A maturity model and web application for environmental management benchmarking

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to inform about the results of implementing a web application (portal) for maturity assessment and benchmarking in the area of environmental management. The status quo in this topic is analyzed by means of a systematic literature review. The web application is developed under the Design Science methodology. The web application described in this contribution is the result of the third iteration of the design process. The portal enables to measure the environmental management effort via a survey that is based on criteria pursuant to ISO 14000 ff. and EMAS III standards. In addition to the assessment, there is a benchmarking function that allows the comparison with other companies. As the literature review reveals, an industry neutral assessment tool for environmental management is missing. Therefore, this is the first application that provides such functionality.