Carbon Strategy and Information Systems—How Companies Use ICT to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint

Dear Colleagues,

Recent years have seen a fundamental shift in the way many companies view climate change. In a carbon-constrained economy, companies have begun to implement carbon strategies in order to reduce their carbon footprint, adapt to environmental regulations and/or investigate new business opportunities. Current information and communication technologies (ICT) offer a number of features to measure, monitor, report and reduce the overall carbon footprint, be it at product, process, business, or corporate level. The development and deployment of a carbon strategy require information systems which are appropriate, effective and operational. For example, goals have to be set, responsibilities have to be assigned to reach the goals, and outcomes must be assessed and used as the basis for forthcoming efforts. An ICT-supported approach provides an array of specific capabilities to improve carbon strategy for both companies and their various stakeholders.

The goal of this Special Issue is to investigate and describe this up-and-coming ICT-based carbon strategy approach along two main categories:(i) new opportunities ICT are offering for companies’ carbon strategy; (ii) the design and implementation of an ICT-based approach to carbon strategy, finally to moving away from early piecemeal engineering stages towards the more advanced fully ICT-driven approach.

We are looking forward to receiving contributions in the following and related areas:

• The role of carbon information systems in developing and deploying carbon strategies;
• ICT and innovations for climate change;
• Information systems, carbon strategy and organisational transformation;
• Organisational implications of carbon strategy and the use of ICT;
• The effectiveness of carbon information systems for internal decision-making under environmental uncertainty;
• Problems and challenges in carbon measurement, monitoring, and accounting;
• The use of databases for carbon impact appraisals;
• Assessment problems in carbon footprinting;
• ICT support for implementing standards of greenhouse gas emissions accounting and life cycle carbon emissions of products and services;
• ‘Duelling’ carbon life cycle assessments and how to deal with contradictory information;
• Carbon reporting and communication;
• Measuring and disclosing information about companies’ contribution to global warming and climate change (e.g., emissions trading, carbon disclosure);
• ICT and the application of carbon footprinting in a variety of contexts (e.g, marketing communication, packaging, assessment of product alternatives);
• ICT and the communication of climate information within organisations.

Prof. Dr. Ralf Isenmann
Prof. Dr. Jorge Marx Gómez
Guest Editors

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