Digital transformation and sustainability have quickly become the latest buzzwords to emerge in the global business landscape, and for good reason. In light of the global pandemic, businesses have been forced to pivot, reinvent, and adapt their strategies to meet emerging challenges in ways that ensure survival and continuous growth.
Digital transformation is the smart and strategic integration of digital technologies, processes, and competencies across all levels of an organisation or industry that brings about a change in culture, organisation, and operations to provide more value to customers. It has been a life-line for businesses in the past year, as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) have proven to keep entire industries afloat with reduced staff and various limitations, all while keeping costs down. Global spending on digital transformation reached $2.5 trillion in 2024 and is set to reach $3.9 trillion by 2027, demonstrating the scale of this shift.
At the same time, our collective drive toward a greener and more sustainable world has been pushed into the mainstream (thanks Greta), and businesses too are being expected to actively play their role in ensuring its success. In this sense, the idea of sustainability is divided into three categories: economic, social, and of course, environmental.
So how can digital transformation help each of the pillars to create a more sustainable world?
Economic sustainability
Today, investors and customers alike want to support organisations that are eco-friendly and offer sustainable operational methods and greener supply chains. The success of sustainability apps is evidence of the growing trend of people across the globe advocating for ethical ways of living. These organisations define themselves by having high Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ratings, and businesses that partner with them are ‘green by association’ and practice, and are showing increased profitability than their non-green competitors.
Global ESG fund assets remained steady at $3.16 trillion as of March 2025, despite facing challenging market conditions. Remarkably, businesses that integrate sustainability into their digital transformation strategies could unlock up to $3 trillion in annual value by 2030. Furthermore, sustainability initiatives are projected to influence 30% of digital transformation expenditures in 2025, underscoring the increasing integration of sustainability goals within digital strategies.
Now more than ever, businesses are flouting their sustainability and corporate responsibility to align to the mainstream mindset that ‘green is good’, and investors are voting with their cash injections.
Social sustainability
The modern advancements of digital technologies plays a continuously crucial role in delivering efficiency, accuracy, and reliability in almost every global industry today. AI, ML, and RPA serve our social sustainability endeavours in various ways, making our personal and professional lives easier everyday. AI and ML is being used in the healthcare and education fields to add value to people’s lives, from helping to perform early stage diagnosis and serving as a personalised educational tutor.
The shift towards remote and hybrid working has fundamentally changed how we approach work and sustainability. Business being conducted via teleconference and instant messaging results in a significant reduction of carbon emissions from daily commutes and less energy feeding large office buildings. A recent study analysing 1,510 global companies from 2013-2023 revealed that digital transformation positively influences both IT innovation and strategic business model development, confirming its direct impact on firm performance.
This demonstrates that digital transformation not only makes our lives easier but dramatically reduces our collective carbon footprint whilst maintaining productivity and innovation.
Environmental sustainability
In order to lure eco-friendly investors, businesses can use a drive toward sustainability as a catalyst for adopting digital transformation within their organisational procedures. As the pressure mounts for businesses to adopt sustainable practices and procedures, technologies such as AI, ML, predictive analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT) are playing a crucial role in facilitating sustainability initiatives within the global business landscape.
Global investment in clean energy reached an all-time high of $2 trillion in 2024, double the level of fossil fuel investment. These technologies are being deployed in remarkable ways:
- AI assists with boosting disaster response efficiency and accuracy, helps to reduce air pollution via automation, drives the affordability of renewable energy, and makes more energy-efficient buildings and smart cities
- ML and analytics are deployed to automate processes with large-scale environmental impact (precision agriculture and irrigation), provide predictive insights and modelling to inform legislation, and provide renewable energy forecasts and materials
- IoT devices help collect data to monitor, analyse and assess environmental impacts
Digital transformation can help businesses reduce their environmental impact by up to 10% by optimising processes and reducing paper usage, demonstrating tangible results from technology integration.
Summary
As you can see, the path to a more sustainable world lies in the increased adoption and deployment of digital transformation within global businesses. In order for businesses to remain profitable, they need to employ digital transformation strategies and procedures to lower their carbon footprint and attract eco-minded investors.
With digital technologies such as AI, ML, RPA, predictive analytics, and IoT playing an already crucial role in the fight against climate change and an overall drive toward sustainability on a global scale, businesses need to incorporate these into thor digital transformation strategies to play their role.
