Digital4Sustainability Learning Path

About this course

We live in a technologically advanced world, spending more than a third of our lives in front of a screen, connected with people and places across the planet — witnesses to the escalating catastrophes caused by socio-environmental degradation. Despite the power technology affords us, despite the heatwaves and hurricanes, and despite the growing alarm, we are failing to leverage the potential of digital technologies to make our world more sustainable, equitable and peaceful. Governments, businesses, civil society and individuals have choices to make in harnessing and managing new technologies to safeguard the environment and human freedoms.

The Digital4Sustainability Learning Path has been developed through a joint partnership between UNEP and the UN System Staff College (UNSSC) in collaboration with GIZ, the EU, the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability (CODES) and the Office of the UN Technology Envoy. The CODES Action Plan for a Sustainable Planet in the Digital Age has inspired the content.

Target audience

The Digital4Sustainability Learning Path is open to anyone curious to explore the answers to “what is the role technology can play in advancing sustainable outcomes and what steps will be needed to get us there?

Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of the learning path, participants will understand:

• Key concepts, including digitalization, digital transformation, and digital sustainability
• The role of digital transformation in countering the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss and pollution
• How to leverage the potential of digital transformation in advancing sustainability using a systems approach
• The negative impacts of digital transformation and how to mitigate them to ensure sustainability.