In some cases, there may be reasonable proxies for quantified benefits and costs. For example, a firm might possess relatively complete technical descriptions of material flows (inputs, intermediate products, emissions). These material quantities, while not explicitly translated into financial quantities, may provide rules of thumb that qualitatively inform decision-making and guard against severe errors in decision-making. Finally, it is important to consider the difference between information that is collected by one unit of a firm and the transmission of that information to decision-makers who can act on it. For instance, environmental, health, and safety managers may possess a wealth of data that is useless unless.
