Carbon Strategy and Information Systems—How Companies Use ICT to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

A special issue of Systems (ISSN 2079-8954).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2016) | Viewed by 8219

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Sustainable Future Management, Faculty of Business Adminstration, Munich University of Applied Sciences, D-81243 München, Germany
Interests: Sustainbility Management and Corporate Social Responsbility; Sustainability Reporting; Industrial Ecology; Management of Technologies and Innovation; Technology Roadmapping

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Guest Editor
Department for Informatics, Section Business Information Systems I, Very Large Business Applications, Universität Oldenburg, D-26129 Oldenburg, Germany
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have seen a fundamental shift in the way many companies view climate change. In a carbon-constrained economy, companies have begun to implement carbon strategies in order to reduce their carbon footprint, adapt to environmental regulations and/or investigate new business opportunities. Current information and communication technologies (ICT) offer a number of features to measure, monitor, report and reduce the overall carbon footprint, be it at product, process, business, or corporate level. The development and deployment of a carbon strategy require information systems which are appropriate, effective and operational. For example, goals have to be set, responsibilities have to be assigned to reach the goals, and outcomes must be assessed and used as the basis for forthcoming efforts. An ICT-supported approach provides an array of specific capabilities to improve carbon strategy for both companies and their various stakeholders.

The goal of this Special Issue is to investigate and describe this up-and-coming ICT-based carbon strategy approach along two main categories:(i) new opportunities ICT are offering for companies’ carbon strategy; (ii) the design and implementation of an ICT-based approach to carbon strategy, finally to moving away from early piecemeal engineering stages towards the more advanced fully ICT-driven approach.

We are looking forward to receiving contributions in the following and related areas:

  • The role of carbon information systems in developing and deploying carbon strategies;
  • ICT and innovations for climate change;
  • Information systems, carbon strategy and organisational transformation;
  • Organisational implications of carbon strategy and the use of ICT;
  • The effectiveness of carbon information systems for internal decision-making under environmental uncertainty;
  • Problems and challenges in carbon measurement, monitoring, and accounting;
  • The use of databases for carbon impact appraisals;
  • Assessment problems in carbon footprinting;
  • ICT support for implementing standards of greenhouse gas emissions accounting and life cycle carbon emissions of products and services;
  • ‘Duelling’ carbon life cycle assessments and how to deal with contradictory information;
  • Carbon reporting and communication;
  • Measuring and disclosing information about companies’ contribution to global warming and climate change (e.g., emissions trading, carbon disclosure);
  • ICT and the application of carbon footprinting in a variety of contexts (e.g, marketing communication, packaging, assessment of product alternatives);
  • ICT and the communication of climate information within organisations.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Isenmann
Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • ICT, information systems
  • Climate change, GHG, global warming
  • Corporate carbon strategy
  • Carbon measurement, monitoring, accounting and reporting

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

304 KiB  
Article
Accounting Treatment for Carbon Emission Rights
by Isabel Gallego-Alvarez, Jennifer Martínez-Ferrero and Beatriz Cuadrado-Ballesteros
Systems 2016, 4(1), 12; https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4010012 - 06 Feb 2016
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 7763
Abstract
In light of the growing demand for sustainable behavior and the special interest that has emerged regarding the social and environmental impact of firms, the purpose of this research is to analyze the determinants of the accounting treatment of emission rights. To achieve [...] Read more.
In light of the growing demand for sustainable behavior and the special interest that has emerged regarding the social and environmental impact of firms, the purpose of this research is to analyze the determinants of the accounting treatment of emission rights. To achieve that purpose, we use a sample composed of 119 firms worldwide from different countries and activity sectors for the period 2011. Our findings show different accounting treatments depending on a series of factors. Specifically, firms pertaining to countries that have adopted Environmental Trading Schemes (ETS) tend to account for emission rights through provisions, investments, or as inventory. For their part, firms that issue indicators that appear in the report drawn up by KPMG and GRI (2007) tend to account for these entries as expenses, especially as R + D expenses. Finally, firms located in countries that signed the Kyoto protocol have a tendency to not account for carbon emission rights. The findings of this work can be considered of great interest on the international level because our research contributes to the scant previous literature regarding the accounting treatment of emission rights. Full article
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