Sustainable technology is one of the major trends that has been transforming and changing not only the technology and software development sector but also society worldwide. This is because this movement combines two of the biggest points today: The digitalization trend in today’s society and the environmental need to create solutions that contribute to sustainability in our society. Let's review what this trend is about and how it is currently being applied.

What do we mean when we talk about sustainable technology or Tech for Good?

When we talk about sustainable technology there is a common factor through the different definitions that may exist: Digital solutions focused on contributing to society and the environment. For example, the World Economic Forum defines Tech for Good as the “Descriptor of the space where technology is deployed to take on major social and environmental problems.”  Gartner defines it as the "Digital Solution Framework that Drives Environmental, Social and Governance Outcomes."

In short, sustainable technology or tech for good refers to the diversity of solutions that seek to solve social or environmental problems through technology. The growth of this trend is due to the growth of sustainable technology initiatives and is that by 2025 it is expected that 50% of CIOs will have performance indicators linked to the sustainability of the Department of Information Technology.

Evolution of sustainable technology and Tech for Good

One cannot talk about the evolution or emergence of sustainable technology or tech for good without talking about the emergence of environmental movements in the third quarter of the 20th century, specifically in the 60s and 70s. where awareness of environmental crises and pollution begins to grow. In the 70s, the emergence of organizations such as Greenpeace began and are still dedicated to raising awareness about environmental crises, protesting against activities that go against the environment and making sustainable projects.

In the 80s, the whole issue of waste cleaning, waste water cleaning began, along with the growth of a focus on energy efficiency, which is key to what we know today as sustainable technology. In these years, key energy advances were seen in appliances, vehicles and others. At the end of the 20th century, countries’ commitment to addressing environmental crises and climate change began with meetings such as the Earth Summit, which aimed to focus attention on environmental crises.

In the 2000s all the popularization of hybrid and electric cars and the growth of them began. The year 2015 saw great progress with the climate agreement and the creation of the sustainable development goals. At present, with the emergence of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and so on has started the phenomenon of sustainable technology to create digital solutions to address environmental needs such as the current high focus on creating solutions that help clean and circular technology. Currently, different regulations have been created to increase the adoption of clean technologies and increase investment in research and development. Today, sustainable technology is one of the fastest growing trends with the potential to revolutionize not only the software development industry but also our entire society.

Various applications are found

Currently sustainable technology has different branches and different use cases where different digital solutions are developed to address different sustainable objectives. Below, we will review some of the uses of sustainable technology that can be seen today:

• - Digital signature: These solutions seek to address one of the most latent needs, paper saving. Currently we find different tools that allow the electronic signature of different documents such as DocuSign, Adobe and more. They are used for signatures of different documents such as contracts.

• - Artificial Intelligence & Big Data: According to  Nature, AI can facilitate the fulfillment of 79% of the Sustainable Development Goals. And that is, through artificial intelligence and the data that is collected, different sustainability solutions can be created such as smart agriculture, traffic management, etc. supply chain optimization and many more solutions.

• - Software for energy management: There are many software developments that are focused on better managing energy consumption. For example: Operating systems that adjust performance according to the user.

• - Green Cloud Computing: The use of cloud computing is also a sustainable technology solution as it allows to eliminate or reduce the use of physical storage devices by reducing aspects such as carbon emissions.

• - 5G networks: 5G networks represent a sustainable technology solution since it reduces the energy consumption of the devices by giving them more useful life.

• - Renewable energies: One of the great bets of sustainable technology. There are currently several renewable energy solutions that allow companies to reduce their energy consumption footprints.

• - Developments focused on sustainable good practices: Many of the software developments currently focus on creating digital tools that foster sustainable good practices. An example of this is One Drop, a mobile development focused on promoting good practices related to water use. You can know a little more here.

There are currently different cases in which sustainable technology is being used to address different environmental and social issues and the trend indicates that this is only beginning and aims to continue growing.

More and more industries are joining

Every day, the use of tech for Good increases in different industries to optimize the environmental footprint in each of their processes. Some of the industries that apply some kind of sustainable technology:

• - Consumpition industries: They use sustainable technology to optimize their supply chains, improve their resource management, and reuse production materials

• - Energy industry: Not only do they use renewable energy but they also create solutions for energy storage.

• - Construction industry: The construction industry not only uses sustainable technology in the final product that are green buildings but also in the efficient management of sustainable resources and materials.

• - Agriculture & Food: Variety of solutions focused on smart agriculture and having a supply chain with traceability.

• - Fashion: Sustainable fashion in the use of materials as well as the use of technologies for fabrics.

• - Technology: Solutions for energy efficiency in the technological devices we use every day.

These are just some of the industries that have joined the sustainable technology movement and as we can see, this continues to grow so we only have one question left to ask.

What can we expect from sustainable technology in the future?

Various opportunities

As we have seen, this technological trend is just beginning to grow and in the future we can expect different aspects such as:

• 1. New innovations emerge to address issues such as energy efficiency, carbon emissions, resource management and more. In addition to innovations to address problems that are not currently addressed.

• 2. Increases in the use and adoption of sustainable technologies by companies or the general public.

• 3. Growth in investments for the development of sustainable solutions. We will look at different ways of financing sustainable projects

• 4. An increase in regulations that encourage the development of sustainable technologies as well as the beginning of many more spaces for collaboration between companies, countries and more.

Challenges of sustainable technology

But at the same time that there are numerous opportunities for sustainable technology, it also faces various challenges such as:

• - Need to create schemes or coordination between companies to achieve greater adoption of these technologies.

• - Increase of skilled labor or talent for the various sustainable developments.

• - Achieve greater cost accessibility for sustainable technology developments.

• - Establish clear policies and regulations that encourage the development of sustainable digital solutions.

• - Achieving accessibility to sustainable technologies in an equitable manner.

• - Increased research to ensure continuous innovation in sustainable developments.

Sustainable technology is growing steadily and there are still a number of environmental, social and economic issues that can be addressed through technology. This phenomenon will continue to revolutionize society and various industries such as software development while new technologies and new needs continue to emerge that can be addressed through tech for good.