- eco launches campaign website “#JOINTHESOLUTION: We are part of the solution – the Internet industry”
- Campaign highlights positive sides of digitalisation: launch with a special focus on sustainability goals and infrastructure operators
- Multifaceted participation opportunities for eco members
A rising number of cyber attacks, hate speech, data protection violations, shame streaming or energy consumption of digital services and applications: time and again, drawbacks and potential dangers of digitalisation are making it into the headlines – loosely based on the motto “Bad News is Good News”. Yet digital technologies and services are in many ways part of the solution in tackling burning societal challenges: be it climate change, the sustainable use of resources, food and nutrition safety or the early identification of serious diseases such as cancer.
The core objective of the newly launched eco campaign website under the motto of “#JOINTHESOLUTION: We are part of the solution – the Internet industry” is to highlight the positive impact of digitalisation and the central and indispensable role of the Internet industry as part of the solution for achieving sustainability goals. “The campaign places the focus on technology-based solution approaches such as green IT or green coding, IoT and 5G-based Smart Farming solutions or connected mobility. It brings home the importance of the digital transformation for a more life-enhancing, resource-saving and sustainable future of our society based on digital services and technologies. At the same time, we are setting a strong positive counter activity to the current and, at times, very critical media and political debate about ethical values in our industry,” explains Sidonie Krug, Head of Communications at the eco Association.
Digitalisation as part of the solution for achieving sustainability goals
In the area of climate protection alone, digital transformation harbours considerable potential, especially in the areas of connected mobility, Industry 4.0 and working from home. CO2 emissions purely from transport could be reduced by 5.4 million tonnes per year if 40 per cent of employees worked permanently from home two days a week. In order to tap into this sustainability potential, sustainable solution scenarios are needed at the first point of the Internet value chain. Digital infrastructure operators such as data centres and colocation operators are therefore in the spotlight at the start of the campaign.
Innovative solution concepts and use case examples of sustainable data centres are highlighted, for example, by the RBB reporter Sven Oswald in the first part of the campaign’s German-language reportage series #JOINTHESOLUTION. This covers aspects such as the cooperation of data centre operators with energy providers – for example, in the form of server farms in wind turbines – or the heating of lobster farms through the utilisation of waste heat derived from data centres in Norway. The content of the campaign website is rounded off by facts & figures, case studies, news and other formats. Going forward, eco will continue to promote the positioning of the Internet industry as part of the multifaceted solution in addressing challenges such as climate change and will expand the campaign to include further components and content.
As an eco member, participate and become part of the solution
eco members have the opportunity to fully participate as campaign partners and to submit case studies or testimonial quotes. Some of the following actions in the pipeline include: the joint publication of a keynote paper focusing on “Sustainability and Digitalisation” with the management consulting firm Arthur D. Little; the continuation of the reportage series #JOINTHESOLUION with RBB editor Sven Oswald; podcast specials of “Das Ohr am Netz” (“An Ear to the Internet”); and hybrid event formats with the participation of political decision-makers and leading heads of the Internet industry.
To the campaign website
To the interview with Alexander Rabe
