inf660 - Sustainability Informatics (Complete module description)

Type and language of program will be announced prior to the beginning of the course. The course is recognised as a practical project in the Master's programme Sustainability Economics and Man-agement.

No participant requirement

After finishing this course, students should be able to set up a sustainabiliy report tailormade for different target groups for any kind of organization. The students will be enabled to know and apply different available standards and guidelines as well as to esti-mate the influence of data defects and the feasibility of recent information and communication technology. This course emphazizes the importance of sustainability reporting as a means of an organization's communca-tion (internal and external) and provides an overview on relevant indicators, standards and guidelines. Based on that the handling of data defects and missing data as well as different approaches of reporting will be dis-cussed. In addition, the specific requirements of different target groups regarding content and presentation of a report will be discussed as well.
Professional competence
The students:

• are aware of different indicators, standards and guidelines and know when to apply which.
• know different approaches of data capturing, interpolation of missing or corrupt data as well as the influence of each of these issues on the validity of a report.
• implement concepts for tailormade target group orientation.

Methodological competence
The students:

• prepare a small sustainability report based on their decision which standard or guideline to use.
• capture existing data and analyse it.
• prepare a tailormade target oriented presentation of their results.

Social competence
The students:

• are supposed to work in teams and therefore have to identify working packages and have to take on responsibility for the jobs assigned to them.
• present and discuss their own results with the team and the other members of the course

Self-competence
The students:

• learn about their own limitations and learn to accept criticism in order to strengthen their own abilities

The following topics will be covered in this module: 

• different definitions of the term sustainability.
• the importance of sustainability reporting as a means of an organisation's communication.
• LCA, environmental accounting, supply chain management as data sources.
• semantic, comparability and transformation of indicators, standards and guidelines.
• interpolation and interpretation of data defects.
• how to report (e.g. knowledge management, document engineering, integrated reporting, different target groups).

• Marx Gómez, J., Teuteberg, F. (Hrsg.) (2010): Corporate Environmental Management Information Sys-tems – State of the Art and Future Trends. Idea Group Publishing Hershey (PA), London
• Heck, P., Bemmann, U. (Hrsg.) (2002): Praxishandbuch Stoffstrommanagement. Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst.
• Rüdiger, C. (2000): Betriebliches Stoffstrommanagement. Deutscher Universitätsverlag.
• Möller, A. (2000): Grundlagen stoffstrombasierter Betrieblicher Umweltinformationssysteme. Projekt Verlag.
• Rautenstrauch, C. (1999), Betriebliche Umweltinformationssysteme, Springer-Verlag, Berlin

http://vlba.wi-ol.de

Die Lehrveranstaltung wird im Masterstudiengang Sustainability Economics and Management als practical project anerkannt.

Seminar paper and presentation or exercises and exam