Application of ERP-Systems in Environmental Management – Case Study and Survey for IT-Support

Abstract

To improve the environmental performance of the enterprise, environmentally relevant information has to be provided to different decision-makers in enterprises. Therefore, functionalities and information systems are necessary in order to prepare information in a user-oriented way. In this regard, information on material and energy flows, costs as well as material properties are important for producing companies. They can be provided to the users with socalled Environmental Accounting Instruments. In practise, restraints arise from non-available functionalities in software systems or missing integration of relevant systems that constrain information acquisition and integration in business processes.

Within the research project “intebis – Integration of environmental information in Business Information System”2 a transferable generic IT-concept is developed to integrate environmental data in Enterprise Resource Planning-systems (ERP-system) such as SAP R/3 and to support business process in terms of material flow management. The objective is an integrated view on environmental relevant information and their user specific analysis and reporting for management, controlling, environmental and other operating departments.

The IT-concept is currently exemplarily implemented and evaluated by the cardboard manufacturer Kappa BADENKARTON, a medium-size enterprise in the state Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In this paper, the current state of the implementation is shown. Preceding this, results from a survey among producing enterprises in the state Baden-Württemberg, Germany are presented. In this survey, the identification of the current state of the application of information instruments for environmental management and their IT-support was addressed.