Niklas Letmathe

intern

Description:

Management accounting and the pathway to a sustainable economy are intertwined, both on an individual company level and for the economy as a whole. For a company to lead the shift to more sustainable practices, it needs to identify, assess, and implement opportunities for more sustainable processes and products. This is where management accounting can help! Against this background, we propose the following final thesis project:

Carbon accounting methods are currently under development by many researchers. However, the literature is lacking information about the dispersion of these methods in practice. A case study of the adoption of carbon accounting or the introduction of it will help to fill this gap. This can be done in one or several companies for the thesis.

This final thesis project aims to gain a detailed insight into how one or several organizations are conducting their carbon accounting. Your task will be the investigation and detailed description of the carbon accounting system. This requires multiple visits to an organization and several interviews with various staff members, who should also allow you to see the actual carbon management and accounting systems.

Literature:

• Kaplan, Robert; Ramanna, Karthik (2021): Accounting for Climate Change: The First Rigorous Approach to ESG Reporting. In: Harvard Business Review 99 (6), S. 120–131.
• Schaltegger, Stefan; Csutora, Maria (2012). Carbon accounting for sustainability and management. Status quo and challenges. Journal of Cleaner Production, 36, 1-16. DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.06.024
• Reichelstein, S. (2023). Carbon emission statements: Balance sheets and flow statements. ZEW-Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper, (65). DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4672099

Disclaimer:

Please be aware that we neither have a cooperating company that is looking for a student nor do we have a company up our sleeve that is willing to participate in this project. It will be your task to find a company to participate or you might even already have access to a company (e.g., you are a working student, it’s your mother’s company, etc.) that is willing to participate.