A complex (not complicated) topic that requires simple (not simplistic) answers. An arduous mission that of 150 Top Manager who for two days confronted each other third edition of the General States of Digital Sustainability the think tank established in 2022 by Foundation for Digital Sustainability the most important recognized research foundation in Italy dedicated to exploring the issues of digital sustainability.
And when we talk about sustainability and digital, there is an enormous risk of not understanding the real extent of the changes, on the one hand, or of getting lost among solutions that are not at all concrete, on the other. For this reason, the summit concluded with the identification of four strategic priorities and four actions chosen by CEO, CIO, CFO and other “C-Level” of the largest companies in the country (among many Consob, National Anti-Corruption Authority, ANAS, ISTAT, RAI, ENI, Edison, SNAM, Plenitude).
“People and organizations must manage a cultural dimension, rethink not only the processes but also the meaning of organizations and in this context the change is not necessarily structural or organizational but more human – he Stefano Epifani, President of the Foundation for Digital Sustainability, explained to AGI – the work must therefore be carried out on the front of the fear of change, of the demolition of comfort zones and of elements of restraint. And to overcome these functional barriers it is also important that the people who govern organizations simply talk to each other.”
The priorities most voted by top managers regarding Digital Sustainability
- Relationships between C-Levels – voted by 85.71%. Moving from a vision of AI as a simple technology to a broader consideration of its content and strategic value, favoring an integrated and shared approach between the various C-Levels.
- Relationship with Big Tech – voted by 67.50%. Structure strategic relationships with large technology providers, identifying the distinctive elements of sustainable AI that reflects the company’s cultural heritage and values.
- AI policies and areas of application – voted by 57.89%. Identify areas where AI can be applied in accordance with company policies and the AI Act, to ensure responsible use aligned with sustainability objectives.
- Relationship with the internal organization – voted by 46.34%. Promote virtuous processes, indicating the elements on which it is appropriate to focus in order to develop applications that must be designed considering both the technical contents and the social, economic and environmental impacts.
The concrete actions to be implemented according to top managers
- Data Strategy and Data Governance – voted by 90.38%. Sustainably use AI, in all its possible declinations, without regardless of the accuracy of the data.
- AI in Digital Strategy – voted by 74.51%. Insert into the Digital Strategy of companies the principles of a sustainable approach in the life cycle of technologies and services, from definition to disposal (Sustainability by design), promoting the culture within the IT Function.
- Digital sustainability of artificial intelligence models – voted by 57.69%. Define and measure a sustainability indicator in terms of the positive balance between how much the application of AI technology saves and how much it produces in terms of environmental, social and economic impact.
- Sustainability scoring model – voted by 56.86% of CIOs. Define the evaluation criteria to measure the level of sustainability of Artificial Intelligence solutions with the aim of integrating indicators during the tender phase, within the technical evaluation parameters of AI solutions, that favor the digital sustainability of the proposed solutions.
“First of all – concluded Epifani – we need the courage to tell ourselves the truth: that is, there is a lot of research that says that sustainability is an activator of change but a lot of research is full of bias at its origin. The concrete fact is that people don’t know what sustainability is. And we won’t go anywhere until we look at it from an intersystem balancing perspective. There is sustainability understood as environmental impact but this is intertwined with thesocial impact and that economic. There are three glasses that must be balanced. Up to now we have worked by filling the economic glass, now we need to understand how to change the development model to rebalance. And technology is the only tool with which we can think of doing this.”