Digital Transformation: Environmental Friend or Foe? Panel Discussion at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems 2019

Abstract

The advent of digital technologies such as social media, mobile, analytics, cloud computing, and the Internet of things has provided unique opportunities for organizations to engage in affordable, easy-to-use, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-implement innovations. Transformations through such technologies often have positive impacts on business processes, products, and services. As such, organizations have managed to increase productivity and efficiency, reduce cycle time, and make substantial gains through digital transformation. Research has also found such transformations to be positively associated with reducing harmful environmental impacts by providing organizations alternative ways to conduct their business activities. However, in recent times when organizations can use many technologies at near-zero cost, questions regarding the potential negative impacts that digital transformation has on the environment have arisen. The contemporary ubiquitous technologies that pervade everyday life necessitate that organizations continue to create large data centers that increase in capacity daily; however, such growth also increases their impact on the environment. Considering this dialectical contradiction, in 2019, we conducted a panel at the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS) in Perth, Australia, to invigorate the dialogue regarding the impact that digital transformation has on environmental sustainability and investigate some directions for future research in this area.