Dealing with the big hitters: Energy and Transport
The first decision is to consider whether the off-line service is still applicable or needed. Does the service overlap with any other services that could be combined, or could it be superseded by modifications to an existing service? If the service is still needed, can it be redesigned as part of the digital transformation to best take advantage of what digital can offer? Decisions also need to be made with regard to procurement strategy, as these can significantly impact the weight sustainability and Net Zero aims have within the design and provision of the service. There are further significant choices when it comes to the design of the new digital service. Following a User Centred Design approach to help inform these decisions can help ensure good service design.
In most cases the existing service leads or heads of departments are making decisions about the digitalisation of their respective off-line services. A more modern service orientated approach to thinking about digital services tends to allow for better cross department systemic thinking about how the service fits into an overall service catalogue. This helps ensure that sustainability and organisational goals, such as Net Zero targets, are factored into decisions about service provision. Best practice from a Tech Net Zero perspective will involve service owners, sustainability leads, procurement specialists as well as digital and design expertise from an early stage in the digitalisation of an existing off-line service. This brings digital services and IT departments into the digitalisation conversations from the very beginning.
The potential for positive impact through digitalisation of off-line services is very significant. Both by removing the primary carbon producing elements of paper and transport use, and by the secondary effects of enabling better design of services and cross service information sharing. For example avoiding having to send multiple communications to gather personal data for multiple service providers.
The decisions with regards to reduction of carbon footprint of digital services themselves are similar to those for digitalisation of off-line services. The decisions around procurement, involvement of different stakeholders and focus on design all apply to provision and ongoing updates to digital services. There are however considerations when it comes to how the digital services themselves are designed and provisioned that are worth additional consideration. These can be grouped into two aspects: those that are end user facing design decisions, and those that are behind the scenes implementation decisions. Both of these aspects are interdependent with decisions within one aspect will have effect in the other aspect.
Reducing the footprint of existing digital services mostly involves the same stakeholders as for digitalisation of off-line services, however the nature of the decisions can be quite different.