Dear Colleagues,

 

We would like to invite you to submit your latest research on the design and implementation of information systems for a sustainable future to our on Green Information Systems and Sustainable Development (Track 17) at the 32nd European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS 2024), 13-19 June 2024, Paphos, Cyprus.

 

Track Description

Designing and implementing approaches for a more sustainable future and mitigating the impacts of global climate change by accelerating decarbonization is a societal and moral imperative of our time (Fuldauer et al. 2022). To strengthen the three pillars of sustainability and to speed up the corresponding sustainability transition, various scholarly fields have acknowledged the obligation to understand and to design solutions for sustainability-related problems (Gholami et al. 2016; Soergel et al. 2021; Seidler et al. 2017). Gholami et al. (2016) highlighted that the solution could not be generated by one discipline. Rather, tackling Grand Global Challenges requires collaborative multi‐disciplinary efforts to which the information systems (IS) profession can contribute critical knowledge and expertise in various ways (Elliot 2011; Melville 2010; Seidel et al. 2017; Watson et al. 2010).

Thus, feasibility and clear intention galvanized IS scholars to adopt sustainability as an important topic in their research. As IS researchers, it is on us to understand, explain, and shape the positive and negative consequences that flow from the (currently limping) transition toward a more sustainable future. But merely recognizing our obligation is not sufficient – we must embark on analysing the potential costs, duties, and obligations of decisions that particularly relate to the development, implementation, and use of Green Information Systems (Green IS). Green IS is pivotal for strategic sustainable solutions. It addresses issues associated with IS use by individuals, groups, organizations, and society to support environmentally sustainable practices and processes to emerge and diffuse (Watson et al. 2010). Green IS pinpoints that IS can play a pivotal role in enabling more sustainable solutions and encapsulates the responsibility of IS researchers and practitioners toward environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable development. In particular, we seek for contributions that shed light on the role of individuals in the ongoing sustainable transition.

This conference track is tightly bound to the AIS Special Interest Group on Green Information Systems (SIGGreen). SIGGreen recognizes that the IS discipline can have a central role in creating an ecologically sustainable society. The scope of SIGGreen is to discuss, develop ideas, and promote the role of IS in the global green agenda for mitigating climate change and fostering decarbonization through research, education, and community engagement. It spans the dual responsibilities of the IS profession to both reduce its impact on the environment and use its particular expertise to enable others to do so. Hence, this track is meant to provide a platform for those in our discipline concerned with how information systems can help reduce human impact on the natural environment. We welcome the entire spectrum of information systems research and invite innovative, rigorous, relevant, and exciting research on Green IS and

sustainability. We also appreciate interdisciplinary work as long as a substantive engagement with the information system discourse is maintained.

Topics of Interest

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

- Design of information systems to address ecological, social, and/or ethical challenges

- The role of IS for promoting the pivotal role of individuals in a sustainable future

- The role of IS in the current energy transition

- IS-based approaches to foster decarbonization

- IS to support sustainable, innovative, and smart mobility solutions

- IS to support sustainable consumer decisions

- IS to support smart and sustainable cities and districts

- Transformations toward sustainable business models (e.g., circular economy)

- Applications of emerging IS innovations (e.g., AI, blockchain) to sustainability realms

- Decision support for environmentally sustainable development

- IS for social good

- Green IS development

- The role of IS in energy sectors (electricity, heat, mobility, …)

- Meeting and collaborating virtually: reducing the need to travel

- The affordances of existing and emerging (green) information systems for enacting sustainable development

 

Important Dates

Submission Deadline: November 17, 2023

Notification to authors: February 28, 2024

Submission of revised papers: March 31, 2024

 

Track Chairs

Marc-Fabian Körner, University of Bayreuth, Germany

Gilbert Fridgen, University of Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Jiyong Park, University of Georgia, USA

 

For further information please visit https://ecis2024.eu/track-descriptions/ (Track 17: Green Information Systems and Sustainable Development).

 

Best regards

Gilbert, Jiyong, and Marc

 

(Apologies if multiple copies of this call are received.)