What gets measured well is managed well: Determining a hierarchy of interdependencies of environmental elements for effective environmental performance

Climate effects of greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use, energy use, and waste are a universal concern. With disparate reporting firms and a lack of universal measures of corporate sustainability, environmental sustainability for businesses is an afterthought, with minimal consequences for inaccurate reporting, or green washing and brown washing. This research explores four widely used reporting measures to first derive 12 universally applicable elements from five sustainability themes of emissions, land, water, energy, and waste. Using expert inputs and existing literature, the identified elements are subjected to interpretive structural modeling (ISM) to develop a framework of interdependencies among the elements and their influence on emissions. The framework identifies crucial elements, beyond carbon emissions, that have greater potential to reduce the climate impact of economic activity. Although aware of energy use implications, businesses have long ignored the indirect but catastrophic effects of non‐hazardous waste, the second level element, on climate change.