Leading People into a Better Future through Information System Interaction and Engagement

Climate change has become one of the most significant challenges humanity faces. As
greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, not only will natural disasters strike considerably
more frequently and severely, but whole swaths of land will become uninhabitable
and infertile as farmland. It is apparent that long-term approaches like reaching net-zero
with new technologies are important, but so are short-term measures to avoid tipping
points and passing points of no return. The transport sector accounts for nearly a quarter
(23%) of energy related-emissions, and 40–60% of these transport-related emissions
stem from commuting and business traveling. One short-term approach to lower transport
emissions is ridesharing: When two or more commuters team up, significant emissions
can be saved. As a result, business trip ridesharing (BTRS), the sharing of individual
vehicles for commuting and business trips among employees, has gained increased attention
from organizations and academia alike. BTRS shares similar adoption challenges
like ridesharing and shared-mobility overall: From individuals’ prevalence to solving the
matching and allocation problem of shared resources. This thesis investigates the role that Green Information Systems (Green IS) can play to
support BTRS adoption.