Leveraging digital solutions for enhanced sustainability management in production systems: a case study in Baden-Württemberg

Abstract

The industrial transition towards sustainable production systems is a fundamental step for companies to achieve environmental, social and economic goals. This transition includes implementing sustainable practices across the entire value chain, by which sustainability management can quickly become data intensive and increasingly complex. The integration of digital solutions into sustainability management can massively increase the efficiency of data collection and aggregation, prevent errors and data inconsistencies, besides further supporting industrial decision-making based on sustainability data evaluation. This paper presents a case study with a manufacturing company in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, in which its sustainability management system is evaluated and screened for digital optimization opportunities. The development and creation of a digital solution concept is comprised of the initial assessment through a detailed requirement analysis, then a systematically determination of an information system architecture that fulfills all requirements and can be implemented to improve the sustainability performance of the company. This developed approach assists the company to reach environmental reporting obligations through the continuous evaluation of internal sustainability KPIs. The insights gained and the developed concept can further support other companies in making their sustainability management more efficient and transparent through digitalization.