Digital Sustainability

Digitalisation and environmental sustainability are two of the megatrends impacting industry and society. This open access Pivot is a timely exploration of some of the challenges and prospects related to digital sustainability from two main perspectives: how digital technologies can be used and maintained in a way that is environmentally sustainable over the long term (greening of digital technologies), and how digital technologies can be used to address climate change and improve environmental and sustainability outcomes (greening by digital technologies). The chapters included in this book are designed to provide some key definitions and concepts related to digital sustainability and its evolution, and more detailed insights on some of the key priority areas outlined in the European Green Deal, namely energy, mobility, buildings, food and the circular economy. A critical review of these topics will summarise and present different perspectives that challenge old assumptions and highlight emerging trends and possibilities for digital sustainability. Industry and society face significant challenges in the twin transition to digital and green transformation, not least of which is the need to balance investment in digital technologies with environmental sustainability. This open-access book can serve as a primer for scholars, policymakers, and enterprise decision-makers, providing insights on navigating innovation ecosystems to support both green and digital objectives.

Theo Lynn is Full Professor of Digital at DCU Business School, Co-Director of the Irish Institute of Digital Business, and Series Editor on the Palgrave Studies in Digital Business & Enabling Technologies. Professor Lynn specialises in the role of digital technologies in transforming business processes and society with a specific focus on cloud computing, social media and data science.

Pierangelo Rosati is Associate Professor of Digital Business & Society at the University of Galway, a Funded Investigator of LERO, the SFI Research Centre for Software, and Series Editor on the Palgrave Studies in Digital Business & Enabling Technologies. His research interests include digital sustainability, digital business, business value of IT, digital transformation and social media.

David Kreps is Associate Professor in Digital Business and Society at the University of Galway, Ireland. Combining philosophy with a background in the arts, cultural theory, and sociology, to address a critical perspective on systems theory, David is a critical philosopher of Information Systems. David has published on a wide range of related topics including e-waste and IS and climate change.
Kieran Conboy is a Professor in Business Information Systems in the School of Business & Economics and is a co-Principal Investigator of LERO, the SFI Research Centre for Software. Kieran is currently Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Information Systems and has published over 150 articles in leading international journals including Information Systems Research, the European Journal of Information Systems, and Information Systems Journal. Kieran is also a board member of the Irish Research Council and previously worked for Accenture Consulting and the University of New South Wales in Australia.