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Benchmarking

Benchmarking

What is Benchmarking?

Benchmarking is the process of sharing ideas and discoveries between related services with the goal of optimizing performance.

Benchmarking and the RDN

The RDN's Wastewater Services Department has been part of the National Water and Wastewater Benchmarking Initiative since 2001. This Initiative is a partnership of more than 41 Canadian Cities, Regional Districts, working with private environmental consultants to collect and compare data. The project was developed to address questions such as:
  • "How well are we doing?"
  • "How do we compare with similar organizations?"
  • "Are we getting value for our money?"
  • "How can our service begin the process of continual improvement?"
The objective of the benchmarking initiative is to:
  • Develop a high-level tool (model) that the majority of Canadian Water and Wastewater Utilities will accept and use for managing and monitoring their performance
  • Provide a framework for organizations to compare themselves against other utilities' norms and standards
  • Achieve continuous performance improvement toward goals
  • Monitor trends in key business functions so that managers can take proactive steps to avoid and resolve issues in their operating environment.
Through consultation and workshops, the participants identify performance measures to address issues of cost, reliability, environment and labour. Partners divided performance measures into categories that correspond with their goals.

These include:

  1. Provide reliable and sustainable infrastructure.
  2. Provide accessible and sufficient infrastructure.
  3. Meet service and performance requirements at a minimum sustainable cost.
  4. Protect public health and safety.
  5. Provide a safe and productive work environment.
  6. Have satisfied and informed customers.
  7. Protect the environment and minimize environmental impacts.
To learn more about benchmarking, please visit www.nationalbenchmarking.ca


Wastewater Services | 6300 Hammond Bay Road | Nanaimo, BC V9T 6N2 | E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 250-390-6560 (Nanaimo) 250-954-3792 (Oceanside) 1-877-607-4111 (Toll Free)
1-800-862-3429 (Emergency) | 250-390-1542 (Fax)
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