What is a sustainable digital footprint?
Around 50% of consumers predict that in the next three years the impact of high technology on relationships between people at work, in private life and on the environment will increase. Are companies in Poland responding to this challenge? What are the social expectations? The latest report of the Responsible Business Forum and the Warsaw School of Economics was devoted to this topic, summarizing the research project carried out together with partners Santander Bank Polska and Orange Polska.
The first report, published in 2021, outlines the definition and ways to measure and manage an organization’s sustainable digital footprint. The latest publication presents, m.in, the results of two studies on this subject. The first of them was carried out among consumers, and the second in a group of enterprises employing more than 50 people. Both addressed key issues related to the digital footprint.
73% of respondents pay attention to the impact of the technology they use on work, family life and relationships with others. In addition, 67% of consumers pay attention to the impact on the environment. As many as 86% of respondents prefer their job application to be evaluated by an expert or expert, a person working in the HR department, and not a system based on artificial intelligence.
In the area of new technologies, the possibility of personal data leakage is a cause for concern, which is highlighted by 42% of respondents who describe this threat as very large, and 25% of respondents who believe that it is large. Consumers are also concerned about the loss of jobs as a result of robotisation and the use of artificial intelligence. Among the most frequently mentioned concerns were also the greater demand for energy and rare metals that are needed for the functioning of new devices and technologies.
At the same time, 59% of respondents believe that technology is changing the world for the better, while as many as 46% of them indicate that this happens only in certain areas. In the area of the impact of technology on the climate crisis, opinions are clearly critical – the largest group, as many as 39% of people indicate that they deepen the climate crisis, and only 16% indicate that they help.
The second part of the project was a study addressed to companies employing more than 50 people. Nine out of ten companies invest in digitalisation and new technologies, and almost 70% of companies analyse the impact of their use. Increasingly, companies are taking action to reduce the negative impact of technology in individual areas. Nearly half of companies take action to reduce the negative impact of technology on employees. Six out of ten companies carry out such activities to reduce their negative impact of technology on the environment and improve the company’s position on the market.
Just over a quarter of companies declare that it is possible to eliminate jobs as a result of the use of new technologies in the organization. Programs aimed at people at risk of job losses are implemented in half of the companies (51 percent) that see opportunities to reduce jobs. Clearly more often such actions are taken in the largest companies.
The first of the objectives of theproject was to systematize the concept of „sustainable digital footprint”. According to the definition proposed in the publication, it is the sum of positive and negative social, environmental and economic impacts associated with the use of new technologies as part of the organization’s activities, throughout the value chain. The definition was developed in cooperation with experts from the scientific community and non-governmental organizations, as well as representatives of companies.
Projekt otrzymał dofinansowanie z Norwegii poprzez Fundusze Norweskie 2014-2021, w ramach programu „Dialog społeczny – godna praca”.