Leading enterprises worldwide are proactively fulfilling environmental protection. This trend has elicited international attention. The corporate environmental responsibility (CER) framework was constructed based on the strategy these enterprises executed. This conceptual framework precisely determined current international advanced CER content. However, understanding the true intention of businesses that practice environmental management and protection through the CER framework is difficult, thereby making CER performance measurement indicators crucial. However, the lack of active CER performance measurement indicators resulted in the inability to reflect fully the effects of industry situation and business development on the living environment. Hence, this situation signals the urgency to construct CER performance measurement indicators that reflect fully industry situation and social needs. This study aims to address the deficiencies of CER performance measurement indicators in the academic circle, and construct a set of active CER performance measurement indicators that fully reflect the effects of industry situation and business development on the living environment. For this reason, this study employs content analysis method to establish CER performance measurement indicators based on the CER framework. This indicator provides an effective and applied CER performance measurement tool and offers the government with foresighted concepts of environmental protection. •The Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) framework has been constructed.•Understanding the true intention of businesses is difficult.•CER performance measurement indicators are crucial.•This study provides an effective and applied CER performance measurement tool.•This study offers the government with foresighted concepts.