Enhancing and monitoring the environmental performance of complex industrial projects: a communication-based approach

Monitoring the environmental performance of projects depends on effective information sharing and indicators that enable stakeholders to track and drive environmental decisions throughout project phases. Several environmental frameworks, assessment tools, methodologies, and standards can guide the definition of these performance indicators. However, it is not always easy for industrial actors to understand, use, or adapt the existing assessment tools to match their business and projects. Additionally, selecting indicators for complex industrial projects is more challenging due to the multiplicity of stakeholders involved, each with different roles, and often lacking effective structured communication.

This article proposes a communication-based approach for selecting environmental performance indicators appropriate to complex industrial projects. This method utilizes Lasswell's communication model to assign stakeholders the roles of indicators' providers, receivers, and experts based on defined objectives. Lasswell's model bolsters existing assessment frameworks by incorporating the sharing aspect among stakeholders that they lack.

The proposed method is used to select environmental performance indicators for monitoring rail infrastructure projects. These projects are inherently complex, involving multiple stakeholders with significant technical expertise across several long project phases.

By using this method, the resulting indicators not only reflect scientific soundness but also incorporate the knowledge and interests of all stakeholders involved. A key feature of this approach is the recognition that selecting environmental indicators is a ‘collaborative challenge’. This challenge can only be addressed through structured information exchange, allowing for a transition from environmental diagnosis to environmental monitoring of complex projects.