Tilman Santarius

Digital Reset. Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation.

Tilman Santarius — Sat, 02 Dec 2023 13:56:04 +0000

Governments around the world see digitalization as a solution to the pressing social and ecological crises of our time. At the same time, scientific evidence shows that digitalization tends to exacerbate many existing problems. In the report “Digital Reset. “Redirecting Technologies for the Deep Sustainability Transformation”, Tilman Santarius and a team of 15 renowned European experts present how a fundamental realignment of digitalization can be achieved at the European and national level so that it becomes compatible with a climate-neutral and future-fit social transformation path.

Watch the video of the report’s launch event at the Einstein Centre Digital Future in Berlin, Germany.

Download the full report Digital Reset here.

See here for the English Summary of the report (2 pages).

A Call for a Digital Green Deal

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 24 Oct 2023 16:36:26 +0000

This article, written by Tilman Santarius and a team of interdisciplinary experts from various European Universities, calls for a Digital Green Deal that includes strong, cross-sectoral green digitalization policies on all levels of governance. We argue that such current digital policy initiatives, e.g. at EU level, should include measures that service environmental goals, and environmental policy initiatives must address risks and advance opportunities of digital technologies. The call for a Digital Green Deal is based on a broad and up-to-date review of the vast interdisciplinary literature on the relation between digitalization and environmental sustainability.

The induction effect. Why the rebound effect is only half the story of technology’s failure to achieve sustainability.

Tilman Santarius — Fri, 16 Jun 2023 17:37:14 +0000

The concept of the rebound effect is important in understanding the limits to how much technological efficiency improvements can reduce energy and resource consumption. However, the rebound effect is only half of the story. This article by Steffen Lange, Tilman Santarius and his research team, published in the Journal Frontiers in Sustainability, presents the term ‘induction effect’ to grasp additional important mechanisms stemming from new technologies. The article defines the induction effect empirically grounds it by way of three case studies in the fields of online consumption, smart homes, and pace of life. The article shows that including both rebound and induction effects helps better understand the relationship between technological change and the environment.

Climate justice and digitalization. A plea to consider broader socio-economic implications of digitalization and climate change

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:57:31 +0000

This article by Tilman Santarius in the Journal GAIA Justice and Digitalization – GAIA 2022 considers the broader socio-economic implications of digitalization on various dimensions of climate justice. Indeed, digitalization will affect the way the impacts of global warming and the co-benefits of climate protection are distributed. To advance a fair benefit sharing of digital climate technologies, the decentralization of technological development must be initiated, and rules for fair competition must be established.

Exploring energy sufficiency: New challenges and options in times of crisis.

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:40:24 +0000

The war in Ukraine has made the fatal dependence of many countries on energy sources from non-democratic countries extremely clear. How should politics and society react to high energy prices and the necessary ban on imports of fossil fuels from Russia? Can modern societies get along with much less energy? This Op-Ed article by Benjamin Best, Michaela Christ, Tilman Santarius and Frauke Wiese Energy in the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice argues that the concept of energy sufficiency can play an important role in answering these questions. The article explores sufficiency as a interdisciplinary research topic for energy modelling, scenarios and policy.

Rebound Effect and Sustainability Science: A Review.

Tilman Santarius — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 17:10:14 +0000

Rebound effects have been historically studied through narrow framings which may overlook the complexity of sustainability challenges. This article by David Font Vivanco, Tilman Santarius and five other international co-authors in the Journal of Industrial Ecology presents a critical literature review of rebound effects in the context of sustainability science in order to (1) map existing rebound research which goes beyond mainstream approaches, (2) unveil and classify current knowledge gaps in relation to sustainability science, (3) outline a research agenda, and (4) provide a knowledge base to support the design of effective policies toward sustainable development. We suggest that this knowledge is crucial for promoting a prioritization of actions and a concrete transition toward sustainability.

Nudging Sustainable Consumption: A Large-Scale Data Analysis of Sustainability Labels for Fashion in German Online Retail.

Tilman Santarius — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:15:41 +0000

A transition toward a sustainable way of living is more pressing than ever. How do online retailers provide information on the sustainability of products to consumers? This article by Maike Gossen, Tilman Santarius and further team members in the journal Frontiers in Sustainability is based on a large-scale dataset we built by using AI methods, and which contains sustainability information of nearly 17,000 fashion products of leading online retailers in Germany. We find that only 14% of the tagged products present credible third-party verified sustainability labels. Hence, we strongly recommend political initiatives that tackle the risk of greenwashing resulting from uncertified and weak sustainability information in e-commerce.

Digitalization and sustainability: A systematic literature analysis of ICT for Sustainability research

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 24 Jan 2023 15:01:36 +0000

It is important to understand the opportunities and risks of digital technologies (ICT) for a sustainable transformation of society. In Digitalization and sustainability- A systematic literature analysis of ICT for Sustainability research – Santarius+Wagner 2023 in order to investigate the state of debate. We cluster them according to different levels of action (micro, meso, macro) as well as regarding different sustainability strategies (efficiency, consistency, sufficiency). We find that ICT4S research has a one-sided focus on digital efficiency improvements and on life-cycle impacts of ICT devices and applications. Much more research is needed regardingt digitalization’s potential to advance sufficiency-oriented practices, and transformations at macro-level.

Smart Green World? Making Digitalization Work for Sustainability

Tilman Santarius — Thu, 01 Dec 2022 21:45:08 +0000

The digital revolution is currently changing the daily lives of billions of people worldwide. It is also disrupting the economy, generating new opportunities and creating new challenges. Yet can the much-discussed disruption potential of digitalization be harnessed for the purpose of sustainability? Can digitization help achieving a social and environmental transformation of society? The book “Smart Green World” provides guiding principles for a sustainable digitalization and develops hands-on policies and proposals how to achieve those.

A former version of the book has been published in German, see here.

Video on the results of the book

Tilman Santarius and Steffen Lange presenting key findings from their book “Smart Green World?”

Assessing the environmental performance of ICT-based services: Does user behaviour make all the difference?

Tilman Santarius — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:32:47 +0000

Reducing household energy consumption through ICT can play an important role in the transformation towards sustainable consumption patterns. Yet, the challenge in the environmental assessment of ICT applications is to also consider their use-specific environmental effects, as these can be decisive for overall results. In this article in the Journal of Sustainable Production and Consumption by Johanna Pohl, Tilman Santarius and further co-authors, we analyse the environmental performance of 375 smart home systems in Germany. Regarding the Global Warming Potential, we find that heating can have significant benefits in special cases, but does not lead to significant benefits on average. Regarding Metal Depletion Potential, we find that smart heating is always an additional burden.