With the increasing complexity of the digital transformation concept, fully understanding all its environmental impacts becomes crucial, some of which may be less evident. Digitalization and sustainability have become central in today's context. Without urgent interventions to reduce environmental pollution, climate change could push an additional 100 million people into poverty by 2030. Achieving environmental goals and limiting global temperature rise requires significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and reaching net zero by 2050.
Digital transformation represents the process of modifying operational methods, organizational dynamics, and business proposals through the incorporation of digital technologies within a company. This transformation leads to a series of positive changes across various fronts, including operational, organizational, sectoral, and social. For example, at the operational level, there could be process optimization and a reduction in manual tasks, while at the organizational level, one might observe improved decision-making capacity and internal and external communication. At the sector level, changes in roles and value chains within business ecosystems could be observed, while at the social level, alterations in work structure and decision-making means might take place.
Digital transformation can impact the environment positively or negatively, introducing improvements or deteriorations compared to the current situation. The new technologies underlying digital transformation play a significant role in promoting and managing environmental sustainability. For instance, the Internet of Things (IoT) facilitates precise data collection, environmental awareness creation, and collaboration promotion through social media, while artificial intelligence enhances the development of more accurate prediction models. Indirectly, digital transformation initiatives contribute to environmental sustainability by supporting logistics and supply chain management practices that reduce carbon footprint and offering advanced waste management solutions. Digitalization can improve energy efficiency by reducing energy consumption in the production of goods and services or by promoting the creation of products and services that require less energy. These improvements can be achieved by optimizing existing processes or introducing new, less energy-intensive technologies and industries.
However, the widespread availability of affordable technologies has raised concerns about the potential negative environmental impacts of digital transformation. This transformation involves the use of machinery and devices that can generate adverse environmental effects, such as the extraction and disposal of resources needed for their production. Therefore, it is essential to carefully evaluate the positive and negative effects of process and product innovations resulting from digitization. Digital transformation goes beyond simple digitization or dematerialization of processes, although these are significant elements of this transition process. It involves integrating digital elements into product or service offerings and brings about fundamental changes within organizations, introducing new business models and digital platforms. Digital transformation extends beyond individual organizations, impacting entire sectors and society as a whole.
Only recently, after the Covid-19 pandemic, has the urgent need for technological modernization, facilitated by the techno-digital transition, been fully understood. Hence, this transition, along with the ecological one, stands as one of the key focal points of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan.vAmong the main "revolutionary" digital technologies are the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless communication technologies (such as 5G), robotics, digital platforms, blockchain technologies, artificial intelligence, and additive manufacturing or 3D printing. Despite digital technologies often being perceived as immaterial solutions, it's crucial to note they require hardware and have their own environmental impact. To fully understand the relationship between the environment and digital transformation, we need to examine environmental functions.
Fundamentally, the environment serves three crucial economic functions:
- It provides raw materials and natural resources, both renewable and non-renewable, used in production processes.
-
It assimilates waste released by living organisms, helping to reduce pollution through the management of pollutant emissions and waste recycling.
These functions can be understood using the circular economy model, which represents the interactions between the human economy (including digitalization) and the environment.
If we only consider the human economy, it appears that there are linear relationships between input and output, with the production of goods satisfying consumers. However, when we consider the environment, the circular economy model becomes more complex: the economy extracts resources from the environment and transforms them into goods and services during production and consumption processes.
Digitalization involves the use of raw materials like metals and minerals for creating electronic devices such as smartphones and PCs, along with significant energy consumption. These resources are often extracted through mining and refinement processes, and their recycling can be costly and require substantial energy and technological resources, given their utilization in complex metal alloys.
Subsequently, resources are returned to the environment as waste and pollutants, which can be partially absorbed by the environment itself. Waste recycling and strict control of pollutant emissions can help reduce environmental contamination and excessive resource depletion.
The main factors influencing the environmental impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are greenhouse gas emissions from energy consumption and pollutants released into soil and water. In addition to natural resources like energy and rare metals, digitalization also relies on the environment's ability to absorb waste, a limited resource that can be compromised if waste exceeds assimilation capacity. This can also negatively impact the environment's third function, providing aesthetic pleasure.
Digital transformation plays a fundamental role in reducing environmental impacts, for example, through more efficient energy and resource usage. However, it's essential to recognize that even seemingly intangible digital materials have a significant ecological footprint.