In an increasingly connected world, talking about technology goes far beyond concepts such as innovation, immediacy or convenience. It also means becoming aware of the impact they generate our digital habitsmore and more frequent, more intense and, almost, more necessary.
Our reality, as individuals and as members of the community, is intimately linked to the operational functioning of technological platforms: procedures with the administration, bank management, saying ‘good morning’ to the family, showing the photos of the last holiday destination or solving all kinds of doubts thanks to artificial intelligence… And this reality entails consequences for people and social organization but also from an environmental point of view.
As we said, digitization has transformed the way we work, consume, study and relate. However, there is a real impact behind it: data centers that consume energy, electronic devices that require increasingly sought-after natural resources – do rare earths sound familiar?–, platforms that promote the consumption of everything, algorithmic systems that can alter our decision-making capacity. Therefore, the challenge is no longer to digitize more, but digitize better.
And that’s precisely what he’s after the concept of responsible and sustainable digital: using technology efficiently, ethically and consciously to reduce its negative effects and enhance its collective benefits.
Responsible digitization is a vision focused on improvement aimed at reducing the environmental, social and economic footprint of information and communication technologies (ICT) throughout their life cycle. This translates, for example, into thinking about the energy consumption of devices, how much water large data servers need or how e-waste is managed. From this perspective, digital responsibility involves managing the environmental impacts it causes (what is known in English as green IT).
However, technological and digital services must also be accessibleso that anyone can use them regardless of their age, their abilities or where they live; they must be ethicalwith principles and values that put the citizen at the center, and must guarantee the safety of users, in terms of privacy, protection and transparency (in English, IT for green).
It is from this dual perspective that citizens, institutions and companies must learn to have, promote and demand a healthier relationship with technology, bearing in mind that responsible digitization is built on five strategic axes:
– limit the excessive consumption of natural resources (mainly energy and water) and minimize the generation of waste;
– ensure that it is inclusive, accessible and financially sustainable. In other words, useful, usable and used.
– enter the component ethicalwith regulation and legal guarantees of user protection
– look after resilience and continuity of the services
– favor new behaviors and valuesin the face of risks such as cyberbullying or misinformation.
Digital responsibility therefore places us in front of a more general and holistic approach that seeks to embrace three dimensions: to create economic, social and environmental value; reduce the economic, social and environmental impact of digitization, i take advantage the technology for the economic, social and environmental improvement of digitization processes.
