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Article
The Sustainability Imperative in Information Systems Research
Communications of the Association for Information Systems (2017)
  • Stefan Siedel
  • Pratyush Bharati
Abstract
This paper reports on a panel discussion at the Pre-ICIS 2015 Workshop on Green Information Systems on the current state and future perspectives of SIGGreen—the special interest group of the Association of Information Systems on green information systems—as well as of green information systems (IS) research in general. Over the past years, IS scholars have made important contributions advancing our knowledge about how information systems can contribute to solving problems associated with the degradation of the natural environment. However, it would appear that green IS is viewed by many as just another research topic in IS field, and not a very important one at that. This is questionable as sustainability is too important to be relegated as a footnote in the greater scheme of things. While an awareness of information systems’ potential to increase the effectiveness of decision making, to enhance business productivity, and to contribute to the bottom line has been in our discipline’s DNA for more than five decades, this is clearly not the case where the potential of information systems to contribute to society’s goal of achieving a sustainable environment is concerned. We suggest that the IS community should embrace sustainability as a core research imperative and integrate sustainability-related dimensions to research in theory and method, rigor and relevance, and in choosing areas to research. We provide some actionable recommendations on how we as IS researchers and, indeed, how the IS discipline could help society and business interests make the transition to a sustainable world.
Keywords
  • Sustainability,
  • green information systems,
  • information systems research
Publication Date
2017
Citation Information
Seidel, Stefan; Bharati, Pratyush; Fridgen, Gilbert; Watson, Richard T.; Albizri, Abdullah; Boudreau, Marie-Claude (Maric); Butler, Tom; Kruse, Leona Chandra; Guzman, Indira; Karsten, Helena; Lee, Habin; Melville, Nigel; Rush, Daniel; Toland, Janet; and Watts, Stephanie (2017) "The Sustainability Imperative in Information Systems Research," Communications of the Association for Information Systems, Vol. 40 , Article 3.