The Integration of Safety, Environmental and Quality Management Systems

This chapter will show how the demands on safety, environmental and quality management systems and their implementation into IT solutions have changed over the years and how such systems may appear in the future. Tangible business processes from the areas of occupational health and safety and environmental protection are described and a solution shown as to how these can be dealt with in a task-related way. Furthermore, there will be shown the connection between these business processes and the relevant legislation and the special benefits pertaining to legal security. Following this we describe how the linking of IT systems mentioned with scientific management systems with the primary processes of the company can be arranged. We also provide a look at the benefits arising from using such systems. The chapter concludes with a critical look at the future distribution and use of such integrated, process-oriented and legally based management systems. This chapter is particularly directed to companies that have set the carrying out of the material-related legal requirements and cost reduction through thought-out product use as a corporate objective. The concept of a networked corporate occupational health and safety and environmental protection information system and its implementation as a standard product will be introduced. Core components include basic data maintenance, modules for supporting decentralised specialised tasks and an efficient reporting system used at all locations and linked to an intranet.

ORISS

In this chapter, we present the Web-based carpooling system ORISS, which was initially developed by a student project group at University of Oldenburg. It is currently being deployed at Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg with support of the DBU (Federal German Foundation for the Environment). We describe the role of carpools in traffic, particularly in commuter traffic, and show perspectives of an increased usage of carpools. A significant impact on the eco-balance of the university can be expected. We explain how Internet technologies and geographic information systems can be used for the arrangement of carpools, and show advantages over traditional methods of carpooling. The concrete architecture of ORISS and the algorithms used are outlined. We conclude the chapter by describing the circumstances of deployment and propose possible future extensions of the system.

Virtual Networking without a Backpack? Resource Consumption of Information Technologies

This chapter concentrates on the environmental impacts of the increasing use of the Internet. It highlights that the Internet and Internet applications are far from being purely virtual, but are clearly linked to the use of natural resources. With the growth of the Internet’s infrastructure there is a seemingly inevitable increase in the resource consumption for the production of electronic equipment and its electricity consumption. A number of conclusions can be made regarding the minimisation of environmental risks and maximisation of ebusiness’ potential to dematerialise. The presented findings are mainly based on findings derived from research within the Digital Europe project, which was conducted as the first pan-European study of the social and environmental impacts and opportunities of e-commerce and information communication technologies. Supported by the European Commission, the project has been led by the research organisations Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Italy, Forum for the Future in UK and the Wuppertal Institute in Germany.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Corporate environmental reporting using the Internet – especially the WWW – is a rapidly emerging and increasingly popular method. Today, online environmental reporting has become part of business practices and daily affairs for a number of companies, and thus many of the environmental communication vehicles provided for companies’ target groups and other stakeholders (users) are available on the WWW: reports, brochures, leaflets, newsletters, press releases, slides, presentations, audio sequences, video clips and so forth are accessible via download and/or online, prepared for being pulled or automatically disseminated via e-mail or other current push technologies. Despite the considerable progress companies have made in recent years, however, it is not yet clear just how environmental reporting will advance to the next stage. In particular, the role of the Internet as an emerging computer-based medium and its unique capabilities in form and content need to be understood better. This chapter describes how to develop from early environmental reporting stages towards the more advanced sustainability reporting, while exploiting the Internet’s specific capabilities properly. This path is illustrated as a progression in environmental reporting along three dimensions: integration of financial and social issues into environmental reporting, provision of reporting instruments on various media and fine tuning communication vehicles according to users’ needs and preferences. These trends in terms of a more balanced reporting approach, cross media availability and customization seem to be converging to push the field towards sustainability reporting based on the Internet as a backbone for companies’ underlying ICT infrastructure. Without support from ICT, progress in the field toward sustainability reporting is seen as quite difficult, as moving away from orthodox environmental reporting is a complex task. Hence, a framework on how to use the Internet and its associated technologies is proposed, including four conceptual components: stakeholder analysis, information requirement analysis, XML-based document engineering and ICT architecture of an Internet-based reporting system. When employing such an Internet-based approach, it is argued here, the company will be in a position to carry out its tasks of information management well, using its human and organizational resources more efficiently, and communicating on environmental and sustainability issues in a meaningful way; that is, facilitating stakeholder dialogue, interactivity, feedback possibilities and tailor-made reports that respond precisely to the requirements of certain reporting standards and guidelines, or exactly to the information needs of the target groups.

