OEPI: A Network Solution for Managing Organizations' Environmental Performance Indicators

Companies use Environmental Performance Indicators (EPIs) such as CO2 emissions and water consumption to monitor and reduce the impact of their operations and products on the environment. Various IT solutions are used today to manage these EPIs, however, these suffer from three shortcomings. They do not sufficiently address the business user, they barely touch upon the inter-organizational aspects, and they typically suffer from data availability and quality issues. Addressing these challenges is the aim of the research project OEPI whose approach and results are the subject of this paper. OEPI proposes a new solution aimed at the business user, designed for extensibility, and with particular mechanisms that foster inter-organizational cooperation and high-quality data incorporation. The goal is to provide a many-to-many business network that enables users to easily provision, share, and manage their EPIs. 1. Corporate Environmental Actions Companies are increasingly taking action to monitor, reduce, and report their environmental impact. For example, more than 700 companies reported their 2011 sustainability performance following the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), a de-facto guideline for sustainability reporting. Companies see real business value in this exercise as investors, shareholders, and customers are asking for it more often. For example, the FTSE4Good Index Series and Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes (DJSI) are used by investors in their decision-making. An additional initiative also worth noting is the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), whose 2011 questionnaire to collect organization-level CO2 emission data was sent on behalf of investors with US$71 trillion of assets, and resulted in over 400 responses from the biggest 500 companies. Carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in general have been the subject of particular emphasis due to global warming, and this is reflected in reporting initiatives such as the CDP but also standardization efforts such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The latter was originally focused on organization-level emissions but recently new standards appeared to cover the supply chain and product levels. The need to broaden the scope of environmental considerations beyond the own organization into the supply chain and product life cycle is evident in further examples. First, the CDP added a supply chain reporting initiative in addition to the above-mentioned organization-level reporting. Second, focal players in the supply chain, e.g. Walmart and Unilever, have issued mandates requesting their top suppliers to provide specific environmental information and trigger them to continuously improve. Third, life cycle assessments are increasingly used and results are often reported in the form of an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), and inter1 SAP Research, SAP (Schweiz) AG, Blumenbergplatz 9, 9000, St. Gallen, Switzerland 2 Siemens AG, Corporate Technology, Siemensdamm 50, 13629 Berlin, Germany 3 Ericsson España S.A., C/ Abraham Zacuto, Parque Tecnológico de Boecillo, 47151, Boecillo, Valladolid, Spain 4 SAP Research, SAP Australia Pty Ltd, 52 Merivale Street, South Brisbane QLD 4101, Australia email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] EnviroInfo 2012: EnviroInfo Dessau 2012, Part 2: Open Data and Industrial Ecological Management Copyright 2012 Shaker Verlag Aachen, ISBN: 978-3-8440-1248-4