How to tally your return on environment

FOR most companies, ROE stands for return on equity, a useful tool for assessing how efficient a company is at generating returns for their shareholders.

At chemistry firm Buckman Laboratories, however, ROE stands for something bigger and, in their opinion, more important: their customers' return on environment.

The company, which provides solutions for clients in the pulp and paper industry and other manufacturing companies, measures how much their clients would save the environment if they took up Buckman's solutions.