In the debate about Industry 4.0 and a possible link between digitalization and sustainable business, various opinions have been circulating for some time about possible future trends. Absolute transparency through blockchain technologies, real-time audits at suppliers or the independent takeover and further development of business processes through artificial intelligence – such utopias exist, but hardly anyone dares to make precise forecasts and very few people seem to have a clear view. Reason enough to take a look at the possibilities of digitalization for sustainable business, which do not lie in the distant future, but in many cases are already a reality.
To gain an insight into current developments in this area, we spoke to Sylke Freudenthal, Sustainable Development Officer at Veolia Germany, about the use of digital solutions to support its customers’ sustainable business practices.
Due to the company’s special focus on resource conservation and the circular economy, Sylke Freudenthal sees the advantage of digitalization in one point in particular: “From our point of view, the potential of digitalization lies in the gain in depth of detail and comprehensiveness in the analysis of data and the control of processes based on it. This ultimately leads to greater efficiency. In addition, digitalization enables the networking of players and thus the generation of additional synergies.” As part of various projects and through the development of software solutions tailored to customer requirements, Veolia is taking action at various points to support sustainable development: “Our customer portal offers access to professional waste disposal services and their processing – this is an important impetus for higher recycling rates. Similarly, our DAVIG software facilitates and documents the separation and reuse of different recyclable fractions in industrial companies.” The company has also developed a platform that combines smart monitoring, analysis and optimization for industrial energy efficiency and resource management: Hubgrade. “We can use it to dynamically monitor selected KPIs for water, energy and material flows in real time at different locations and derive appropriate efficiency-enhancing measures. Hubgrade covers everything from creating individual reports, benchmarks, evaluations of KPIs and data analyses to alerts and specific savings measures,” adds the Sustainable Development Officer. Although she believes that the vision of complete sustainability reports in real time is a little too far-fetched, she does consider real-time monitoring to be practical for certain key figures such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy costs or the development of energy efficiency.
Consider ecological implications
Many companies see one of the main advantages of using these new technologies in the transparency factor – both in external communication and in the internal traceability of business processes. In this respect, Veolia is also keeping an eye on other currently much-discussed developments such as blockchain technology. “In our view, this also holds the potential for disruptive innovations in our business areas,” admits Freudenthal. However, the company’s basic tenor with regard to experiments with blockchains is still reserved, partly because of the associated ecological implications: “What rather surprises us is the uncritical view of the enormous energy consumption that a broad application of the technologies would entail. As long as we are not yet working one hundred percent on the basis of renewable energies, there is a high climate risk involved. In addition, a number of other questions, particularly legal ones, remain unanswered,” emphasizes Sylke Freudenthal. In principle, she sees great potential in digitalization for sustainable development, but misses the ecologically critical approach to it. “Digitalization is transformative, but not sustainable per se. Rather, sustainability should always serve as a strategic orientation and also as a normative reference for digitalization processes,” she adds.
Displacement of jobs: no dilemma for Veolia
Sylke Freudenthal is relaxed about the frequently voiced fear that digitalization will destroy jobs. She does not see the fact that some jobs will fall victim to algorithms, software solutions and machines in the future as a dilemma, but rather as an upgrade of jobs. “For example, we are testing the use of automation technology in production and transportation in cooperation with a start-up. Our aim is to relieve our employees of monotonous, repetitive tasks and to deploy them for higher-value, more varied activities,” she explains.
Although the use of digitalization may make monotonous tasks easier for some occupational fields, this debate must also consider employees who will not be upgraded to more specialized activities due to a lack of qualifications, but will simply be replaceable by machines, software or algorithms. In such cases, it is also the responsibility of companies to largely prevent the risks resulting from automation, such as unemployment. Companies should analyze in advance which areas of work could be affected, enter into discussions with employees in these areas as early as possible and support professional development or reorientation by offering training. Sylke Freudenthal believes that public dialog with all stakeholders involved in such complex change processes is important. “These debates help us to become clear about what society expects from responsible corporate behavior.” After all, our current economic system requires companies that see it as their responsibility to provide people with jobs.
