Two different indicators of “environmental responsibility” were independently proposed by Rodrigues et al. [Rodrigues, J., Domingos, T., Giljum, S., Schneider, F., 2006. Designing an indicator of environmental responsibility. Ecological Economics, 59 (3): 256–266.] and Lenzen et al. [Lenzen, M., Murray, J., Sack, F., Wiedmann, T., 2007. Shared producer and consumer responsibility — theory and practice. Ecological Economics, 61: 27–42.]. These indicators are both supposed to reflect the indirect effects of consumer and producer behavior in the generation of environmental pressure. In this paper we compare their mathematical properties and interpretation. We conclude that they have different implications for environmental policy.