Developing a Maturity Assessment Model for IT-Supported Energy Management

Abstract

Maturity assessment modelling is a recognised instrument in both academic and business domains which has recently become the focus of discussion in connection with sustainable information and communication technology. At the same time, the acceptance of Corporate Environmental Information Systems (CEMIS) in the corporate world remains modest, and CEMIS continue to be confronted with various problems. Against this background, a maturity assessment model for IT-supported environmental management will be developed with the aim of incentivising companies to deploy CEMIS and thus increase its usage in the corporate domain. The long-term goal is to fundamentally shift the status of environmental management so that it is no longer viewed as being passive, non-integrated and often costly, but rather as being a strategic instrument whose potential can be systematically exploited with the help of a maturity assessment model. The development of maturity assessment models will first be illustrated with the help of a process model. As the development of a maturity assessment model for environmental management in general represents an extremely comprehensive undertaking, application of the model developed here will be explored in the limited context of energy management and planned implementation within a corporate network.