Edeltraud Guenther

• Managing Director at United Nations University (UNU)

Innovative agricultural methods such as vertical farming systems are gaining increasing attention in research and practice as a potential solution for transforming agri-food systems through more efficient use of space and resources. This paper presents a systematic literature review of 92 studies that assess the sustainability of vertical farming....

The state is often portrayed as a progressive entity enabling transition processes. However, this article delves into the limitations faced by state institutions, which have been identified as resistant to change and entrenched in path dependence. This article explores the political and institutional barriers that state institutions encounter when...

This paper explores the relationships between textile wastewater management and its impact on ecosystems and community livelihoods. Using the case of the wastewater management practices of the Bangladesh textile industry and thematic analysis of key informant interviews with industry representatives in the production value chain, the study illustra...

This paper expands upon examinations of the flexibility–stability continuum of organizational culture in the extant literature by identifying how the four culture types of the competing values framework are associated with the emphasis on management control systems (MCS) and environmental management control systems (EMCS). By analyzing data drawn f...

The Chile: Policy Roadmap for Sustainable Infrastructure was developed by United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources and the United Nations Environment Programme in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Works of Chile- with the participation of regional stakeholders from academia, industry, a...

The traditional linear economy increasingly threatens natural systems, leading to the unprecedented degradation of global biodiversity. This endangers the functioning of economies and threatens the welfare of human societies. The circular economy (CE) offers an opportunity to decouple virgin resource consumption from economic growth, avoiding resou...

This paper investigates the time-dependent effects of building organizational resilience. So far, empirical research only finds evidence that organizational resilience provides benefits in the long term. For the short and medium term, the link remains unclear. On the one hand, literature indicates that building organizational resilience is costly....

Around 20% of the global water abstractions are originated by the industrial sector, while water demand overall will increase by 20–33% by 2050. Wastewater could provide an alternative source of water for industrial activities. There are not many studies exploring the potential of treated wastewater use under a private–public partnership (PPP), des...

Municipal wastewater is a major source of water for multiple uses, particularly in water-scarce regions. It is now recognized as a valuable resource rather than a waste stream with a focus toward resource recovery. Tailored technologies, adaptive policies, and regulations, as well as innovative finance mechanisms that create an enabling environment...

The textile industry has led to economic prosperity but harms the environment caused by untreated textile wastewater. This paper aims to integrate the textile value chain (TVC), resource nexus, the textile production chain (TPC), focusing on wastewater management (WWM) and environmental consequences (EC). The SCOPUS electronic database has selected...

Videoconferencing and teleworking have become indispensable for many public and private organizations since the appearance of COVID-19. However, the extent to which the pandemic may have a lasting effect on people’s daily life and work remains to be seen. Poor visual and acoustic quality of online meetings could reactivate old communication pattern...

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of national culture on organizational resilience, the effects of which are analyzed for companies from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) region. This paper utilizes an etic approach to study this relationship and has an empirical design with a sample of N = 464. The direct effe...

In practice what they preach in research and education, higher education institutions (HEIs) must consider economic, ecological, and social impacts in their quest for sustainable operations. We contribute to the understanding of sustainable transformation and responsible management through the development of a dual analysis of barriers and drivers...

In practice what they preach in research and education, higher education institutions (HEIs) must consider economic, ecological, and social impacts in their quest for sustainable operations. We contribute to the understanding of sustainable transformation and responsible management through the development of a dual analysis of barriers and drivers...

The textile and fashion industry is characterized by complex structures, multiple actors and globally interlinked supply chains. Increasing competitive pressures associated with the fast fashion business model has led to unsustainable practices along the supply chains resulting in negative ecological and social impacts. In recent years, pressure ha...

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the pressures from stakeholders located in company's country of origin and level of internationalization of the company influence the implementation of socially responsible supply chain management (SR-SCM) practices. Design/methodology/approach To assess this level of influence, an SR-SCM perform...

Recently, the concept of resilience has gained new momentum in organization studies. It is held to be a very promising concept to explain how organizations can survive and thrive amidst adversity or turbulence. However, findings from an earlier review about resilience in the organizational and business context show that, although empirical research...

Peer-to-peer energy (p2p) communities connect electricity consumers and producers on platforms allowing them to trade energy with each other. By synchronizing local production and consumption, connecting decentral actors, and creating new markets, they can promote a more sustainable energy system. A multicase study and expert interviews were conduc...

This paper analyzes organizational environmental performance and environmental management approaches in German hospitals. Based on data from an online survey and a subsequent cluster analysis, three groups of hospitals are identified: traditionalists, pragmatists, and environmentalists. The clusters differ regarding their organizational environment...

