Information Systems and the Environment

The following HTML text is provided to enhance online readability. Many aspects of typography translate only awkwardly to HTML. Please use the page image as the authoritative form to ensure accuracy.

This paper explores how systematic practices in the use of information technologies are enabling organizations to use knowledge to improve their environ mental performance.

CAPTURING ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE

The availability of a wide range of timely, relevant information plays an important role in environmental decision making. In managing and designing for the environment, information needs to run the gamut from the simple (e.g., emissions data and inventory information) through the more contextual (e.g., best practices and performance metrics), and then to the complex (e.g., life-cycle assessment and supplier-chain management) and the daunting (e.g., societal and equity considerations of sustainable development).

Effective decision making depends on the appropriate data, information, and knowledge being brought to bear on a problem. However, each of these inputs has a different role in supporting the decision-making process. Recognizing the distinctions between data, information, and knowledge—not always an easy task—is crucial to developing management approaches that leverage their relative values. The fictional scenario depicted in Box 1 illustrates these distinctions: Data are obtained by observing and documenting facts; information is obtained by analyzing and processing data; and knowledge requires cognition, experience, and understanding. This simplistic hierarchy is shown in Figure 1.

The examples of environmental data, information, and knowledge shown in Box 2 illustrate some of the difficulties associated with managing information

BOX 1
Data, Information, Knowledge, and Environmental Improvement

Jane Q.Green, an employee of WEBEGREEN, Inc., has been asked to recommend ways to improve the environmental performance of a certain manufacturing process. She starts by collecting emissions and operating data for the process— an important task. She analyzes the information and learns what is being emitted and how efficient the process is. She then talks with the people who directly manage the process to hear their insights. She also reviews descriptions of previous attempts to improve the environmental performance of the process. She contacts colleagues within the company and other professionals she knows who deal with similar processes. She develops innovative solutions. She receives the company’s environmental award. Her immediate supervisor now fears that Jane may be in line for his job. Meanwhile, WEBEGREEN’s vice president for environment, health, and safety wishes she could clone Jane to replicate her efforts elsewhere in the many other plants the firm operates!

Free Resources

Related Titles