Past attempts to create industry benchmarks always came from vendors, who would be tempted to tweak the results to ensure bragging rights.

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To finish the story, I made a decision in 1997 that my clients would earn their fair share of market returns through a portfolio of very low-cost index mutual funds and exchange-traded funds that track industry benchmarks.

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American industry flew right through the benchmarks set by the War Department.

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One is that it avoids the pitfalls of the majority of benchmarks which are relative measures within an industry.

ECONOMIST: A global ranking of companies

They take the portfolio where they see value with potential for growth, and their industry weightings can veer widely from those of their benchmarks indexes.

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Word is out now that Apple has joined BAPco, an industry group that does one thing and one thing only: create benchmarks for testing the performance of Windows-based PCs.

ENGADGET: Is Apple getting ready to run Windows?

The fund industry is notorious for comparing the performance of their products to the wrong benchmarks and even made-up benchmarks.

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This year Architecture 2030 introduced the 2030 Challenge for Products, which set benchmarks for reducing the carbon footprint of materials used in the building industry.

FORBES: Can Voluntary Sustainability Change the World?