Boards of directors affect corporate strategy and decision-making through monitoring of management and resource provision. Recently, an increasing number of studies have examined the relationships between board characteristics and corporate social responsibility (CSR). These studies have yielded inconsistent findings. This article therefore reports...

Wood poles, whose load carrying capacity has been used in power and communication networks and street lighting, have a high relevance as carbon storage due to their long-term utilization and their global application. To increase the climate mitigation potential of wood poles by widening their scope of application in the construction sector and ther...

Environmental criteria have become a critical issue for the evaluation of projects and products, particularly for businesses with extensive life cycles. Sustainability criteria and project risk management are underexplored in real estate development, and thus endanger business survival. The aim of this article is to improve the understanding of unc...

The voluntary implementation of environmental management systems (EMS) according to Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a proactive and comprehensive management initiative aiming to improve corporate environmental performance. EMS implementation and connected communication activities are seen as a possibility to strengthen stakeholder relatio...

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are influential social institutions which educate future decision-makers and shape society as a whole. Motivated by new public management, the proliferation of business tools, and a rising awareness for responsible acting, environmental management has also become a matter for HEIs. Focusing on performance outcom...

Using the example of VW’s handling of “Diesel-Gate” in its corporate communications (suspected manipulation of vehicle emission test results discovered in 2015), we examine the effects of a disruptive event on corporate risk reporting. To this end, an evaluation in the form of a case study of external corporate communications in VW’s annual reports...

The increasing demand for responsible management education is contrasted by its degree of integration in the curricula of the variety of disciplines at business schools. Acknowledging that faculty support is essential, we respond to the call for studies on responsible management education from the educator’s perspective. We contribute to understand...

Background: Life cycle assessment (LCA) is an environmental accounting tool aimed at determining environmental impacts of products, processes, or organizational activities over the entire life cycle. Although this technique already provides decision-makers in other sectors with valuable information, its application in the health care setting has n...

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) emphasize the task of organizations to implement sustainability and especially environmental issues. So far, scholars have focused on private sector and manufacturing organizations as they are regarded as the main polluters. However, despite their positive influence to a circular economy, publi...

Hospitals are major actors in the health care sector, and their duty is the safe treatment of patients. Thus, hospitals make an important contribution to the achievement of sustainability goals. However, they also have negative environmental impacts. Hospitals have difficulties responding to increasing environmental demands. The aim of this paper i...

Nach Inkrafttreten des CSR-Richtlinie-Umsetzungsgesetzes (CSR-RUG) zum 19.04.2017 liegen mit dem Ende des Geschäftsjahres 2017 die ersten nichtfinanziellen Erklärungen vor. In diesem Beitrag wird mittels einer Inhaltsanalyse auf der Basis des Analyserasters des Good Company Rankings insb. die Darstellung der Umweltbelange in den nichtfinanziellen E...

Am Beispiel des kommunikativen Umgangs von VW mit „Diesel-Gate“ (vermutete Manipulation von Abgaswerten, die im Jahr 2015 aufgedeckt wurden), werden die Auswirkungen eines disruptiven Ereignisses auf die Risikoberichterstattung von Unternehmen analysiert. Zu diesem Zweck findet eine Auswertung der externen Unternehmenskommunikation in der Form von...

Firms increasingly aim to combat climate change. For corporate managers, the question whether a related strategy affects financial performance arises. Since empirical research on this topic is rather sparse, this study investigates whether pursuing a corporate climate change strategy leads to better corporate financial performance. By applying pair...

Purpose This study contributes to measuring the interactions between human technological activities and the natural environment in an integrative approach to support organisations and supply chain partners in their efforts to increase the resource productivity and economic-environmental performance of their product systems. We expand existing knowl...

Nachhaltigkeit kann in Wertschöpfungsnetzwerken nur gelingen, wenn das Controlling dieses Ziel auch aufgreift. Um diese These zu belegen, geht der folgende Artikel den nachstehenden drei Fragen nach: 1. Rechnet sich Nachhaltigkeit? Diese Frage wird durch eine Zusammenfassung empirischer Forschung der letzten 40 Jahre beantwortet. 2. Welche Vorausse...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to first present potential areas of research for measuring sustainability performance that emerged in a joint researcher–practitioner workshop at the 19th Environmental and Sustainability Management Accounting Network Europe Conference, organized in cooperation with the World Business Council for Sustainable Dev...

Purpose This investigation aims to reframe the sizeable literature on barriers and drivers for energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and the phenomenon of the energy efficiency gap. The authors identify a gap between academic methods and industrial needs, as well as a neglect of the cultural dimension, despite its considerable impact. On the basis of t...

