Environmental Sustainability and Digitalisation in SMEs

The need for a sustainable digital transformation is rising on the political agenda both in Germany and on a European Union level. Policymakers face the challenge that digitalisation is ecologically ambivalent, especially its indirect effects. As the backbone of the European and German economy, the sustainable and digital transformation of SMEs is of particular importance.

Researchers at the Öko-Institut and the CSCP conducted this study for the German Federal Network Agency, investigating the state of environmental sustainability of digitalisation in SMEs as well as political approaches for promoting a synergetic sustainable-digital development. The study also focuses on the potential of scaling the cooperation between green economy start-ups and traditional SMEs.

Finally, the study looked at selected methods and standards that companies can use to measure their environmental sustainability in an objective and verifiable manner, as well as communicate it externally – and the role of digitalisation in this effort.

The study is available in German.