Digital platforms are powerful, and they are being criticized for driving fake news, hate speech, and being a haven for “surveillance capitalism”. However, a blind spot in the platform debate has been the ecological impact of platforms on our daily lives. Platforms and online commerce are increasingly shaping our private consumption and are thus becoming an important lever for climate, environmental and resource protection in everyday life. Advertising-financed business models and the commercial growth logic of companies are turning social media platforms, search engines and online stores into consumption drivers, without regard for climate protection and resource consumption.
Within the framework of the CO:DINA project, funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUV), ConPolicy project manager Dr. Otmar Lell has investigated the specific effects of digital platforms on consumer interests and sustainable development objectives, and how a consumer- and sustainability-oriented system design of platforms can succeed. The perspectives of digitalization experts and scientists from various disciplines were included.
As a result, the study compiles numerous specific measures to correct existing deficits. Also, the study outlines political starting points for a platform architecture in accordance with the requirements of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection and the SDGs. The study is available here.
The results of this study and of two parallel studies by Prof. Dr Peter Rott and Prof. Dr Christoph Busch are now being further developed via Governance Innovation Labs, e.g. within the framework of the Science Platform Sustainability 2030 (wpn 2030).
Further information on the project can be found here.