We address the criticism of barrier groups as incomplete and overlapping using a mixed-method barrier analysis. Striving for comprehensiveness, a set of forty-five context-specific barrier manifestations is identified through qualitative expert interviews guided by the multilevel theory-driven EOI (External environment Organization Individual) barr...

Managers play an important role in creating organizational resilience. In highly volatile and uncertain times they must employ long-term visioning, think in alternatives, and deal with complexity in order to promote organizational resilience capabilities. However, strategic management education has been criticized for not providing significant lear...

This presentation outlines the project details for curriculum development and research activities for the DAAD and GIZ funded research project aimed at upskilling future textile managers in Bangladesh with regards to sustainability.

This paper empirically explores the linkage between the economic opportunities and climate adaptation and other antecedents in cities. Our dependent variable includes the economic opportunities identified by the cities; our independent variables are the adaptation plans, adaptation actions, climate change risks, incentive types, and incentivized st...

Purpose In order to guide sustainability research on the sharing economy, the purpose of this paper is to develop a comprehensive framework that captures the wide range of activities and business models that are considered to be part of the sharing economy. Design/methodology/approach Based on a systematic literature review and a content analysi...

A self-evaluation tool for green procurement, which was developed in research projects, stimulates and thereby enhances the research’s impact beyond academia. Its application to Indian Railways raised awareness through surveys and workshops, facilitated the establishment of organizational structures, and by these means advanced the organization’s s...

On the way towards a more biobased economy, the sustainable use of global wood resources remains a challenge as several trade-offs arise, e.g., from an increased energetic use of wood, an increased use of innovative but probably less recyclable wood composites, or from the need to conserve other forest ecosystem services. The aim of this study is t...

Numerous studies have investigated the business benefits of corporate philanthropy (CP), which can be considered as part of a company’s belief systems. However, it remains unclear under which conditions and to what extent philanthropic activities are associated with corporate financial performance (CFP). This study sets out to shed light on the rel...

This article aims at resolving controversies on the role of material flow cost accounting in traditional cost accounting. To this end, we elaborate its complementary use in cost accounting, cost management, and other management areas and thereby highlight its interdisciplinary and attention focusing character.

This paper discusses the necessity and potential of interdisciplinary research on sustainability in a sharing economy. Based on a systematic literature analysis, a wide range of publications from various disciplines was found to exist and ideas for additional perspectives are put forward.

With this study, we highlight the necessity to improve the environmental performance in supply chains and freight transportation systems to respond to the unbroken trend of increasing environmental impacts of transport. Based on a literature review, we first identify 19 environmentally relevant decision criteria which determine transport processes,...

Enterprises face changing climate conditions within their daily business. Thus, they are affected directly through climate change impacts on their operations or indirectly by climate change impacts on the supply chain. Even if enterprises are aware of the relevance of adapting to climate change, there exist barriers that impede organizational chang...

Scarce natural resources and the associated price increases are two of the many sustainability challenges that corporations face in the 21st century. Although resource efficiency is regarded as one of the means to tackle this issue, corporations are unsure of how to operationalize the term into appropriate indicators and how to measure progress tow...

Purpose Life cycle costing (LCC) is a state-of-the-art method to analyze investment decisions in infrastructure projects. However, uncertainties inherent in long-term planning question the credibility of LCC results. Previous research has not systematically linked sources and methods to address this uncertainty. Part I of this series develops a fra...

Energy efficiency measures are often called low-hanging fruit. First, they significantly lower the energy consumption and therefore contribute to combat global warming. Second, they are considered short-term and cost-effective investments. However, there still exists a gap between existing profitable investments to increase energy efficiency and th...

Investments in energy efficiency are a key to climate change and provide a clear business case. Yet, only a fraction of estimated global energy savings is realized by companies. The influence of cultural issues to energy efficiency is identified as a barrier, but without further investigations. Currently, there is hardly evidence for effects of cul...

Purpose Life cycle costing (LCC) is the state-of-the-art method to economically evaluate long-term projects over their life spans. However, uncertainty in long-range planning raises concerns about LCC results. In Part I of this series, we developed a holistic framework of the different types of uncertainty in infrastructure LCCs. We also collected...

Zusammenfassung Im Rahmen einer Elektromobilitäts-Fallstudie kombinieren wir zwei lebenszyklusbasierte Methoden und veranschaulichen die Ergebnisse zur Kommunikations-und Entscheidungsunterstützung mittels der Methode des ökonomisch-ökologischen Nettoeffekts. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Elektrofahrzeuge im Vergleich zur EURO6-Dieselfahrzeugen erst...

