Green IS: Are We Still Thinking in Mere Economic Imperatives or Are We Striving for Eco-Effectiveness?

Organizations are under increasing pressure to account for their environmental footprint and to adopt environmental sustainable practices, and information systems can support organizations in becoming more environmentally sustainable. Through the analysis of expert interviews with eleven representatives from organizations concerned with environmental sustainability, and drawing on a conceptual model of information systems and ecological sustainability, we provide evidence that these organizations see key capabilities of information systems in automating, informing, and transforming to support goals related to eco-efficiency, eco-equity, and eco-effectiveness. However, our analysis also suggests that there is still little awareness of the potential of information systems in fundamentally transforming business models and business processes towards eco-effectiveness as the ultimate goal of environmental protection.

[1]  Alemayehu Molla,et al.  Organizational Motivations for Green IT: Exploring Green IT Matrix and Motivation Models , 2009, PACIS.

[2]  Kenneth W. Green,et al.  Impact of information sharing and green information systems , 2013 .

[3]  S. Al-Athel,et al.  Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development: "Our Common Future" , 1987 .

[4]  Steve Elliot,et al.  Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Environmental Sustainability: A Resource Base and Framework for IT-Enabled Business Transformation , 2011, MIS Q..

[5]  Viet T. Dao,et al.  From green to sustainability: Information Technology and an integrated sustainability framework , 2011, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[6]  John W. Creswell,et al.  Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches , 2010 .

[7]  P MelvilleNigel Information systems innovation for environmental sustainability , 2010 .

[8]  R. Goodland The Concept of Environmental Sustainability , 1995 .

[9]  Jason L. Dedrick,et al.  Green IS: Concepts and Issues for Information Systems Research , 2010, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[10]  Miguel P Caldas,et al.  Research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches , 2003 .

[11]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Information Systems and Environmentally Sustainable Development: Energy Informatics and New Directions for the IS Community , 2010, MIS Q..

[12]  M. Meuser,et al.  ExpertInneninterviews - vielfach erprobt, wenig bedacht: ein Beitrag zur qualitativen Methodendiskussion , 1991 .

[13]  E. Schein The role of the CEO in the management of change : the case of information technology , 1975 .

[14]  David C. Michael,et al.  Making Sustainability Profitable , 2013 .

[15]  Helen Hasan,et al.  Innovative ICT-mediated activities for people, profit and planet , 2013 .

[16]  Jan Recker,et al.  Sensemaking and Sustainable Practicing: Functional Affordances of Information Systems in Green Transformations , 2013, MIS Q..

[17]  Jan Recker,et al.  Enablers and Barriers to the Organizational Adoption of Sustainable Business Practices , 2010, AMCIS.

[18]  Gabriele Piccoli Information Systems for Managers: Texts and Cases , 2007 .

[19]  Livio D. DeSimone,et al.  Eco‐Efficiency: The Business Link to Sustainable Development , 1997 .

[20]  R. Watson,et al.  Improving the Societal Effectiveness of IS Research: The Pursuit of Prescriptive Accuracy , 2014 .

[21]  Susanne Menges,et al.  Towards Understanding and Overcoming Hurdles in PDMS Projects in Germany , 2014, AMCIS.

[22]  Marta Indulska,et al.  Major Issues in Business Process Management: An Expert Perspective , 2007 .

[23]  Nigel Melville,et al.  Information Systems Innovation for Environmental Sustainability , 2010, MIS Q..

[24]  Thomas Dyllick,et al.  Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability , 2002 .

[25]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  Information technology as a change actant in sustainability innovation: Insights from Uppsala , 2011, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[26]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  Information systems and ecological sustainability , 2008, J. Syst. Inf. Technol..

[27]  Vanessa A. Cooper,et al.  Green Information Systems (Green IS) Practice in Organisation: Tracing its Emergence and Recurrent Use , 2012, AMCIS.

[28]  Richard T. Watson,et al.  The Emergence of Sustainability as the New Dominant Logic: Implications for Information Systems , 2012, ICIS.