Humanising digital life: Reducing emissions while enhancing value-adding human processes

Carbon emissions are on the rise and threaten to change the way humans live. Information technology can contribute to reducing such emissions by either virtualising or eliminating some human activities. However, without a proper understanding of humans’ value proposition and processes, such developm...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of information management 2022-04, Vol.63, p.102443, Article 102443
Main Authors: Trkman, Peter, Černe, Matej
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Carbon emissions
COP26
Digitization
Emissions control
Human influences
Human processes
Humanising digital life
Information systems
Information technology
Research facilities
Value proposition
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Carbon emissions are on the rise and threaten to change the way humans live. Information technology can contribute to reducing such emissions by either virtualising or eliminating some human activities. However, without a proper understanding of humans’ value proposition and processes, such developments might not lead to behaviour that is more environmentally friendly. Thus, for digitalisation to reduce humans’ climate impact while maintaining or even improving the quality of human life, the value-adding aspect needs to be maintained. The core challenge lies in redesigning human processes, especially those related to work, so that environmentally harmful activities are eliminated while maintaining humans’ fundamental value proposition. The paper discusses a vision of the future involving a shift from digitalisation to human digitalisation, and it addresses the importance of the leading role of government and research institutions in this development. In addition, the paper identifies future research avenues such as the need to focus on redefining human processes, virtual experiences, ethics and the important shift in information systems education. •Information technology can reduce CO2 emissions.•Digitalisation has many negative effects, and it dehumanises work and life.•Digitalisation should focus on removing non-value added activities from human life.•A holistic understanding of human processes helps in maintaining their core value.•Research should focus on human processes, virtual experiences, ethics and education.
ISSN:0268-4012
1873-4707
DOI:10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2021.102443