Assessing eco-efficiency with directional distance functions

Eco-efficiency is a matter of concern at present that is receiving increasing attention in political, academic and business circles. Broadly speaking, this concept refers to the ability to create more goods and services with less impact on the environment and less consumption of natural resources, thus involving both economic and also ecological issues. In this paper we propose the use of directional distance functions and Data Envelopment Analysis techniques to assess eco-efficiency. More specifically, we show how these functions can be used to compute a wide range of indicators representing different objectives regarding economic and ecological performance. This methodological approach is applied to a sample of Spanish olive-growing farms to illustrate its great potential to provide policymakers and farm managers with sound information as a basis for strategic decision making. We also suggest further avenues to explore in this burgeoning line of research. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.