As a subcontractor to Öko-Institut e.V., EBP has compiled a comprehensive overview of the current applications of digital technologies in individual infrastructure sectors and identified relevant environmental potential.

While digitalization is already well advanced in many areas of society, the technical assessment of its associated environmental effects is still in its infancy. From an environmental policy perspective, it is crucial to determine how to ensure that the environmental potential of digitalization can be realized while avoiding environmental risks. A sustainable infrastructure system should not only be socially and environmentally compatible, but also, and above all, resilient to disruptions.

The project will examine the current need for action to harness the digital transformation in the infrastructure sector for environmental protection. The focus will be on the possibilities for networking and intelligent control of infrastructure through information and communication technologies, while also taking into account the technical, legal, and organizational-institutional framework conditions. The aim is to develop a basis for assessing where decisions need to be made today from an environmental policy perspective.

We outline the forward-looking developments in various sectors (primarily water/wastewater, energy, waste, transport/mobility) that are already anticipated today thanks to the new possibilities offered by ICT, and identify areas with particular potential for environmental protection and nature conservation. We begin by determining this potential in a quantitative online survey of selected representative municipalities and municipal companies. We then develop a series of scenarios, which we evaluate in terms of their technical feasibility, their direct and indirect environmental effects, and their contribution to sustainable economic development. Particular attention will be paid to integrated, cross-sectoral approaches. Finally, proposals on the topic of open data versus data security for a future data regime will be developed.