Level: Bachelor and Master

We are happy to consider applications from students who are passionate about corporate environmental sustainability and have demonstrated excellent academic performance.

Thesis topics may be in the area of sustainability management at corporate level such as: the role and behaviour of boards of directors, CEOs and managers; governance structures and mechanisms; skills and capabilities companies develop; external institutional pressure and activism (including shareholder activism); stakeholder management; supplier relations; circular economy; business models for sustainability.

Our team has a special interest in sustainability within the mining-, and agri-commodities industries, as well as corporate brand value and identity, and corporate reporting.

You may also propose a topic of your own choice as long as it is related to corporate sustainability strategy.

Call for Master thesis: Potentials of natural language processing for engageability’s Focused Reporting Analysis

Since 2015, engageability and öbu have been analysing sustainability reports of Swiss companies and publishing an industry-specific benchmark. In 2021, for the first time, over 150 reports were reviewed by analysts for completeness, impact orientation and relevance. On focusedreporting.ch you can find more information on the methodology and results.

In view of the changing regulatory situation (e.g., OR964 in Switzerland, Supply Chain Act in Germany as well as EU – Corporate Social Responsibility Directive), an increase in sustainability reporting in Switzerland is to be expected. The analysis by employees represents a high personnel and time effort and thus limits the frequency of the analysis as well as the number of reports that can be analysed.

Therefore, this Master research thesis aims to investigate the questions: What potential does AI and in particular Natural Language Processing offer for the Focused Reporting analysis of engageability?  

Questions to be explored are: which aspects of the Focused Reporting methodology are suitable for an analysis using Natural Language Processing? What adjustments to the methodology are necessary to perform an intelligent document analysis?

Within the framework of the Master’s thesis, the student should identify barriers to and suitable aspects of the methodology for natural language processing and develop 1-2 concrete proposals for automating the analysis.

For more information on intelligent document analysis and Natural Language Processing see this article.

Please apply with a short motivation letter, CV and transcript of grades.

Level: Bachelor and Master

At the Chair of Management of Renewable Energies, we are currently experiencing high levels of student interest in writing Master or Bachelor theses. While we are excited about the interest on these important topics, our capacity prevents us from satisfying every request for supervision. We will selectively consider new requests if they have a close link to our team’s research focus, and if the candidate can demonstrate dedication and commitment to investigating a novel topic related to managing renewable energy and climate solutions. All else being equal, students who have already familiarized themselves with the topic in one of our courses will be given priority in the application process.

Do you think you have what we are looking for? Then please take a moment to check the website of the eligible supervisors in our team:

• Dr. Karoline Gamma
• Dr. Merla Kubli
• Prof. Dr. Moritz Loock
• Dr. Adrian Rinscheid
• Prof. Dr. Rolf Wüstenhagen

Once you have identified the lecturer who is the best match with your research interest, contact her/him with a short CV, motivation letter, grade transcript and short description of 1-2 proposed thesis topic(s).