ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT INDICATORS IN AN INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING SCHOOL

Abstract

ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to discuss the experience of a school of industrial engineering that adopted an environmental management system that includes performance indicators that encompass metrics of the environmental implications of the research and education that the school offers, and measures of how this education is assimilated by the students, and taken into account both in their present and future life. The paper emphasizes that environmental management systems are often centered on the continual reduction of the negative effects on the environment that an organization may cause, but, although it is not usual (and hence this is the originality of this paper), organizations can also take account of their positive impacts. Universities might do so because they create and transmit knowledge and, moreover, they shape attitudes. The relevance of the paper lies on the performance metrics. These findings are useful for implementing an environmental management system in any knowledge organization.