A survey on cloud-based sustainability governance systems

Sustainability governance for resource consumption by humans, such as greenhouse gas (GHG) and electricity consumption in facilities, is a complex issue that requires extensible platforms to manage and analyze multiple types of data over the time. In this paper, we will examine how cloud-based information systems and services can support emerging and future requirements for sustainability governance, in particular, of facilities. Our analysis is based on real-world cloud platforms and research initiatives that can be used to support and manage stakeholders, data, processes, and applications for sustainability governance. Based on that, distinguishable and common characteristics of cloud computing platforms for sustainability governance will be identified as well as the differences among cloud-based sustainability governance platforms with general-purposed cloud platforms will be provided. Then we analyze in detail aspects related to data governance, monitoring and analysis techniques, and service integration. Finally, we will present some research challenges and approaches for the development of cloud-based sustainability governance.