
Environment Canada’s Web site at www.ec.gc.ca elaborates on these metrics, including information on how they can be applied to environmental management systems as defining indicators, benchmarks, or supplementary references.
With the Canadian government providing guidance on these metrics, environmental managers may be willing to consider applying performance ratios or metrics to their particular systems or processes to reveal levels of performance. From these measures, continual improvement plans and objective targets can be established and retained as evidence of a structured system.
