Investing in Sustainability: A Practice-Oriented Approach to Analyze IT-Investments in Sustainability Reporting Systems

Christoph Beckers, Oliver Marz and Lutz M. Kolbe
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Christoph Beckers: Department of Information Management, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
Oliver Marz: Business Development Retail and Logistics, CSB-System AG, Geilenkirchen, Germany
Lutz M. Kolbe: Department of Information Management, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany

International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD), 2013, vol. 4, issue 2, 99-120

Abstract: Given the increased stakeholder focus on sustainability, companies are facing the challenge of systematically collecting and processing sustainability information. Identifying sustainability indicators will become imperative for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), especially in the extremely segmented and highly specialized food industry – entailing opportunities, but also costs and risks. This article is a management approach and a basis for discussing the classification of sustainability reporting systems in existing Information Technology (IT) infrastructures from an economical point of view. Supported by a case study from the meat industry, the authors discuss to what extent sustainability information is reflected by an existing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System, or which investments would be required for companies to facilitate the communication of sustainability data. Additionally and as a result, the article gives a schematic explanation how process changes can be evaluated economically by capturing and processing sustainability information, and thus how to decide in favor of or against a certain level of IT-based environmental information processing functionality.

Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:igg:jsesd0:v:4:y:2013:i:2:p:99-120

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