Digital acceleration of sustainability transition: the paradox of push impacts
Digital acceleration of sustainability transition: the paradox of push impacts
Sustainability requires ongoing reform of resource production and consumption to reduce environmental harms. The main way that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can address these resource impacts is through digital optimization. Spreng found that optimization of an industrial process either increases energy use or accelerates production or consumption. It was assumed that reducing energy use progresses sustainability, whilst accelerating production or consumption to meet market demand is consumerist and generally detrimental to sustainability. In this paper, we argue that there are two important cases in which accelerating economic processes actually has an essential role in enabling sustainability by ICT: (1) when the process drives the production and adoption of an environmentally beneficial product such as a solar panel, often referred to as “cleantech”, or (2) when the process being increased is specific to the Circular Economy, such as recycling, maintenance/refurbishment, and sharing/reuse e.g., car-sharing, ride-sharing and tool-sharing in the Sharing Economy. The opportunities for ICT4S optimization are thus threefold: not just saving resources with efficiency, but also pushing the adoption of cleantech, and pushing the circulation of resources.
ICT4S, sustainability, ICT, Push Impacts, Green Computing, Green ICT, Green IT, Enabling Impacts, Enabling Effects, Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy, Sharing Economy, LES Model, Sprengs Triangle, Smart Green Map, Rebound effect, Renewable energy, cleantech
Townsend, John, Hardie
671b0907-26ec-4b34-bd39-ccca53c4b157
Coroama, Vlad
76a623eb-e746-468c-abaa-e0e06352a087
8 August 2018
Townsend, John, Hardie
671b0907-26ec-4b34-bd39-ccca53c4b157
Coroama, Vlad
76a623eb-e746-468c-abaa-e0e06352a087
Townsend, John, Hardie and Coroama, Vlad
(2018)
Digital acceleration of sustainability transition: the paradox of push impacts.
Sustainability (Switzerland), 10 (8).
(doi:10.3390/su10082816).
Abstract
Sustainability requires ongoing reform of resource production and consumption to reduce environmental harms. The main way that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can address these resource impacts is through digital optimization. Spreng found that optimization of an industrial process either increases energy use or accelerates production or consumption. It was assumed that reducing energy use progresses sustainability, whilst accelerating production or consumption to meet market demand is consumerist and generally detrimental to sustainability. In this paper, we argue that there are two important cases in which accelerating economic processes actually has an essential role in enabling sustainability by ICT: (1) when the process drives the production and adoption of an environmentally beneficial product such as a solar panel, often referred to as “cleantech”, or (2) when the process being increased is specific to the Circular Economy, such as recycling, maintenance/refurbishment, and sharing/reuse e.g., car-sharing, ride-sharing and tool-sharing in the Sharing Economy. The opportunities for ICT4S optimization are thus threefold: not just saving resources with efficiency, but also pushing the adoption of cleantech, and pushing the circulation of resources.
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sustainability-10-02816-v2
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Accepted/In Press date: 8 August 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 8 August 2018
Published date: 8 August 2018
Keywords:
ICT4S, sustainability, ICT, Push Impacts, Green Computing, Green ICT, Green IT, Enabling Impacts, Enabling Effects, Resource Efficiency, Circular Economy, Sharing Economy, LES Model, Sprengs Triangle, Smart Green Map, Rebound effect, Renewable energy, cleantech
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Local EPrints ID: 424508
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/424508
ISSN: 2071-1050
PURE UUID: 3eb3dc91-3468-427e-8810-67d9794bec09
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Date deposited: 05 Oct 2018 11:38
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 21:24
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Author:
John, Hardie Townsend
Author:
Vlad Coroama
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