"Sustainable are production processes that do not exhaust the resources they use, but also, more generally, configurations that allow human society to ensure its sustainability. These characteristics make it possible to sketch out an initial analysis of public policies according to the different dimensions of sustainability. They outline an approach to public policy that takes note of the impasses in our development trajectory and the limits of simple adaptability to crises. They therefore include "a radical element" by aiming at structural transformations of our model.
Throughout the first half of 2021, France Stratégie brought together actors and witnesses (representatives of national and territorial administrations, experts, researchers, association leaders, business leaders, elected officials) to "understand how sustainability issues were integrated - or not - into the design, development, implementation and evaluation of sectoral and cross-cutting public policies".
Five Cahiers des Soutenabilités, published at the end of November, provide initial answers to these questions, based on numerous and varied field experiences. "These thematic notebooks aim to "open the hood" of the public action factory to examine it through the lens of the concept of sustainability.One of the five Cahiers deals with "the future of digital technology in the context of ecological transition and in a social environment where technological and scientific progress is increasingly questioned by citizens" with the title "How to build a sustainable digital economy?The digital world through the prism of sustainability: questions
In the first part, this booklet identifies three dimensions of digital sustainability, around which three workshops were organized:Digital technology for a more resilient economy?
Can we drive a digital transformation for a more resilient and sovereign economy? The concentration of the digital economy in the hands of large global players has accelerated over the last decade and their profits are now colossal.What consequences can this financial, technological and commercial domination have on the development of French companies, and in particular very small businesses? Does the acceleration of the digitization of companies increase dependency on foreign companies that are not subject to European regulatory frameworks?
Digital technology at the service of the ecological transition?
Are there positive environmental externalities of digital technology?But what are the benefits and positive externalities that digital technology can generate, and what contribution will it make to the fight against global warming? Under what conditions?
Digital technology at the service of public transformation and democracy?
What role can and should digital technology play in the transformation of the State and public action? How can we move from a digital transformation to a sustainable digital transformation of the State, whether in terms of infrastructure choices, equipment or software solutions? How are the dimensions of the climate and energy transition taken into account in current strategies for the digital transformation of public action? How can we build a trusted digital administration that guarantees public and individual freedoms? In what democratic bodies and according to what governance methods are these choices debated by citizens or their representatives?The conditions for a sustainable digital world
France Stratégie then presents the conditions for a sustainable digital policy based on the triptych sovereignty, sobriety and citizenship.The sustainability of our digitized society implies strengthening our technological sovereignty
It is clear that there is " a loss of capacity to act at both the European and French levels. The sustainability of our digital future depends on our collective ability to regain control of these technologies.For the contributors and authors of the Cahier, "the notion of digital sovereignty as a sustainability issue must be understood in a broad sense. It is not limited to the protection of a production chain, to the ability to diversify it, or to the fact of preserving a certain resilience in economic terms, but it is also expressed in more fundamental terms ... Thus, the choice to use artificial intelligence or facial recognition technologies in the field of security is less a technological debate than a question of value. These technologies can be used for purposes that do not call into question either European values or the imperatives of innovation and competitiveness.
More sobriety to reduce the environmental footprint of digital technology requires rethinking our uses and improving our measurement tools
"While the environmental footprint of digital technology continues to grow, its reduction is becoming an issue for public decision makers. But how can we organize greater digital sobriety in the implementation of public policies at both the national and local levels?France Stratégie points out the need for more effective and universal macro and micro measurement tools and for these indicators to be included in the evaluation of public policies, while emphasizing the difficulty of the exercise: " Whether it is a question of positive or negative externalities, the implementation of reliable measurement tools is proving to be complex, because the impact of digitization is systemic and takes place through a multitude of rebound effects that are almost impossible to model.
The authors of the Cahier also express their perplexity regarding the "smart city" projects that were supposed to allow the development of an optimized management of energy resources. " While some local authorities are pursuing their approach, the promises of smart cities are still difficult to assess and for some their effects remain limited.
While the general public must be better informed about the environmental impact of digital equipment and practices, "better consideration of environmental impacts in the digital strategies of organizations will not exempt us from considering the regulation of uses in order to reduce the most energy-intensive uses.
Sustainable digital technology must take into account the expectations of citizens
"Sustainable digital technology is a digital technology that is understood and accepted by citizens and that responds to needs arising from the observation of users' practices and needs, as well as to environmentally responsible development standards.The authors of the Cahier question a dematerialization that is not really a dematerialization: "dematerializing a procedure reduces the costs of maintaining a physical reception desk, but requires investments in equipment (network infrastructures, servers, terminals, etc.). This equipment has a significant environmental impact (energy consumption, resources, rapid obsolescence). In addition, "this dematerialization profoundly transforms the relationship between the citizen and his administration, well beyond the simple transposition of the procedure into its digital format".
