Sustainable Digitalization: A Systematic Literature Review to Identify How to Make Digitalization More Sustainable

Abstract

With reference to sustainable digitalization, available literature reviews do not properly clarify whether digitalization is sustainable economically, environmentally and ethically - in the long period - and whether it is not. The necessity to develop this research lays its basis on the fact that, until now, sustainability researchers and digital scientists have apparently been studying in two separate tanks with few connections between them. With this paper, the authors aim at addressing this necessity. The work aims to analyze the relationship between digitalization and sustainability, and to present a framework to classify the impacts of material digitalization (production, use and disposal of hardware) and the use of digital per se (use of information systems). Subsequently, the paper will present parameters and factors that allow to identify the impacts of digitalization on sustainability and how digitalization can support sustainable growth. To do that, the authors analyzed the existing literature for deriving common understandings of digitalization-sustainability relations. Despite the large research activity on singular concepts like digitalization, digital transformation, Industry 4.0 applications, etc., not all the relevant dimensions between them have been deeply analyzed in a holistic way. The authors’ ambition is to propose a general framework where some accountability could be assigned to specific plans or strategies, in a life cycle view. From such a standpoint a more integrative and sustainable perspective of digitalization effects can be foreseen.