Digital sustainability is not just about solving problems now, it’s about thinking about the future. Wherever you may be based, the recent and continuing lockdowns have indisputably showed the effect that humanity is having on the planet.
With a slowing of many industrial sectors, halt of several transport methods and reduction in human activity; there has been a substantial reduction in fossil fuel emission and general waste in the environment. As the world and many industry sectors reopen, there is a chance for the forward thinking to seize a moment and move forward with a greener mindset. It’s time to talk about digital sustainability for business. The international organization for standards (ISO) has recently published ISO Guide 84 – Guidelines for addressing climate change in standards. It outlines how organisations can have a greener way of operating in the future and change what they are doing right now.
Digital sustainability is not just some buzzword that will come and go, it’s a mindset. Many organisations operate in industrial sectors with various machinery, some operate in logistics with heavy transport usage and some simply operate facilities down the street. Regardless of your size or operations there is always a possibility to improve your operational efficiency. Similarly, there is likely also a way to improve your sustainability; organisations are now turning to digital sustainability as a way to think ahead. Digital sustainability is a multi-faceted way of thought that can mean different things to different people. It may be reducing the paper that you use in your business and moving many operations to digital. It may be bringing all your operations management to a centrally managed computerised maintenance management system (CMMS). Or it may be simply inspecting the things you do on a regular basis, using standards such as ISO Guide 84, to see if there is room for improvement to make your operations and processes greener.
