Keynote Speaker
 

"ICT for a Sustainable Society? Rethinking the “Green IT” debate in the context of sustainable development" By Prof. Dr. Lorenz M. Hilty, Head of Laboratory, Technology and Society Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Switzerland

Abstract

One central challenge of our time is to reconcile intra- with intergenerational justice in a world of finite natural resources. The vision of solving this dilemma has been known as “sustainable development” since the World Commission on Environment and Development (“Brundtland Commission”) have published their influential report in 1987. What is the role of ICT in the context of sustainable development? Will these technologies help to develop sustainable modes of production and consumption, or are they just adding to the burden we put on nature? The basic assumption of the talk is that ICT is both part of the problem and part of the solution. I is therefore essential to govern the development and application of ICT with regard to sustainability in order to maximize the positive and minimize the negative impacts. Some examples (within and beyond the current “Green IT” debate) will show that ICT does not automatically lead to a sustainable society, but has a huge potential to influence the metabolism of society. Conceptual and methodological frameworks that can be used for analysis and governance will be presented, such as the Linked Life Cycle approach.

Bio

Lorenz Hilty is Head of the Technology and Society Lab at Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research. From 1998 to 2005, he was Professor of Computer Science at the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland. In parallel with that, he headed up Empa's research program "Sustainability in the Information Society" funded by the ETH Board, from which the Technology and Society Lab emerged in 2004. In 2005, he founded the IFIP Working Group 9.9 “ICT and Sustainable Development”. Current research focus: Environmental and social aspects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), ethical implications of the convergence of Nano-, Bio- and Information technology and Cognitive Science (NBIC).

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