What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “sustainability”? Perhaps carbon emissions, plastic products, sea turtles and other ocean beings are killed by plastic bags. You might think of renewable energy and possibly greenhouse gas emissions. These are some of the key elements in the sustainability agenda; however, there are many other concepts to consider, especially in the digital transformation era. The ultimate goal is to keep our planet’s ecosystems in balance.
The concept of digital sustainability emerged in the 2000s. Kevin Bradley introduced the topic as a means of achieving sustainable development through digital artefacts and archives. Digital sustainability is a strategy that uses one of the most powerful forces for societal change, digitalization, to meet our needs through a sustainable approach. Subsequently, we should anticipate the deployment of digital transformation tools that enable the protection of our natural environment, human and ecological health, and innovation while not endangering our way of life.
The idea of digital sustainability practices to address gaps in the digital transformation chain and working on opportunities to develop those missing links requires a deeper understanding on all levels, followed by the development of a culture and mindset for better collaboration.
Sustainability In the Digital Age
I strongly believe in our responsibility as humans or individuals for the environment and climate protection. It is not only a one-man goal or an expert’s role to consider human sustainability thinking in the digital transformation age. This is how we can contribute to structuring digitization in an effective manner that protects the environment while also preserving our humanity.
In his insightful TED talk, Prof. Dr Dirk Messner, president of the German Environment Agency (UBA), explained how digital technologies may help us solve our sustainability challenges, but we still have an extremely resource and energy intensive and climate destructive growth pattern, despite the fact that these technologies have been around for 20 years. He has taken on this challenge by analyzing three key digital age dynamics in order to better understand and define the rules of the game as we move toward a digital and sustainable society. The First Dynamic: Integrating sustainability thinking with technological opportunities. Second Dynamic: Developing further thinking on human-centred development and sustainability. Also, how emerging technologies drive social changes (Digital Societies moving forward). And lastly, The Third Dynamic, which is the future of humans.
The Future
For the next shift in the digital era, a renewed sustainability discussion is required. We need to reconsider the human-centered development process, why we need a new humanism paradigm shift in the digital era, and how digitalization drivers can be brought together with sustainability transformations.
I’ve always found some overlap or interconnection that I don’t comprehend. When I first learned about the circular economy, I intended to discover the impact of product design/development (my field of study) on such a broad topic, and I was eager to learn more about circular product design as an integral part of sustainability and green economy. On the other hand, I studied technology management for a while to understand more about digital transformation and how to deploy emerging digital technologies in a framework that considers humans, especially since these technologies are not confined to a particular sector. It was, however, a one-dimensional study and implementation.
When Dr Menser mentioned integrating the digitalization ecosystem components together with the sustainability key factors and challenges, and how there are many opportunities to develop those missing links through this approach, I began to correlate challenges and opportunities.
Although the statement ‘‘when we need to think how to bring digitalization and sustainability challenges together” may appear fundamental and unquestionable, I have seen a lot of heated conversations, particularly when it comes to discussing specific risks such as democracies and governance, as he stated.
