Digitainability. Digital Technologies for Environmentally Sustainable Economic Activity: Market Potential and Strategic Implications

Digitalisation and sustainability are the two great transformations of our era. A  combination of these two trends offers an opportunity to secure material prosperity while simultaneously achieving Germany’s climate targets. Digitainability can be a key first step towards decoupling economic growth from the resultant negative environmental impact. Achieving this demands further development of digital technologies and environmentally sustainable digital solutions within businesses to create a productive relationship between economic incentives and environmental sustainability.
This acatech STUDY evaluates the current situation of digitainability in the German economy and shows ways forward for shaping and strengthening it. An environmental market analysis focusing on eight leading sectors of the German economy identifies currently available digital solutions with a positive impact on environmental sustainability, while an economic market analysis provides data on current digitainability value creation and shows its potential for 2030. Building on these analyses, the study proposes options
for using digital technologies to further improve environmental sustainability.