Abstract-SocioTechnicalAnalysis-Dwyer

Catherine Dwyer Pace University, New York, NY, USA media type="custom" key="7512895"
 * =Socio-technical Analysis and Environmental Sustainability=

Environmental sustainability is a ‘wicked’ problem since global, social, technical, political, economic and cognitive factors all impact the use of natural resources. Wicked or complex problems have ill-defined, shifting definitions and multiple conflicting elements (Rittel & Webber 1973). The IS multi-disciplinary approach to modeling interactions between technical systems and social structures can be tranformed to explain interacting factors embedded in environmental sustainability. Just as traditional IS research has focused on aligning the IT function with organizational goals (typically growth and increased profitability), we can re-purpose IS themes and frameworks to align with the goal of global environmental sustainability. Therefore I propose conducting a socio-technical analysis of factors that impact environmental sustainability. Besides socio-technical analysis, another contribution from IS research is the focus on effectiveness of solutions. We need to apply our IS skills to uncover ‘solutions’ that are in actuality green-washing rather than contributors to sustainability.

 Many IS themes are highly relevant to sustainability. While other academic fields feature an interdisciplinary focus (for example, behavioral economics), IS uniquely draws on disciplines within the liberal arts (cognitive psychology, economics), business (operations research and management science) and computing. Of particular relevance to sustainability is work by IS researchers on how systems actually perform, rather than how they are designed to work.

Fundamental IS themes that could be re-purposed to support sustainability include:
 * Sustainability requirements analysis
 * Supply chain planet earth
 * Energy interoperability (creating systems that will run on any number of energy sources, including green but intermittent options like wind power or solar power)
 * Management of distributed power sources

IS research has uncovered socio-technical factors that influence the success of an information system. IS themes and frameworks can be adapted and applied to the problem of environmental sustainability. Governments, organizations, and global citizens look to technologists to solve climate change and manage diminishing resources. Technology will only make a contribution if solutions are effective. This will require developing metrics for sustainability effectiveness and a validated measure for the carbon intensity of a product or business process. IS researchers have the tools to undertake these tasks, and a duty as global citizens to apply our specialized design skills to improving environmental sustainability. ||