ecoGIS—A Solution for Interactive Facility Management to Support the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)

Abstract

The University of Applied Sciences Stuttgart (HFT Stuttgart) is one of the first German universities to be a member of the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN). The university aspires to become a carbon—neutral campus, and is taking part in a number of initiatives and research activities to achieve that. One of the initiatives is the European Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS). The paper considers the development of a comprehensive tool, named ecoGIS, which aids EMAS processes and environmental facility management in general by allowing environmental data to be recorded and managed on interactive indoor maps, in a simple but reliable way. The ecoGIS toolset consists of a mobile app for data collection and web-services for ‘on-the-fly’ data analysis and reporting. The development enables all university members to participate in the EMAS process, as it is described in the paper. Special attention is paid to student inclusion in environmental management processes by crowdsourcing.