IT-for-Green: Next Generation CEMIS for Environmental, Energy and Resource Management Barbara Rapp, Andreas Solsbach, Tariq Mahmoud, Ammar Memari, Jörg Bremer 1 Abstract Contemporary CEMIS do not cope with requirements from the sustainability discussion. At the time of reporting en- vironmental performance, it is too late to set the right course. Without an early identification of cause and effect to anticipate environmental impacts of decisions for timely intervention, potentials for acting precautious remain unem- ployed. A resource-friendly design of processes and their controlling demands for sustainability oriented organiza- tional structures. The methodical view is often neglected. Innovative solutions are in demand. This versatile task may not be accomplished by science alone. Thus, the ertemis network (http://www.ertemis.eu) supports a new project to further the development of next generation CEMIS. Integrated modules will map the whole product life cycle from input (energy efficiency), transformation processes (production and green logistics) up to the output side (communi- cation and reporting). In this paper, we introduce the IT-for-Green project (http://www.it-for-green.eu) and give an overview of the modules and the objectives we want to achieve. 1. Introduction Political parameters and guiding principles for environmental protection, sustainability and energy effi- ciency demand for assistance by environmental management systems. Indeed, a high-capacity environ- mental management system has a need for multiple diverse and heterogeneous data in order to meet the requirements of planning, controlling and assessing versatile environmental tasks within an organization and beyond organizational boundaries. This data has to be provided by so called corporate environmental management information systems (CEMIS) for a goal oriented processing. But, looking into business practice shows (Marx Gómez et. al 2010) that currently implemented CEMIS do not cope with the re- quirements from the sustainability debate. In our assessment, ICT (information and communication technology) and its ability for efficient con- trolling plays a decisive role for sustainable business development, if ICT is applied already at the product design stage as the first step within environmental conscious production and if it is part of the strategic de- cision making processes. CEMIS must not be mere end-of-pipe solutions for documenting environmental performance or for complying with legal requirements (cf. Teuteberg/Freundlieb 2009). The reason is, that at the time of reporting it is too late to set the right course. The application of intelligently cross-linked systems and processes supports the ICT on the strategic enterprise level. At this level, strategically rele- vant environmental information and decision processes are supplied (e.g. by an active environmental data warehouse) in order to support a better rating of different paths of sustainable development, mission criti- cal resource costs or volatile energy markets. In this way, associated risks and strategically relevant and dynamic cause-and-effect relationships between economical, ecological and social indicators become visi- ble. Hence, next generation CEMIS will aim at integrating the IT of a company to a resource controlling en- tity (service-oriented approach) in order to realize a strategic corporate environmental management for an increased company value. In this way, a chance and risk efficient, strategic environmental management will be realized and added value by sustainability will be generated for the companies (cf. Funk et al. 1 Department of Computing Science, C.v.O. University of Oldenburg, Germany EnviroInfo 2011: Innovations in Sharing Environmental Observations and Information Copyright 2011 Shaker Verlag Aachen, ISBN: 978-3-8440-0451-9