Unternehmen kommen nicht mehr umhin, sich mit Nachhaltigkeit (ökonomisch, ökologisch, sozial) bzw. CSR zu beschäftigen. Controller als Entscheidungsunterstützer oder „Business Partner“ des Managements fokussieren bisher primär auf finanzielle Zielsetzungen und allenfalls auf ökonomische Nachhaltigkeit. Der Beitrag zeigt auf, was ein CSR-Controlling...

Although stakeholder theory is widely accepted in environmental disclosure research, empirical evidence about the role of stakeholders in firms’ disclosure is still scarce. The authors address this issue for a setting of carbon disclosure. Our international sample comprises the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500, S&P 500, and FTSE 350 repor...

The integration of sustainability in general and environmental aspects in particular into management control systems (MCS) are now being addressed in MCS research. We argue that the concept of environmental management control systems (EMCS) provides a promising approach for integrating presently fragmented lines of inquiry concerning the internal d...

Seit dem Bericht des Club of Rome ‘Die Grenzen des Wachstums’ (Meadows et al. 1972, S. 1ff.), in dem die Grenzen des Wachstums und der gesamten weiteren menschlichen Entwicklung insbesondere in der Erschöpfung der Ressourcen, d. h. der Erschöpfung der Versorgungsfunktion der natürlichen Umwelt, beschrieben werden, fordern auch Wirtschaftswissenscha...

Purpose – The present paper aims to identify, map and assess the existing empirical evidence on this body of knowledge to examine what actions for corporate climate change mitigation (3CM hereafter) decision-makers undertake, under what circumstances and with what results. Firm-level activities conducted to mitigate climate change are increasingly...

This volume is devoted to management accounting approaches for analyzing business benefits and costs of climate change. It discusses future directions on carbon accounting, performance measurement and reporting as well as links between climate accounting and business processes, product and service development, supply chain innovation, economic succ...

Available online xxx Keywords: Material flow cost accounting (MFCA) Management control systems (MCS) Levers of control (LOC) Systematic literature review Conceptual framework Resource efficiency a b s t r a c t In this study, we examine the goal of encouraging corporate strategy to adopt a more efficient and sustainable use of natural resources. Ma...

This article communicates the set-up of BERRYPOM, a European research project established in the second call of the SUStainable FOOD Production and Consumption (SUSFOOD) network. The project deals with the by-product from berry processing, which is frequently recycled as animal feed, composted or utilized for biogas production. With BERRYPOM it is...

Building on the natural resource dependence theory (NRDT), this analysis represents the first comprehensive investigation on how extreme weather events affect financial performance. The Qualitative Comparative Analysis builds on 38 expert interviews taking place predominately at small and medium-sized organizations from various industry sectors in...

Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) combines physical flows and monetary units and is located between energy and material efficiency analyses, environmental management and managerial accounting procedures. Since the development of ISO 14051:2011 research and application in industry increased, but still some theoretical, methodological and practica...

In recent years, an investment bottleneck for public infrastructure has accumulated in many industrial countries. Life cycle costing (LCC) is an appropriate management instrument for long-term and sustainable investment. This article addresses the evaluation of high-performance materials (HPM) using LCC to reduce that investment bottleneck. Our res...

Purpose – The concept of corporate environmental performance (CEP) is both used in and discussed with respect to international and regional standards, scientific work and business. Yet, there is no concensus on the meaning of the concept itself and on what elements or components it comprises. Moreover, although there is a discussion on interactions...

Drawing on the dynamic capability view, we analyse how insurers adapt to climate change impacts and how adaptation relates to corporate financial performance. Based on a comprehensive literature review, we deduce seven categories of adaptation measures associated with three dynamic capability dimensions of climate change adaptation (i.e. climate kn...

Nachhaltige Entwicklung ist ein stetiger, gesellschaftlicher Prozess, der ein konsequentes Monitoring- und Evaluationskonzept benötigt. Dafür sind aussagekräftige Indikatoren in allen Sektoren notwendig, auch für den Verkehrsbereich. Im Rahmen der deutschen Nachhaltigkeitsstrategie erfolgt dieses Monitoring durch entsprechende verkehrsspeziische In...

Innovation is essential for organizations. A variety of factors which hamper, delay or block innovation, so-called barriers, have been researched by a multitude of studies for more than 30 years. We map the field by a systematic review of 188 empirical studies on barriers complemented by a citation analysis, which highlights the fragmentation of ba...

Das Rechnungswesen kann einen wesentlichen Beitrag dazu leisten, CSR – also die Übernahme von Verantwortung für die Gesellschaft durch Unternehmen – in betriebliche Entscheidungen zu integrieren, indem die Entscheidungsträger „use its expertise in the area of data accumulation and data presentation to aid society in its attempt to internalize econo...