Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine why and how municipal managers and CEOs for municipally owned companies use the environmental performance indicators. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach as a research design was used. In total, 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted among managers for administrative departments and municipal company CEOs. Findings This study found that the environmental performance indicators are used by department managers mainly for resource allocation, control and for teaching the employees. The CEOs of the municipal companies use the environmental indicators for communicating with external stakeholders and see the indicators primarily as marketing tools. The main reason why the environmental performance indicators are used in the municipality can be the strong demand from the local politicians to push the “green agenda,” and therefore the managers have to comply. Research limitations/implications As in any case study, generalizations from the research should be made with care, but since this is only one municipality, further research is needed to find additional evidence. Practical implications The findings of this study have a number of implications for future practice, and it is worth mentioning that clear guidelines for how the information could be made more useful for managers at the managerial level in Vaxjo municipality (VM) are requested for both the municipal managers and the CEOs. Social implications Overall, this study strengthens the idea that environmental performance indicators could be used to a larger extent for communicating with external stakeholders both for municipal departments and companies. Originality/value The research adds to the literature by examining different patterns of using environmental performance indicators in a unique setting – in VM, which is called “the greenest city in Europe” and is one of the “pioneers” in environmental work and extensively uses performance indicators.

中文翻译：

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在“欧洲最绿色的城市”中使用环境绩效指标

目的本文的目的是研究市政公司的市政经理和首席执行官为何以及如何使用环境绩效指标。设计/方法/方法使用案例研究方法作为研究设计。总共对行政部门的经理和市政公司的首席执行官进行了18次半结构化访谈。调查结果研究发现，环境绩效指标主要由部门经理用于资源分配，控制和员工培训。市政公司的首席执行官使用环境指标与外部利益相关者进行沟通，并将这些指标主要用作营销工具。在市政当局使用环境绩效指标的主要原因可能是当地政客强烈要求推动“绿色议程”，因此管理人员必须遵守。研究局限性/含义与任何案例研究一样，对研究的概括应谨慎进行，但由于这只是一个城市，因此需要进行进一步的研究以寻找更多的证据。实际意义这项研究的发现对未来的实践有很多影响，值得一提的是，对于瓦克斯霍市（VM）的管理阶层的管理者，都需要关于如何使信息更有用的明确指南。市政经理和首席执行官。社会影响总体而言，这项研究强化了这样一种观念，即环境绩效指标可以更大程度地用于与市政部门和公司的外部利益相关者进行沟通。独创性/价值通过研究在独特环境中使用环境绩效指标的不同模式（VM被称为“欧洲最绿色的城市”，是环境工作和广泛使用的“先驱”之一），该研究增加了文献资料。性能指标。