Completed master thesis (2023)

Climate change poses a major threat to humankind and presents great challenges to society, politics and businesses around the world. Whereas environmental impacts and practices of larger corporations have increasingly been in the political and public eye, environmental impacts of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) still very often escape attention. As they constitute a large part of national economies, their pollution contribution and part in climate change mitigation should not be underestimated.
Due to SMEs’ particular characteristics, they face a number of barriers when approaching environmental management, e.g. tight resource constraints or lack of information and expertise. To provide a better understanding of how the environmental improvement potential of the SME sector can be realized, this work aims to answer the question of how SMEs can overcome prevailing energy efficiency barriers. To answer the research question and help to facilitate the practical implementation of efficiency measures in SMEs, an action research case study is conducted within a SME currently introducing energy management into their business practice.
This work outlines a six-step energy management and optimization framework for SMEs. Through its application, so far unrealized economic as well as emission optimization potentials can be realized in accordance with internal firm capabilities and resources. The research, moreover, presents other key findings, such as the importance of a continuous, strategic change process, top-management commitment, employee engagement and the advantages of real-time electricity data measurement when implementing energy management. Findings of the study are discussed and summarized. Moreover, suggestions for future research are provided.

Melanie Welzel

In order to effectively reduce adverse environmental and social effects and to create internal and external transparency, companies are in need of extensive information about the negative impacts related to their goods and services. Therefore, this work aims to generate a quantitative information base that supports a better understanding of the sustainability performance of products and of hotspots in companies’ global supply chains, thus empowering management to better prioritize actions and more effectively reduce negative impacts. For that reason, in the course of this thesis an Excel-based sustainability assessment tool is developed, enabling the analysis of selected sustainability indicators subdivided in regions, industries, and tiers. The calculations utilize an environmentally and socially extended version of the multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model which is a powerful method to assess the supply chain of organizations comprehensively.
In a case study approach, the MRIO model is applied to the global supply chain of a company operating in the wind energy sector. Utilizing the tool, screening life-cycle-assessments (LCAs) of four sample projects are conducted and sustainability hotspots within the company’s global supply chain are identified. Analyses of the four sample projects with diverse characteristics indicate energy payback times between x.x – x.x months and greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities of xx.x – xx.x g CO2-e / kWh. Furthermore, hotspots in the country of erection and production are unraveled, caused mainly by the electricity, metal, and concrete industries. The supply chain dominates overall impacts extensively; supplier tiers 2 to 4 causing the largest share of GHG emissions. Hence, for the case study company, the implementation of a supply chain management is of major importance.
It is concluded that the MRIO model proved to be an effective method that enables the analysis of entire supply chains with rather little effort. However, to assess the identified hotspots in detail, carrying out a process-based analysis is advised. To enable a more precise analysis of all sustainability dimensions, it is important to broaden the range of social indicators available on the MRIO database Eora in the future.