SIGGreen IS Virtual Workshop Nov 12 2010

SIGGreen Virtual Workshop, November 12 2010

Challenges when digital services for sustainable everyday travel is

innovated

Raul Carlsson1, Anders Hjalmarsson1,2, Mikael Lind1,2, Daniel Rudmark1,3

1Viktoria institute, Sweden2University of Borås, School of Business & Informatics, Sweden

3University of Borås, InnovationLab, Sweden

http://siggreen-icis2010-workshop.wikispaces.com/

Abstract for short paper, discussed atThe Virtual SIGGreen Online Workshop November 12th 2010


Problem background

• Personal travel is expected to increase,

according to Traffic Authorities, from 2,200 000

to 3 000 000 (36%) 2005-2025 in Western Sweden.

• Transport-related CO2 emissions should decrease

by 4% in 2010 and 75% in 2050 (compared with

1990)

• To cope with CO2 reductions it estimated that the

share for public transport must increase from 24%

to 40% by 2025 and that car riding to and from

work must go from 65% to 35%

• A shift from cars to public transportation means

a step towards reaching eco-goals


Energy informatics(Watson et al 2010)

• Basic idea: Energy + Information < Energy

• Energy informatics

how information systems can be used to reduce energy

consumption, and contribute practical solutions to

advance environmental sustainability.

• Energy informatics framework


Eco-goals(Watson et al 2010)

• Eco-effectiveness– Commuters actively change their behavior and consume lesser natural resources to achieve the same travel goal.

• Eco-equity– By using transportation with better environmental performance, each commuter consumes less resources which leaves more resources for future generations.

• Eco-efficiency – A shift creates however a need for increasing the eco-efficiency of transportation assets, as the volume of travelers of share resources is increased.


The IS-researchers responsibility

To investigate and evaluate how IS/IT may improve the environmental performance of the systems they work with…

…and in particular study if IT/IS may serve as a persuasive force (e.g. Fogg 2002) to stimulate shifts towards more eco-friendly alternatives of transportation.

For example, to investigate how IS/IT may increase the eco-efficiency of transportation assets when the volume of travelers of shared resources increases as a consequence a shift

from cars to public transportation!

This calls for a wider perspective on environmentally sustainable development


Sustainable Innovation

Green IS

Green IT

The sustainable innovation approach (van Osch & Avital 2010)

• From Green IT to Sustainable Innovation– This perspective provides valuable augmentation to

existing green IS/IT frameworks, as it redirect the attention to different facets of sustainability and by highlighting the need for company-driven and multi-stakeholder innovation to address sustainability-related challenges.

Approaches to

sustainabilityFocus of

sustainability

efforts

Reducing IT Footprint

Managing environmental

footprint

Proactively generating

overall value - social

environmental and

economic for all

stakeholders


Sustainable everyday travel: the transport authority vision

People should be able to plan their trip in a way suitable

for them as individuals while at the same time being

supported to choose sustainable alternatives. In practice

they should be able to base decisions regarding trips on

information about the reliability of transport services

and traffic, on the price, and on the environmental

performance, provided to them via digital context based

information services.

An example: The TravelGreener demonstrator

In order to enable in innovation of digital

services for sustainable everyday travel,

different challenges must be prevailed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnT-HxQ0nEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnT-HxQ0nEA


Sustainable everyday travel: some challenges impeding sustainable innovation

1. Availability of data for sustainable innovation

– The challenge is not a lack of data, but rather to have accurate data of different types for different usage situations.

2. Open access to data

– The challenge is knowledge how to establish distributed service innovation based on sufficient access to data from data providers via open API’s.

3. Manage innovation towards eco-goals and sustainability

– The challenge is knowledge how to enable distributed service innovation steered towards eco-goals and economic and social values.

4. Lack of knowledge about consumers life situations and needs

– The challenge is knowledge how to facilitate distributed service innovation that meets the needs that different categories of consumers have when public transport is or should be utilized.

5. Good solutions, but no utilization and no desired impact

– The challenge is knowledge how to accomplish sustainable usage of innovated solutions.

6. Lack of feedback in the eco-system

– The challenge is the lack of different types of feedback channels from and to different stakeholders in the public transport context, about the effects that efforts and outcomes from sustainable innovation have on eco-efficiency, eco-effectiveness and eco-equity.


Towards a eco-system which enables innovation for sustainable everyday travel

• Energy informatics concepts interpreted:

– Flow network: transport system.

– Consumers: traveler's using physical services in the transport system supported by digital services.

– Suppliers: providers of physical services, digital services and data.

– Government: traffic and travel authorities

– Sensor network: systems which provides data that can be analyzed to determine the optimum use of a flow network.

– Sensitized object: a physical good that a actor in the eco-system owns or manages and has the capability to sense and report data about its use.

– Information systems: components in the eco-systems as well as the eco-systems as a whole.

– Eco-goals: objectives as drivers toward sustainable everyday travel




















Preliminary reflections

• The pluralistic notion of stakeholders in the eco-system

– E.g. a consumer may also be a supplier, and a supplier may also be a consumer, and the government may also be both suppliers and consumers in the eco-system

• The eco-system requires a powerhouse –the developer zone?

• In the eco-system a sensor network contains of both digital and analog feedback channels, feeding back information of sorts to different consumers

• The feedback data provides the means to both improve the digital services and the physical services, as well as other aspects in the flow network

Documents

SIGGreen IS Virtual Workshop Nov 12 2010