Towards The NexT GeNeraTioN of CorporaTe eNviroNmeNTal maNaGemeNT iNformaTioN sysTems: whaT is There aNd whaT is missiNG?

Towards The NexT GeNeraTioN of CorporaTe eNviroNmeNTal maNaGemeNT iNformaTioN sysTems: whaT is There aNd whaT is missiNG? Today, environmental issues are frequently dealt with at corporate management level. The roots of this relatively new development can be traced back to the late 1980s. At that time, companies felt increasing pressure from international politics to internalize their impacts on the environment, drawing on the increasingly popular idea of sustainability which encompassed ecological, social, and economic aspects. The emergence of systems for voluntary eco-management, as e.g. EMAS or ISO 14001, further shifted the focus of environmental responsibility towards the companies, whereas the increasing number of environmental considerations that they had to face generally originated from company-external sources. In order to comply with environmental goals, a special category of information systems (IS) was created which is generally known as Corporate Environmental Management Information Systems (CEMIS). These systems were originally developed to meet a fairly restricted number of external environmental requirements. Nowadays, a large variety of highly specific, heterogeneous solutions for different environmental issues exists on the market. In spite of that, no truly integrative approach to the topic has been taken to date. In almost all cases where CEMIS contribute to the solution of large-scale problems, this happens at an operational level only. Although there are external factors that can make the introduction of environmental management financially beneficial (e.g. marketing, reduction of resource consumption), it is questionable whether individual CEMIS that exist only at operational level are able to meet complex environmental goals. Additionally, such isolated solutions usually come with all the problems that business informatics experts try to prevent by constructing integrated systems, as e.g. data redundancy, heterogeneous user interfaces, inefficient communication etc. Bearing this in mind, it is even more surprising to see that the mistakes of the early 1960s and 1970s are still being repeated, leaving companies with the high costs of integrating separate, outdated legacy systems. Considering the increasing public debate about a sustainable society, there is a growing demand on companies to go beyond a strict adherence to legal requirements. Instead of a mere response to external legislative demands, there is a clear call for companies to embrace active environmental protection. This does not only involve reducing unnecessary waste, but also improving the general efficiency of production processes in terms of production-integrated environmental protection, while at the same time satisfying the various stakeholders' needs. To achieve this, a …