The starting point for ECO-Rapid is the question of how standard business software may be utilised for tasks and tools arising in connection with industrial eco-management (such as environmental cost accounting, flow cost accounting, eco-balancing, benchmarking, etc). This is based on the assumption that the highly sophisticated ecomanagement tools will only become widely used in practice if they can access the existing information systems as a data base (cf Scheide 1999). The aim of the ECO-Rapid project is to develop a method that enables both companies and software suppliers to use and further develop ERP systems in a manner that is more strongly aligned with material flows. The ECO-Integral reference model (Krcmar et al. 2000) forms the basis for using the data base of ERP systems for a large number of new evaluations with regard to the quantities and values of business material flows. This will enable companies to use their existing ERP software more effectively for the purposes of industrial eco-management and create synergies with the area of business and management economics. This method will be published as a guideline for mediumsize enterprises and is designed to be used largely independently of any specific software product. An important step to achieve this aim is the exemplary implementation of this method at three separate pilot companies. These practice-related projects are managed by Green IT GmbH, Constance, and the Institute for Management and Environment (Institut für