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Digitainability: Profiting from the combination of digitalization and sustainability
Ulrich Lichtenthaler • Nov. 09, 2021
Many firms have started digital transformation and sustainability initiatives – but they neglect to profit from the combination of these two megatrends.
The term ‘digitainability’ has recently been coined in the academic literature to highlight relevant interdependencies between digitalization on the one hand and sustainability on the other. Actually, it does not really matter whether this specific term is used or whether companies refer to digital sustainability or sustainable digitalization instead. Much more important is the general awareness of interdependencies between these two megatrends. The variety of potential positive and negative interactions is addressed in my article entitled ‘Digitainability: The Combined Effects of the Megatrends Digitalization and Sustainability’, which has recently been published in the Journal of Innovation Management. The full text of the article
is available for free.
Digitalization and sustainability
The following abstract of the article gives a brief overview of its content: “The concept of digitainability has recently been suggested to underscore potential cross-fertilization effects between digitalization and sustainability, which have often been neglected. This conceptual article draws on an innovation-based view to develop a framework for combining digitalization and sustainability in firms’ strategic initiatives. It distinguishes four settings depending on whether firms pursue either digitalization or sustainability – or both or none of them to a strong degree. Beyond the individual importance of the two megatrends, their positive and negative interdependencies will gain further importance, and this article underscores the need for overcoming a potential dark side of digital solutions in terms of their carbon footprint and energy consumption to enable a sustainable digital transformation. In addition, digitainability offers the opportunity to move beyond optimization and cost savings due to digitalization and sustainability initiatives in order to capture the cross-fertilization potential of these two megatrends for innovation, business development, and sustainable design.” (Source)
Figure 1: Combining digitalization and sustainability (Source).
Innovation and business development
When discussing this topic with executives and with experts from other fields, many people can immediately highlight some positive or negative synergies of digitalization and sustainability in their work environment. Nonetheless, many large companies as well as startups often ignore these interfaces and continue to focus on relatively isolated digital transformation initiatives and sustainability programs. To some degree, it is understandable to manage digitalization and sustainability in a relatively separate way based on different responsibilities in an organization. At the same time, however, companies tend to leave major opportunities for innovation and new business development unconsidered if they do not address the cross-fertilization effects of their digitalization and sustainability programs. In the full text of my article, several examples for such effects are presented for companies from different sectors. If executives and managers have any touchpoints with digitalization and sustainability in their organizations, they should therefore have a close look at potential positive and negative interdependencies when planning activities, budgets, and goals for the next months and years.
As sustainability and ESG are on top of many firms’ strategic agendas, there is a growing need for specialized trainings, workshops, and keynotes.
Nachhaltigkeit und ESG stehen bei vielen Unternehmen ganz oben auf der Tagesordnung, daher wächst der Bedarf an spezialisierten Schulungen, Workshops und Vorträgen.
ChatGPT und generative KI werden uns nicht überflüssig machen – auch wenn die aktuelle Berichterstattung genau diesen Eindruck erweckt. ChatGPT hat uns allen verdeutlicht, wie schnell sich manche Felder künstlicher Intelligenz (KI) aktuell weiterentwickeln. Auch wenn einige dieser Entwicklungen schon seit Jahren erwartet wurden, ist die Geschwindigkeit vieler Verbesserungen selbst für manche ExpertInnen erstaunlich. Der aktuelle offene Brief des Future of Life Institute, der von über 1.000 Personen unterzeichnet wurde, ist daher grundsätzlich nachvollziehbar. Darin wird insbesondere auf die Risiken von KI hingewiesen und eine sechsmonatige Pause für das Trainieren leistungsfähiger KI-Lösungen gefordert. Eine ausreichende Beachtung der Risiken von KI ist unbedingt erforderlich, auch wenn die aktuelle Berichterstattung dazu oft zu kurz greift. Noch erstaunlicher ist aus betriebswirtschaftlicher Sicht jedoch das Medienecho der letzten Wochen und Monate zu den Auswirkungen von KI auf die Arbeitswelt, das sowohl in klassischen Medien als auch bei Social Media zu beobachten war. Dort wird häufig gefragt, ob wir als Menschen noch schlau genug sind im Vergleich zur KI. Auch wird diskutiert, ob KI künftig die meisten Führungskräfte