Markus Gogolin

Carbon accounting is only the basis of a comprehensive carbon management. As implied by the term "accounting", carbon accounting shows many similarities to the basic logics of financial as well as cost accounting. This article highlights the key areas of carbon accounting and presents the main challenges Logistics Service Providers are faced with.

The transportation sector's status as a main emission driver has led to increased interest, both within business and government circles, for detailed information about the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted during transportation activities. Accordingly, logistics service providers (LSPs) are faced with increasing demands for environmentally friendly logistics services. In the past, many LSPs went to great lengths to develop company-specific solutions for a carbon accounting system that encompasses the systematic measurement, preparation and reporting of carbon emissions. In order to enable target-oriented use of the data for company-wide management decisions, comprehensive carbon management is indispensable, as it includes organising, planning, controlling and monitoring carbon emissions with the goal of continuously improving carbon efficiency. LSPs now face the challenge of how to effectively and efficiently anchor carbon management into the organisation structure as well as established information, management and incentive systems. Despite this practical relevance, the literature includes scant research on the cornerstones of carbon management in general, especially from the perspective of LSPs. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to structure systematically the research field of carbon management from the perspective of LSPs and to develop a research agenda.

Global warming and its expected consequences have led to increased interest within business and government circles in detailed information about the amount of carbon emissions emitted by road transportation. According to the International Energy Agency, the transportation sector is responsible for approximately 19 percent of global energy use and 23 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Seventy-five percent of these emissions are related to road transportation. Against this background, selected road freight service providers (RFSPs) have addressed the management of carbon emissions (CM). Because CM presents a new task field for companies, the business practice reveals that RFSPs are increasingly facing the challenge of concretizing tasks, as well as conducting and integrating CM at the company. Despite increasing awareness from scholars in various disciplines, studies of the elements of CM and its integration remain scarce. This thesis focuses on this topic by systematically structuring and exploring the key elements - the cornerstones - of the management of carbon emission. It also specifies various integration alternatives of CM in business practices and explores internal and external framework conditions (situational parameters) that affect the chosen integration alternative of CM and their relations. Finally, the thesis develops a management model for conducting CM that supports RFSPs in addressing and integrating the new task field of CM in the company. The contributions of the investigation address scientific and practical issues. From a scientific point of view, this thesis contributes by exploring the research construct through an eclectic approach, including insights from such literature fields as sustainability management, management accounting, integrated management systems, organization, and logistics management. Beyond this, the study discusses the empirical findings with respect to the relations between situational parameters and design variables (integration alternatives of CM) in the context of the contingency theory. Moreover, the development process of CM within the company is explained by the patterns of the organizational learning theory. From a managerial point of view, the thesis is particularly fruitful for sustainability managers or executives of RFSPs that intend to, or have started to, deal with the issue of CM. The characterization of the related tasks of each cornerstone of CM can help practitioners acquire an overview and enhance their understanding in the field of CM. Moreover, the management model of conducting CM provides sustainability managers with indications about which integration alternative might be appropriate, depending on the specific framework conditions.