"Rather than a strategy of systematic dematerialization of procedures, shouldn't we rather 'choose our accelerations' and 'target technologies that meet societal demand'?"What are the levers for sustainable digital public policies?
In the third part, the Paper discusses the "levers that could be mobilized to build responsible and sustainable digital public policies".Better anticipate and build responsible and sustainable digital strategies
The authors of the report point to " a kind of paradox in trying to reconcile the demands of sustainability, the constraints of political agendas and the speed of technological transformations. This paradox partly explains the low capacity of European states to anticipate the impact of these technological transformations. This is particularly true within public institutions.There is therefore a twofold need to clearly set the challenges and priorities for a more sustainable digital world. "On the one hand, because in the absence of guidelines, there is a risk of multiplying contradictory decisions. And on the other hand, because the lack of an ambitious strategy in this area in recent years has led to many dead ends (environmental, economic, security, sovereignty).
To meet these requirements, the Cahier mentions several avenues, including:
- better embody the digital transformation of government;
- Build tools for foresight and digital transformation within the State;
- to set a course at the national level and create a narrative with objectives to be achieved and a requirement for the temporality of public decisions that is more adapted to digital technology.
Changing practices within administrations?
The reflections from the workshops highlight the need to rethink the State's approach to conducting a digital transition that would be sustainable.Public purchasing remains an important lever: although initiatives to integrate environmental criteria into public purchasing procedures already exist, "public administrations and project managers are often hindered in their choices and strategies. For example, moving away from proprietary solutions and choosing open source platforms or solutions based on community development methods is an obstacle course.
The authors of the Cahier emphasize the advantages of choosing free or at least open source solutions in administrations and local authorities, but note that "public bodies are still ill-equipped to make these projects usable, to make them visible, to develop a business model (...). This is a limiting element in the development of common and open source.
The use of open source software goes hand in hand with eco-design approaches: "we must offer digital public services that are more sober, accessible (...), even on old smartphones and computers (...), we must work within public services on applications that consume few resources ". A reference framework for the ecodesign of digital services is currently being developed.
The evolution of regulatory provisions could accelerate these steps, "on the model of the accessibility of digital services in order to encourage public entities to develop more sober services" .
Broaden the communities of actors involved
"Public power cannot act alone. The mobilization of local authorities and wider communities - developers, citizens, investors - is necessary and it is precisely this capacity of the digital tool to mobilize communities of interest that must be explored," conclude the authors of the report, who plan to "put public decisions on digital matters to the test of citizens in order to better respond to societal demands.Better use of financing capacities
Today, public funding supports infrastructure projects as well as the digital transition of SMEs, research into artificial intelligence and the development of start-ups. "Is this model of public financing adapted to the challenges ahead?The authors of the Cahier call for changes in order to direct " public funding in favor of the digital sector towards the most strategic sectors " and to better take into account the criteria of sovereignty and resilience.
Public funding should thus allow for the financing of "digital commons" projects, open source projects and ensure that not only new projects but also medium to long-term projects are financed.
Sharing knowledge and skills
While awareness of the environmental challenges of digital technology is accelerating in public institutions, other dimensions need to be taken into account, such as the training of public employees and the development of their skills to meet these challenges. " Developing ad hoc skills within the State implies adapting job descriptions and detecting new profiles, diversifying recruitment sources, and exploiting existing internal skills among public employees.The development of skills within the State is not always encouraged by the frequent use of service providers: " Technical issues (such as architecture and design) are delegated to service providers, whereas in order to master this sustainable digital technology, you need to have these skills.
"It is also knowledge that needs to be better shared in order to transform digital technology in a sustainable and responsible way. The authors of the Cahier envisage data sharing platforms in the environmental field, as well as the opening of data relating to the life cycle of IT equipment and materials (planned by the law on the fight against waste and the circular economy in 2020).Choose our accelerations and target those that meet proven needs
It is necessary, conclude the authors of the Cahier, " to erase the inconsistencies and contradictions that today lead to setting public policy objectives that are contrary to the imperatives of transformation imposed by the climate transition, such as the massive development of 5G connectivity for uses that could be covered by other network technologies."If technology offers many possibilities, we must choose our accelerations and target those that meet proven needs resulting from closer collaboration between public authorities and user communities.Finally, " a more aggressive policy of support for open source software and the communities that develop it would allow us to better control our digital future and would encourage the acquisition of more sustainable skills within administrations.
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