Hoan Do Jong*, Hiroshi Akai*, Yoshinobu Iyama* and Kohji Hayase*

* Graduate School of Biosphere Sciences, Hiroshima University

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Kohji Hayase:
(1-7-1, Kagamiyama, Higashi Hiroshima-city, 739 Japan)

Abstract

In this study, an environmental performance evaluation and its environmental audit was carried out for eight main or branch offices in Hiroshima City. Each location was studied selected as an experimental system, based on the theory that the 'system' and the 'environment' are distinct from one another. Incoming parts (incoming materials, deliveries and incoming copy paper), circulation (one sided paper both produced and consumed, FAX), and outgoing parts (outgoing materials, trash to be burned and to be recycled) were considered as subjects and measured in the investigation. The measurement for each office was performed for a period of one week between June and September 1995. Based on the measurement results, the incoming and outgoing materials were systematically arranged, and an environmental balance accounting, which is the basic data for environmental audit, was presented. Moreover, taking the environmental balance accounting as a basis, a flow diagram of the materials was drawn, and evaluations of various environmental effects and related improvements were carried out in the eight offices. In these evaluations, the level of CO2 emission was used as an index, and was simulated using the LCA technique. The results for the CO2 emission level in the eight offices were: four of them had an approximate 30% reduction; two less than a 10% reduction; while the remaining two showed almost no change at all. Although there were different results for each office in these evaluations, overall approximately a 60% of reduction for CO2 was possible for each of the eight offices.

Key words: environmental performance evaluation, environmental audit, system and environment, environmental balance accounting, reduction of CO2 emission