http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/environment/waste_management/ev0010_en.htm

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/business/topics/waste/

http://www.ciwm.co.uk/CIWM/CIWMHome.aspx

Good question - This may be of interest:

National Geospatial Advisory Committee – Landsat Advisory Group: The Value Proposition for Ten Landsat Applications

http://www.fgdc.gov/ngac/meetings/september-2012/ngac-landsat-economic-value-paper-FINAL.pdf

David --

Some companies are going to be more interested in compiling and using that data than you might think. While it all might be ultimately commercial, lots of companies compile the metrics and issue sustainability reports. If I were researching this area, that is one place I would look at an early stage.

I am aware of at least one O&G company that compiled information on its spills, small and large, the expenses of remediation, any fines, etc., the value of lost material, etc. Even though the total volumes involved were quite small compared to the volumes they managed, the costs related to those spills were dramatic. This, among other reasons, led to them adopting a core value of environmentally responsible operations, one of 4 core value for the company. The core values were synthesized into memorable phrases and emphasized throughout the company. The environmental core value phrase was "Don't spill a drop." (To give you more of a feel, safety was "No one gets hurt." Ethics was "Do the right thing.") For safety and environmental issues they kept metrics, how many lost work days, how many air permit exceedences, what the cause of those exceedences were, how many spills, where (refinery, production site, pipeline, retail, etc.). Managers were evaluated in part based on how well their area of responsibility did on these areas.

My impression is that this company was quite a bit more enlightened than most, but I expect there is more available than you might suspect and I expect that it isn't nearly as confidential as you might think. For one thing, there are things like TRI reporting and other environmental regulatory records that put a lot of this type of information in the public domain.

I can also provide some info an use of environmental info in cost-benefit analysis of potential business decisions if that is what you are interested in. Not quite sure exactly what you are after or where you are going with it, but I might be able to help a bit more if I had a little bit better of an idea.

You can see at sustainbility reports that are nowadays published by the major part of multinational companies. You have to be careful, nevertheless, to know what is the level and independency of auditing processes. You can find the environmenal data and news in these reports and analyse them. Acting in this way you can also have an idea of the business use of environmental data.