Remote Monitoring of Nuclear Power Plants in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany

The technical implementation of a new remote monitoring system for nuclear power plants is described in this chapter as an example of a modern environmental monitoring and surveillance system. The concept, the architectural design and the user interface of this system had to meet extremely high demands. Fulfilling the imposed requirements, a system solution was developed which is suitable not only for environmental monitoring but also for hazard management and early warning systems. The pilot installation of this system has successfully passed the operational test phase and has been in full operation since August 2001.

Support of Integrated Management Systems by the Use of In-Plant Information, Management and Monitoring Systems

For many organisations the present status of integration of management systems raises the question where the development goes and whether there are not further new approaches to be pursued in the next years. Due to different perceptions of the term integration and in conflict for the right approach to the system, numerous parallel systems developed in the past. The following contribution describes the targets of different types of management systems and points out strategies and structural approaches of integration. In a second step the possibilities of ICT-supported solutions are resumed exemplarily. ICT-supported information, management and monitoring systems as components will take a central role in integration of management systems and have to be developed for further requirements.

A Social Context Model for Discussion Process Analysis

Computer-mediated discussion processes play an important role in achieving sustainable development. However, when part of authoring complex documents, these discussions have so far not been very effective. One reason is that in the design and application of the information tools supporting discussion, the social context is not sufficiently taken into account. We outline a social context model for discussion process analysis. The GRASS tool for group report authoring and the freeText tool for document review are authoring tools in which the social context of discussions is given explicit attention. Analyzing GRASS and freeText, we show how the model could be used to construct information tools that enable more effective discussions.

E-Organization and the Sustainable Information Society

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have direct and indirect effects on sustainability. The direct effects are linked to the material and energy flows caused by the application of ICT. Indirect effects are caused by organizational and institutional changes driven by the new technologies. These latter changes can be summarized using the term “e-organization”. E-organization describes organizational and institutional patterns enabled by ICT. Important examples are new forms of network coordination between firms (also between NGOs), virtual factories or virtual communities. This chapter proposes a normative framework for judging the sustainability effects of these organizational designs and makes suggestions on how to create e-organizations capable of offering a sustainability contribution.

Eco-Efficient Controlling of Material Flows with Flow Cost Accounting

The point of departure for ECO Rapid is the assumption that environmental management instruments have been perfected, but they will only be able to be used in practice to any extent worth mentioning if costs and benefits are in a favourable relationship to one another for companies. A key factor for achieving this goal is the question of how standard business management software can be used as instruments for solving the problems of company environmental management (environmental cost accounting, flow cost accounting, preparing an environmental balance sheet and environmental figures, etc.). This is the reason why we developed a method in the ECO Rapid project that puts companies and software retailers in a position to use and further develop enterprise resource planning systems (ERP systems) in a fashion that is orientated more towards material flows. We have used the reference model of ECO-Integral (Krcmar et al., 2000) to make it possible to take advantage of the database of ERP systems for a number of new evaluations on company material flows in quantities and values. This means that companies will be better able to use the ERP software they already have for the purposes of company environmental management while creating synergies to business management. We are publishing this method as a digital CD manual for small- and medium-sized companies and to a great extent it can be used independently of any particular software product. An important step along this route is pilot implementation in three companies. These hands-on projects are being followed up by imu augsburg (Augsburg, Germany) and Green IT GmbH (Konstanz, Germany). The chair for economic IT (at the Stuttgart-Hohenheim University) has the all-round responsibility for handling the project and IT support. And this chapter has the purpose of presenting the experience gathered in ECO Rapid.

Citizen-Centered Environmental Information Dissemination via Multiple Information Channels

Citizens call for timely and high-quality environmental information for reasons of awareness and personal well-being. Only an informed citizen will be in the position to participate in urban environment decision making and planning. This interest recommends an easy-to-understand and easy-to-access presentation of such up-to-date information. Rather than presenting raw data in an extensive fashion, one ought to engineer customizable information services that can be tailored to individual user groups, be it for reasons of content or be it for reasons of citizen’s ease of access. Apnee has designed information services that draw upon various information channels, such as mobile technologies, interactive portals for the Internet, as well as street panels for municipality usage scenarios. In a nutshell, the Apnee system promotes user-friendly information management and dissemination services via multiple information channels, effectively combining information content and service providing schemes. This dissemination platform can be applied not only to the environmental sector but also in multiple information domains. Based on the Apnee approach, environmental information turns into an attractive product (electronic information service).