Welcome
Prof. Tilman Santarius has been researching the two topics of digitalisation and sustainability since 2001. In 2017, he became a professor at the Berlin Institute of Technology and the Einstein Center for Digital Future.
Does digitalisation contribute to the necessary socio-ecological transformation of society – or does it simply reform the unsustainable status quo? This is certainly one of the most intriguing questions at the moment, but it cannot be answered in a general way. There is every reason to hope that a digital future will also be a more dematerialised one. According to a study conducted by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, carbon emissions worldwide could be reduced by a staggering 16.5% by 2030 with the help of information and communication technologies. Moreover, the German government proclaims that the concept of Industry 4.0 will not only boost economic growth, but also massively improve material and energy efficiency.
However, the radical improvement in efficiency and options through “smart everything” could at the same time trigger new ecological problems. Rebound effects could negate potential savings because of additional consumption elsewhere. New digital markets and products also increase the consumption of resources. The (deliberate) shortening of product life cycles and the continued acceleration of production processes and cycles is nowhere more pronounced than in digital devices. This acceleration makes our lives increasingly restless and makes it more difficult to bring our economic cycles into harmony with nature’s material cycles.
Digitalisation is an efficiency machine. That means we can design digital processes with less input than the equivalent analogue processes.
Tilmann Santarius, Einstein Center for Digital Future
Digitalisation is an efficiency machine
Merely replacing analogue with digital services and products will remain a zero-sum game. It is not sufficient to make existing unsustainable production and consumption patterns slightly more eco-friendly by means of digitalisation. However, digitalisation also favours social innovations that can help towards replacing unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. It is suitable in particular for enabling people to collaborate more easily, to inform us and point out sustainable alternatives through information and education, to make them playfully attractive and thus break routines through behavioural innovation.
Digitalisation is an efficiency machine. That means we can design digital processes with less input than the equivalent analogue processes. For instance, we need less energy to communicate because we no longer have to drive or fly to a conference, but can do so via a video phone call instead. If technological innovations are not only economically but also socially disruptive, digital transformation can also contribute to a socio-ecological transformation.
Whether shopping or working, digitalisation can potentially help reduce our carbon footprint.
Whether shopping or working, digitalisation can potentially help reduce our carbon footprint.
Commerce as an example
Theoretically, online shopping has a great deal of potential in terms of sustainability. Eco-fair goods can be easily obtained anywhere, delivery by post saves energy compared to individual shopping by car, etc., but all in all, “smart shopping” tends to lead to more goods being sold. However, digitalisation can also open up fantastic opportunities to promote sharing instead of shopping! Instead of “super-cheap” platforms, numerous websites such as Kleiderkreisel, FoodSharing, Couchsurfing and many others show that people’s needs can be met in less commercial ways.
Policymakers need to start collaborating with consumer associations and sustainable businesses to develop targeted incentives and regulations so that cooperative platforms contribute to the de-commercialisation of the economy.
Moreover, the internet must remain a public domain. Social media and search engines are subject to monopolies – but they are actually just as much public spaces as schools or Cologne’s Cathedral Square. That’s why they should be free of advertising – which also curbs the temptation to consume more and more at the same time.
Policymakers need to start collaborating with consumer associations and sustainable businesses to develop targeted incentives and regulations so that cooperative platforms contribute to the de-commercialisation of the economy.
Tilmann Santarius, Einstein Center for Digital Future
Mobility as an example
Services such as ShareNow and Uber as well as data-driven vehicle control and intelligent traffic guidance systems enhance the efficiency of road traffic, but at the same time make it cheaper and more attractive, which is therefore likely to increase its volume even more. However, applications that bring about behavioural change and a shift towards public and shared-use transportation have a real potential to improve sustainability. The aim is to further develop multimodal platforms for mobility-as-a-service so that various modes of public transport can actually be combined and booked “on the go”, as then the individual flexibility of public transport could even surpass that of the car. But even this cannot be done without political support. At the same time, car driving needs to be made more expensive and decelerated, instead of accelerating it even further through other forms of digitalisation. An overarching mobility app, as is currently being created in Munich or Berlin, could enable all “green"”modes of transport to be used on a sharing basis and make the car largely superfluous, especially in cities.
The sharing economy could contribute to the sustainable direction of our society - as long as we keep the hunger for data of the digital economy in check.
The sharing economy could contribute to the sustainable direction of our society - as long as we keep the hunger for data of the digital economy in check.
Software needs to become more economical
The data-driven business models of the big tech companies are mostly criticised with regard to data protection and power asymmetries. However, there is another major problem: these business models, which make advertising more effective on the basis of data collection, encourage more consumption – with the corresponding ecological consequences. Not only do we need stricter data protection for the major tech platforms, we also need standards and labels for lean programming that produces data- and energy-saving software.
Artificial intelligence and big data analyses process huge volumes of data and consume gigantic amounts of electricity. If extremely resource-intensive cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin were to gain greatly in popularity, it would be a certain path towards the ecological tipping point. This is where constraints and requirements for efficient software are called for.
A socio-ecological digital policy therefore needs to support the efficiency potential of digitalisation with judicious measures and ensure that the potential savings in energy and resources are not cancelled out again by growth in demand.
Business success rethought
