Abstract
Rapid environmental change requires a widely changing attitude starting from individuals over corporations to governments. A closer and more critical review of current environmental policies is needed. Corporate environmental management information systems (CEMIS) can play a major role to change attitudes by providing information that enables users to assess the current environmental impact of their processes and operations. One important question with regard to this is whether an organisation is complying with regulations. If the organisation is not complying with regulations the gap must be identified. Focusing on the growing environmental awareness and the needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) we shed light on the information provisioning role of CEMIS as well as on the environmental impact of SME operations as a whole. The main objective of our work is to provide a dashboard information system to control and monitor the organizations environmental performance indicators (EPI). This shall lead to a reduced gap between the estimated and current values of company’s environment impact on an almost daily basis. In this chapter we will focus on explaining the concept of Light-Weight Composite Environmental Performance Indicators (LWC-EPI), providing clear terms and definitions and presenting technologies which can be used to implement it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Aruvian’s Research. “Analyzing the Carbon Emissions Trading in Europe - The EU ETS Scheme.” researchandmarkets.com. November 2010. http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reportinfo.asp?report_id=681603&t=d&cat_id=.
Asfoura, Evan, Naoum Jamous, Gamal Kassem, and Reiner Dumke. “FERP Mall Role in FERP Web Services Marketing.” The International Conference on Information Society (i-Society 2010). London, 2010. 156-161.
DEFRA. “Environmental Key Performance Indicators - Reporting Guidelines for UK Business.” www.defra.gov.uk. Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs “DEFRA”. 2006. http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/pdf/envkpi-guidelines.pdf (accessed March 2009).
EC-E&I. “European Commission for Enterprise and Industry.” European Union. 2009. http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/index_en.htm.
Eco92, UNConf. The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Eco92). Department of Public Information. 23 May 1997. http://www.un.org/geninfo/bp/enviro.html (accessed January 15, 2009).
EIA. “International Energy Outlook 2010.” U.S. Energy Information Administration. 2010. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/pdf/0484(2010).pdf.
Ellerman, A. Denny, and K.Barbara Buchner. “The European Union Emissions Trading System: Origins, Allocation, and Early Results.” Review of Environmental Economics and Policy (Association of Environmental and Resource Economists) 1, no. 1 (2007): 66-87.
Honkasalo, Antero. “The EMAS scheme: a management tool and instrument of environmental policy.” Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier) 6, no. 2 (1998): 119-128.
Jamous, Naoum, Gamal Kassem, Jorge Marx Gómez, and Reiner Dumke. “Proposed Light-Weight Composite Environmental Performance Indicators (LWC-EPI) Model.” the 24st International Conference on Informatics for Environmental Protection (EnviroInfo2010). Bonn & Cologne: shaker Verlag, 2010.
Lukacs, Edit. “The Economic Role of SMES in World economy, Especially in Europe.” Institute of Business Sciences, University of Miskolc, Hungary. 2005. www.uni-miskolc.hu/uni/res/kozlemenyek/2005/pdf/lukacs.doc (accessed 2009).
MSDN. The Microsoft Developer Network, library. 2010. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee658081.aspx (accessed 2010).
Olsthoorn, Xander, Daniel Tyteca, Walter Wehrmeyer, and Marcus Wagner. “Environmental indicators for business : a review of the literature and standardisation methods.” Journal of Cleaner Production (Elsevier) 9, no. 5 (2001): 453 - 463.
Claus Rautenstrauch (1999) Betriebliche Umweltinformationssysteme : Grundlagen, Konzepte und Systeme; mit 8 Tabellen, Springer
Rennen, Ward, and Pim Martens. “The Globalisation timeline.” Integrated Assessment (Taylor & Francis) 4, no. 3 (2003): 137-144.
Smith, Ann, Robert Kemp, and Charles Duff. “Small firms and the environment: factors that influence small and medium-sized enterprises' environmental behaviour.” In Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises and the Environment: Business Imperatives, by Ruth Hillary, 24 -34. New York: Greenleaf Publishing, 2000.
Stevens, Candice. “Statistics brief.” the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Sep. 2005. http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/41/35407580.pdf (accessed Dec. 2010).
Teuteberg, Frank, and Jorge Marx Gómez. Corporate Environmental Management Information Systems: Advancements and Trends. IGI Global, 2010.
WRI. The World Resources Institute. 2010. http://www.wri.org
Acknowledgment
Part of this research has been funded under the EC 7th Framework Program, in the context of the OEPI project (748735). The authors thank for the support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Jamous, N., Kramer, F., Kassem, G., Gómez, J.M., Dumke, R. (2011). Light-Weight Composite Environmental Performance Indicators (LWC-EPI) Concept. In: Golinska, P., Fertsch, M., Marx-Gómez, J. (eds) Information Technologies in Environmental Engineering. Environmental Science and Engineering(), vol 3. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19536-5_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-19536-5_23
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-19535-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-19536-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)