The Global e-Sustainability Initiative study demonstrates the benefits of digitization in the economy and society.

Jun 11, 2015

State-of-the-art information and communication technologies (ICT) make life easier and boost the environment and the economy.

A study (SMARTer2030) published this week by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) shows that smartphones, connected sensors and intelligent networks can create wide-ranging environmental, economic and social benefits.

Making a difference

The ICT industry thus opens up huge benefits in the shape of business models that are more resource- and cost-efficient, improvements with services, and new sources of economic growth. In addition to the forecast reduction in global carbon dioxide emissions of up to 20 percent by 2030, other key factors include economic benefits of up to EUR 11 billion as well as a substantial increase in crop yields worldwide, according to the GeSI study.

“Important contribution to climate protection”

“Our results demonstrate an ICT-based world through 2030, which is cleaner, healthier, and wealthier, with more opportunities for people everywhere,” says Luis Neves, Chairman of the GeSI and full-time Group Climate Change and Sustainability Officer at Deutsche Telekom. For Group CEO Timotheus Höttges the actual targets are, however, also compelling: “The SMARTer2030 study shows that the ICT industry can make an important contribution to climate protection. This also applies to Deutsche Telekom. We have not only set ourselves ambitious targets, but we also help our customers solve their own challenges.”

Comprehensive model calculations

The current GeSI study is based on the most comprehensive model calculations to date on the potential of ICT. The new report not only illustrates the economic benefits of technology-based sustainable business models, but also points to three significant changes, which boost the potential of ICT for driving the economy and environment:

• Users stand at the center of the solutions
• Growing environment-related value creation
• Host of new and profitable business models

About the SMARTer2030 study

SMARTer2030 is the follow-up report to the report published by the GeSI in 2012, SMARTer2020, which for its part included predictions regarding reduced greenhouse gas emissions and lower energy consumption. It deals with the economic, social and environmental opportunities, which arise through the innovative usage of ICT in eight sectors: food, energy, health, learning, manufacturing, mobility & logistics, work & business, and building.

About the Global e-Sustainability Initiative

The Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) is a strategic partnership of enterprises and organizations in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), which have signed up to creating and promoting technologies and processes that foster economic, environmental and social sustainability. The guiding principle of the GeSI set up in 2001 relates to the creation of a sustainable world through responsible, ICT-based transformation. Over 30 of the world's leading ICT companies are members of the GeSI; the organization also cooperates with a host of international stakeholders, which are committed to sustainability targets in the ICT arena.