Digitalization and sustainability: A systematic literature analysis of ICT for Sustainability research

Abstract

Close scrutiny of the ICT for Sustainability conference proceedings on digitalization and sustainability reveals a bias on (technological) efficiency solutions. This bias is mirrored in blind spots in the public discourse and the political debate. The sustainable transformation of society calls for more comprehensive research ‐ and research funding ‐ to fill the gaps and integrate efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency strategies on the levels of life-cycle, enabling, and structural effects.In order to govern processes of digitalization for the purpose of the common good, it is important to understand the opportunities and risks of information and communications technology (ICT) for a sustainable transformation of society. In this article, we systematically review 215 publications from the ICT for Sustainability (ICT4S) conference corpus in order to investigate the state of debate. We analyze to what extent research covers sustainability implications of ICT, 1. regarding different levels of actions and effects, as well as 2. regarding the three different strategies of sustainability ‐ efficiency, consistency, and sufficiency. We find that ICT4S research has a one-sided focus on digital efficiency improvements and on life-cycle impacts of ICT devices and applications. There is far less research on digitalization’s potential to advance sufficiency-oriented practices, and questions of how to foster digital sustainability transformations at macro- and structural level are only marginally treated. We draw conclusions for funding and science politics.

Conceptualizing sustainability in the context of ICT. A literature review analysis.

“…For example, one study reports that 58% of their examined studies focus exclusively on the positive effects, while only 15% analyzed focused on negative effects [9]; another review found 52% of papers in their sample that describe ICT solutions as enabler [28]. Different enablement scenarios are mentioned in the analyzed reviews, for example, promoting renewable energy, driving energy efficiency [7,8,28], ensuring pollution and waste control that help create smart cities [8], managing energy demand and supply [8,28], platforms for helping establish a circular economy [29], promoting sustainable mobility [27], or enabling education for sustainability [19]. However, there is little research on how ICT-based solutions can enable deep sustainability transformations, such as supporting the move to more sustainable agriculture [28].…”

“…Different enablement scenarios are mentioned in the analyzed reviews, for example, promoting renewable energy, driving energy efficiency [7,8,28], ensuring pollution and waste control that help create smart cities [8], managing energy demand and supply [8,28], platforms for helping establish a circular economy [29], promoting sustainable mobility [27], or enabling education for sustainability [19]. However, there is little research on how ICT-based solutions can enable deep sustainability transformations, such as supporting the move to more sustainable agriculture [28]. There is also criticism that the belief that digital solutions will consistently result in positive sustainability outcomes represents an inherent risk (digital solutionism) [19].…”

“…Twenty-one, that is 22% of the identified findings and gaps, emphasize the need for an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to sustainability in ICT (D#12) [3,6,7,25,26,28]. There is agreement that all three pillars are intrinsically interconnected and cannot be considered in isolation [9,27].…”

“…Another challenge pointed out is that the economic and environmental sustainability pillars can overlap. For example, topics such as the circular economy are considered both a social [28] and environmental aspect of sustainability [8]. Within the economic pillar, key topics of discussion are how ICT-supported digital solutions drive open innovation [29], or how digital technologyin combination with technology savvy human capitalis crucial for businesses to improve their products and services [30].…”

“…Business innovation is brought forward, too, as a possible strategy [30]. Other strategies mentioned are the focus on digital education [19] as well as the implementation of policies [19,28]. Policies are crucial to establish sufficiency-oriented strategies and transformations at the structural level, which are underrepresented in research [28].…”