ersetzen wird. Besonders oft steht also wieder einmal die Frage im Mittelpunkt, wie viele Personen durch KI ihren Job verlieren werden. Diese Frage ist auf den auf den ersten Blick vielleicht nachvollziehbar, weil durch KI-basierte Automatisierung in den nächsten Jahren tatsächlich in nennenswertem Umfang Jobs verloren gehen werden. Insbesondere werden auch solche Büro-Jobs betroffen sein, die bisher noch nicht automatisiert werden konnten. Dadurch sind mit offensiven Schlagzeilen sicherlich hohe Klickzahlen zu erreichen. Außerdem werden auch Arbeitsplätze in der Medienbranche automatisiert werden, wodurch sich die Berichterstattung zusätzlich erklären lässt. Integrierte Intelligenz strategisch oft wichtiger als eigenständige KI Dennoch wird viel zu oft ein einseitiger Schwerpunkt gelegt und damit auch ein falscher Eindruck vermittelt. Der wirklich entscheidende Teil der Entwicklung für die meisten Unternehmen und ebenso für die meisten Arbeitskräfte liegt in der Kombination von KI mit menschlicher Arbeit – und eben gerade nicht in der vollständigen Automatisierung von Jobs durch KI. In den letzten Jahren kamen verschiedenen Studien immer wieder zu ähnlichen Ergebnissen. Der Grundtenor ist dahingehend identisch, dass sich deutlich mehr Jobs verändern werden als komplett wegzufallen (vor allem, wenn die Zahl der Arbeitsplätze berücksichtigt wird, die durch KI zusätzlich entstehen). Diese Kombination von menschlicher mit künstlicher Intelligenz wird auch als integrierte Intelligenz bezeichnet.
Despite the massive attention to sustainability and ESG, many firms still underestimate the opportunities for innovation beyond reducing CO2 emissions.
The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY goes beyond traditional sustainability, and it refers to developing innovative solutions for a ‘net positive impact’. What is the GREEN GRASS STRATEGY? The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY is a sustainability strategy that focuses on innovation and new business opportunities rather than limiting sustainability programs to resource efficiency and the optimization of established processes. As such, the GREEN GRASS STRATEGY goes beyond traditional sustainability concepts that often focus on avoiding harm (no net loss) to consider positive sustainability and to embrace doing good (net positive impact). The GREEN GRASS STRATEGY enables you to leverage sustainability for innovation and value generation, and it can be systematically developed with the SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION MAP , which helps firms to achieve a competitive advantage by systematically pursuing sustainability innovations in all ESG dimensions – environment, social, and governance.
Generation Z – and what is next? Many of today’s students are ‘sustainable natives’ and expect companies to make a positive contribution to solving ecological and social problems. In an international survey of more than 27,000 people, GlobeScan found in 2020 that for 60% of younger participants, climate change and social inequality are top priorities, combined with the expectation that companies should contribute to solving these challenges. Very importantly, the young generation expects positainability , i.e. making a positive contribution and not just reducing negative effects of doing business, for example by reducing CO2 emissions. To implement this positive sustainability approach, companies would need to pursue a GREEN GRASS STRATEGY . So far, however, many companies are hardly prepared for the future changes due to the ideas of those persons that will be starting their careers in the next few years. In fact, this new generation of ‘sustainable natives’ presents new challenges and opportunities for companies (as I have explained in more detail in a recent article in the Haufe Personalmagazin ). In particular, the following typical perspectives of this ‘Generation PI’ – Positive Impact – have to be considered. 1. Sustainable natives Many current students are ‘sustainable natives’ because they perceive sustainability as a core topic since their early youth. In contrast to the extensive public discussions about ‘digital natives’, the role of ‘sustainable natives’ has been mostly ignored so far. 2. Doubtful prospects Typical for ‘Generation PI’ are doubts whether their future standard of living will remain as good as their current situation and as the life of their parents, especially due to climate change. 3. Expected limitations Many current students expect restrictions on possible behaviors to enable a more sustainable economy and society in the future, for instance bans or massively increasing prices for air travel or the consumption of less sustainable food. 4. Positive contribution Beyond the goal of no-net-loss, ‘Generation PI’ is ready to make a positive contribution in terms of a net-positive-impact. Here, companies need to focus on major innovations rather than limiting themselves to reducing CO2 emissions in established processes.
Positainability – or positive sustainability – refers to the combination of doing good and avoiding bad to arrive at innovative solutions.
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