SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING GUIDELINES
performance measurement, do not readily lend themselves to quantification.
Reporting Indicators: Absolute Figures and Ratios
14
Reporting organisations should present raw performance data in terms of absolute figures, and
for a given period of operation (most often a year). These absolute figures might be expressed
in a currency or in physical units (such as tonnes, cubic metres, or gigajoules). Absolute
figures provide information on the size of an impact, value, or achievement.
Relative figures are ratios between two absolute figures of the same or different kind. Ratios
allow comparisons of similar products or processes. They also help relate the performance
and achievements of one firm, business unit, or organisation to those of another. Ratio
indicators provide information on the efficiency of an activity, on the intensity of an impact,
annaabi.ee 
