Sustainability Meets Information Technologies: Recent Developments and Future Perspectives

This article aims at addressing the future challenges in Sustainability and Information Technology (IT) by reversing the order of the conventional prioritization of social objectives and technology, and placing the aim first and the means second. In engineering and technology, historically, there has been greater focus on first developing the technologies (means) and then determining their potential (aim), and how to tame their unintended consequences. The greatest challenge confronting humanity in the coming decades is sustainability. Therefore, the question is how can IT design, develop, and assist in maintaining the ambitious, albeit difficult to grasp, sustainability agenda? This discussion is pertinent in order to avoid research programs and academic curriculum which dive into the intricacies of IT without viewing sustainability as a core value, which ultimately risks replicating the historical pattern that will generate even more unsustainability.