Going digital and keeping it green: here’s how!
Digital tools enable you to reach and attract new audiences, but there is a certain cost to the environment. After all, digital data and online traffic use up a lot of energy, as do storing archives and developing new digital productions. Still, the cultural sector cannot lag behind in today’s increasingly digital society. So how to go digital but in a sustainable manner? Read on to find out.
What is a sustainable digital culture?
Very briefly: it’s a digital culture that keeps its environmental footprint as small as possible, and that contributes as much as possible to a sustainable, futureproof, liveable planet for people, animals and plants. Sustainable development meets the needs of the current generations, without adversely affecting future generations.
For cultural organisations, this means binding the new ‘digital native’ audiences, but using a sustainable approach. New generations want and expect the digital world to be part of their experience, and it also enables you to bind older people for longer. So it’s a great opportunity, but how to combine this with care for the planet?
3 steps for a sustainable approach
Cultural organisations that engage with digital transformation have an eye for the past, the present and the future. The past is a source of inspiration for new stories and creates today’s reality, with opportunities for the future. By finding a balance between new digital value creation and the planet, you can care for the future and build a futureproof organisation.
Three steps to sustainable digital transformation:
Start with operational processes
Implement energy-saving measures in your digital services and data storage. For instance, you can collaborate efficiently on digital documents, which saves having to email documents back and forth. Also examine your website: by reducing image size wherever possible, your website uses less data while speeding up navigation, which improves the user’s experience.
Go for re-use and multi-use
Sometimes it might not be possible to further reduce your environmental impact, but then instead you can put it to better use. Consider your digital archive, for example. It uses a lot of energy, but also enables new value creation. For instance, you can open up stories from the past through digital storytelling, or you can make your archive accessible to visitors online. This way, you can derive more value from your collection with the same (or only slightly larger) footprint.
Choose green options
Sustainable choices can be made in all sorts of ways and areas, also in the digital world. You can re-use hardware and software, can check the footprint of your software supplier, can empty your email bins at a fixed moment every week, and can choose to chat instead of exchanging emails.
“200 surveyed organisations in the Netherlands rate the importance of increasing sustainability in the coming years with an 8.8 on average”
Contribute and win over the new audience
How to combine digitalisation with a greener, more sustainable world? At DEN we believe in using your platform in positive ways. Tomorrow’s audience, such as Generation Z, increasingly attaches more value to organisations that contribute to a better world. By setting the right example as cultural organisation and by making green choices within the digital world, you can inspire others and attract the interest of this audience.
Find out more about the audience of the future
Who is Gen Z? What drives them? And how can you respond to a changeable future? DEN helps you to find out more with the theme of the Audience of the Future. We share knowledge, inspiration and tools to prepare your organisation for an audience that is radically different to what you’ve been accustomed to.
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Sources
Read about sustainability in the Boekmanstichting’s Cultuurmonitor.
Discover the definition of sustainability and more at Statistics Netherlands (CBS).
