ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE INDEX
The EPI will give the company a more accurate picture of the state of environmental progress at each company. By providing robust quantitative information, the index will help us evaluate the steps taken so far and aid decision-making for the future.
Last year Telefónica constructed a system of indicators called the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), based on ISO 14031, a standard specifically concerned with environmental indicators. The EPI, as the Group's new environmental balanced scorecard, integrates information on environmental management, operational control and energy efficiency at all Telefónica's operators.
The EPI comprises three variables.
The first two are handled by the global Environmental Management System:
- Management indicators on the organization's efforts to improve environmental performance. These indicators reflect features such as environmental targets, legal proceedings in progress and employee training.
- Operational control indicators, which focus on those features of our activities that may have an environmental impact, such as waste, visual impact, noise and paper use.
- Energy efficiency and climate change indicators that reveal the outcome of each company's actions to optimise its energy use and minimise its carbon footprint, towards the overarching goal of global impact reduction.
Enhanced transparency
The EPI represents environmental performance quantitatively, so it lets us compare different operators and judge how well they are progressing. The introduction of the EPI in 2009 will enable us to identify best practices and set global, regional and local objectives.
Moreover, Telefónica can use the EPI to report in greater depth on each of its companies' environmental actions, thus enhancing the transparency of our environmental management.