Co-design of digital transformation and sustainable development strategies - What socio-metabolic and industrial ecology research can contribute

Abstract

Sustainable development and digital transformation profoundly re-shape industrial societies but have been studied largely independently. In light of pressing global environmental and social challenges, both transformations need to be well aligned with each other to achieve multiple objectives such as listed under the UN Sustainable Development goals (SDGs). Quantitative research on interlinkages, energy and material implications, and co-dependencies between the different digital transformation (DT) and sustainable development (SD) strategies is emerging and has so far focused on estimating the overall potential and on life cycle assessment (LCA).To frame the problem systematically, we developed a hierarchy of system levels for studying society's material and energy use, including the four levels: product/process, process cluster, life cycle/material cycle, and economy-wide. We mapped major DT strategies and the SDGs to the hierarchy and found a wide gap in system coverage: While most DT strategies focus on the product, process and process cluster levels, the SDGs predominantly target the economy-wide level.Socio-metabolic and industrial ecology research is needed to inform decision makers on how the two transformations can be aligned to reach overarching societal goals, such as the SDGs, expanding on and moving beyond LCA. Future research needs to assess combinations of multiple DT and SD strategies. It needs to study how DT can help decouple human wellbeing from negative environmental and social impacts. Research needs to focus on the strategies’ deployment potential, infrastructure needs, impacts on material cycles, and potential to transform both service demand and industrial production.