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Online Expert WorkshopDigital Sufficiency: A new perspective on digitalization as a driver for sustainability?

Date: 26 April 2022, 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Online via MS Teams

Organizer

Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW)
Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP)

Digitalization can be an enabler to improve sustainability by increasing efficiency or dematerializing certain products. At the same time, all digital devices need substantial amounts of energy and resources. Furthermore, the use of digital tools often goes along with additional production and consumption via so-called rebound and induction effects. Empirical evidence shows that digitalization is so far hardly the game-changer for sustainability that it promised to be. 

In the project „Digitalization and sustainability at the EU level: Opportunities and risks of digitalization for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda at the EU level” the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) work on novel perspectives regarding policies for digital sustainability. The project is funded by the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The central objective of the project is to develop new policy ideas for the German government to make digitalization a driver for sustainability at the EU level. 

In the workshop, you will be presented the concept of Digital Sufficiency and its implications for policymaking in the EU. However, the concept of Digital Sufficiency is not finalized yet. That is why we are looking forward to your contribution! We invite a diverse set of actors from science, policymaking, and civil society with expertise on digitalization or the sustainability transformation. In this manner, we hope to get a step closer to understanding what potential lies in connecting digitalization with sufficiency. 

More Information about the project can be found here.

This expert workshop is implemented as part of the R & D project “Digitalization and Sustainability at the EU level” (research code: 3720 41 101 0) on behalf of the German Environment Agency (UBA), and financed by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV). 

Time 
14.00Welcome
14.10

Input on Digital Sufficiency: A new perspective on digitalization as a driver for sustainability? 

Dr. Steffen Lange, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) 

14.45

Discussions in breakout groups  

  • The Concept of Digital Sufficiency 
  • How to frame Digital Sufficiency for policymaking? 
  • How to introduce Digital Sufficiency into concrete policy frameworks?
15.45Break
16.00Plenary discussion 
16.55Summary and further steps  
17.00End