@article{bartley_chen_harvey_showalter_zuckerman_stewart_2017, title={Lies, damn lies, and statistics: Why a widely used sustainability metric fails and how to improve it}, volume={29}, DOI={10.1111/jacf.12238}, abstractNote={Most of the world's major corporations now publicly report their sustainability performance for a number of key parameters, such as water use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and waste generated. The metrics most often used to track progress are “total inventory” (for example, the total liters of water used, or the total tons of GHGs emitted) and average intensity (total liters of water used per ton of product or per $1 million revenue). Because average intensity is normalized for the company's level of business activity, it is commonly presented and viewed as a measure of the company's actual year‐to‐year efficiency. But average intensity is often not a reliable measure of a company's true performance in sustainability.}, number={2}, journal={Journal of Applied Corporate Finance}, author={Bartley, J. and Chen, A. and Harvey, S. and Showalter, S. and Zuckerman, G. and Stewart, L.}, year={2017}, pages={109-} }