This toolkit gives 'Lean implementers' practical strategies and techniques to improve their Lean results in terms of waste elimination, quality enhancement, and delivery of value to customers. It is also designed to improve business's general environmental performance from Lean efforts. The creators of this toolkit assume that the reader is already familiar with Lean methods and therefore, the toolkit focuses on further improvements to operations that have already implemented some Lean practices.

This report, produced by the EPA's Environmental Accounting Project, is meant to be a 'primer' designed to define for readers what environmental accounting means and to explain how it is actually being implemented in today's business world. The ultimate goal is to help business managers and other professionals understand this concept so that they will be able to apply its core concepts in their work.

This report begins with an introduction to what sustainability means to business, referencing the model of ‘people, planet, profits’ often followed in sustainable operations. This document is based on a global survey conducted in 2007 which looked into whether organizations are implementing sustainable practices and the degree to which they are doing so. It is aimed at helping people in the business world understand the potential costs and benefits of implementing sustainable practices.