Sustainability and digitalisation: a common strategy

Today technology has become a fundamental element to our lives. It has transformed and modified the way we live, work and even how we enjoy our time, which is a 180 degree change compared to just a few decades ago. Alongside these advances, sustainability in business has become increasingly relevant.

Where we are in terms of digital business transformation

The EU is still in the early stages of technological development. Fields like cybersecurity, data processing or artificial intelligence are currently underdeveloped compared to other regions outside the European Union, like the United States. This can be attributed to a lack of financing and the absence of policies that would encourage their development.

To address this the EU has created the Digital Europe Programme 2021-2027 aimed at stimulating investment in digital skills and infrastructures to contend with this deficiency, promote the development of these areas, and strengthen the European ecosystem. “Investment in acquiring the most advanced capacities in these fields, ensuring their best use in an interoperable way across the EU and acquiring the skills needed to develop and use them will provide an essential boost to the digital transformation of our areas of public interest and our industry.”

Investment is essential to elevating the level of digital transformation in Europe, both in the public and private sectors. However, we should not understand technology or digital transformation as an end in itself, but a means to improving our lives, our businesses and our surroundings. 

Benefits to digital transformation

Here are just some of the myriad advantages of digitalisation:

• Increased productivity for companies that drastically reduces time spent on manual tasks that can easily be carried out automatically.
• Streamlined internal processes that avoid misplacing documents, minimise friction between departments, and improve relationships with customers, vendors and employees.
• Enhanced consumer experience: when clients benefit from updated, current technologies, it boosts their positive perceptions of a company.

But there is another benefit of digital transformation that doesn’t only affect companies but pertains to our society as a whole: it reduces negative environmental impact.

Digitalisation and sustainability: the perfect combination

Digitalisation and sustainability need to be aligned if the goal is to obtain optimal efficiency while producing the lowest degree of environmental impact. Improvements like reducing the use of paper and relying less on certain modes of transport, employing renewable energy sources or incorporating sustainable materials into production processes wouldn’t be possible without the use of digital technologies.

Companies that have a business sustainability strategy should drive it forward through digitalisation.

A recent report by Accenture wholeheartedly agrees: “New value is increasingly being found at the intersection of digital technologies and sustainability. The companies leveraging it—we call them Twin Transformers—are 2.5x more likely to be among tomorrow’s strongest-performing businesses than others.”

Where to begin

Companies that understand the importance of digitalisation and sustainability in business for social and economic development have a clear competitive edge.

But, where to begin? Even though every company is different, there are several universal steps that act as a starting point when your company is considering implementing a digital transformation strategy and a plan for increased sustainability:

A change in business culture

The first thing is to understand that a strategy of this caliber must be understood as a change in the corporate culture, and that without the support of management and your employees, it would not be fully integrated. Digitalisation and sustainability should not be viewed as different actions within a company but rather as a comprehensive change that affects the company as a whole.    

Internal analysis

Second, we must start by understanding the current state of our company, its internal processes, strengths and weaknesses, and digital transformation challenges. This step must be done in each department, but also as a whole. Processes that affect the entire company, like document management and administrative operations, stand out.

Establish objectives

Once we have done an in-depth evaluation of the company, we can establish points for improvement and objectives. These must be quantifiable and achievable to avoid frustration or not knowing whether or not they have been attained. All structural change takes time. 

Analyse solutions

Once we know our objectives, it’s time to analyse which tools or solutions will be the best to help us achieve them. Making an assessment will allow us to choose the right providers. You have to look for a provider that will digitally transform document management, which would in turn reduce your use of paper and minimise your carbon footprint.

Hiring

Put your faith in vendors who are trustworthy, provide a good service or product and who share the same vision or values. This helps to avoid friction and establish a solid working relationship. Relying on as few providers as possible lowers the investment risk.

Integrate the changes

It is essential to have vendors who have experience in this process and can help integrate the necessary changes with instructions and support, demos and good customer service. Open and fluid communication will also be important to solve any incidents that crop up and make the transition as streamlined as possible. Integrating changes that don’t require outsourcing, only a change within the organization, are ideal.

Follow up

Evaluating the results and making sure that you are moving in the right direction is crucial to avoid missteps.

The results

Each digitalisation process has to be evaluated individually to assess the results, especially in the realm of improved efficiency and sustainability.

Take administrative digitalisation. The goal would be to reduce your carbon footprint by doing away with paper processes. The best way to achieve this is by digitally transforming the document signing process (for all types of documents) and automating billing with electronic invoicing.

These changes directly impact the environment in a positive way. In eliminating all paper from your operations, the CO2 emissions produced by transporting documentation, the felling of trees to make paper, and the excessive use of water to produce it are all drastically reduced.

For example, a multinational company in the fashion industry that digitalises around 300,000 document processes could avoid 20,000 kg of CO2 emissions and save 5,500 kg of wood and 6,000,000 litres of water.*

Digital transformation would undoubtedly set in motion important changes for your company’s level of sustainability and environmental impact.

*Docuten Tech SL has an internal calculation tool to assess the sustainable impact of its clients. The figures are taken from this database. The results are obtained based on the following standard: the manufacture of 1000 sheets of paper produces 16.5kg of CO2 emissions, wastes 9.1kg of wood and uses 10,000 litres of water.

If you would like to learn more about how Docuten’s digitalisation solutions can help improve your sustainability in business, contact our team today.