Introduction
Environmental sustainability is the process by which an organisation maintains the practices and factors that affect the quality of its environment. For an organisation to achieve a sustainable environment, it must combine its social, economic and environmental factors and integrate them so that they are all geared towards achieving the overall goal of the organisation. Balancing all these factors and then participating within an organisations community helps it to be environmentally stable. The most important aspect of success in an organisation is the availability of information that is relevant and maintenance of the information. Information Systems (IS) can be used to integrate all the information that an organisation needs so as to create and maintain a sustainable environment. This paper will seek to analyse the role of information systems in an environmentally sustainable future.
Trends, Impacts, and Importance of Environmental Sustainability
For an organisation to achieve environmental sustainability, it must integrate all those aspects that affect its environment and balance them so that all these aspects are geared towards achieving the same goal. Proper communication of information to all stakeholders is also necessary. Proper interaction between people, data, processes, and technology helps in maintaining an environment that is sustainable for the operations of an organisation. Information systems deals with the communication of the data that is required at any period of time. Development in technology has led to the invention of the computers which are used to store and maintain information without wastage of space and time. Many organisations are using information to manage data that is important for the organisations both today and in the future. Several organisations have also emerged and are competing against each other and the one that will emerge successful is the one that will be able to create a sustainable environment for its operations (Felleman 2008, p.13). The impact of environmental sustainability to an organisation is that the organisation reaches its intended goals both in its operations and in meeting its customers’ needs. It also helps an organisation have competitive advantage over other organisations. Environmental sustainability is important to an organisation because it helps the organisation’s society to benefit today and those generations who will come in the future will also benefit.
Information Systems and Environmental Sustainability
The factors that affect an organisation range from internal to external environment that are both important to the organisation. Information about suppliers, activities, plans, etc. by an organisation need to be maintained and it is retrieved frequently. Some messages also need to be communicated to different stakeholders at specific periods of time. Different departments need to share some data and communicate some data for efficient operations in an organisation (Mendelson 2002, p.305). Information systems integrate all these aspects into one system that is used to store and retrieve information, help individuals in an organisation interact, help in implementation of new technologies into the system, etc. For an organisation to achieve environmental sustainability, it needs to have several computers that are interconnected to help in sharing of information (Doppelt 2006, p.180). A well designed database will then be developed and the software will be installed in all the computers that are used in the organisation. This helps save time because information that used to be entered many times in different computer systems will only need to be entered once and shared in the database. Any other person who needs the information can access it in the database.
Retrieval of information is also very easy when using the computer because the information is stored in a specific place in the computers. Information systems will also help an organisation develop a website where it will be placing some information that it needs to communicate to the public. Information systems therefore help an organisation to interact with the public (Loucks 2005, p.120). This helps it to keep in touch with stakeholders whom it needs in order to succeed. In general, information systems help an organisation achieve environmental sustainability that not only helps the society not only today but also in future.
Many organisations have been working towards achieving environmental sustainability and this has led to the use of information systems by almost all organisations. The has created more demand on information systems and experts in the field are working day and night to design the best information systems that will help organisations achieve environmental sustainability (Berkhout & Hertin 2001, p.11). Many organisations have also created an information technology department that that deals with the integration of information that circulates in the organisation.
Conclusion
The quality of the environment in which an organisation does its operations is very important to the organisation. Maintaining this environment is even more important because it will benefit the organisation even in the future. Many organisations integrate social, economic, and environmental factors that affect them helping them achieve environmental sustainability. The most important aspect is maintaining the information that is related to these factors and integrating it in the organisations database. Information systems help in the integration and easy retrieval of information. It also helps in saving time which is very precious for many organisations. It helps an organisation meet its intended goals and have competitive advantage over other competitors. In general, information systems help organisations achieve environmental sustainability.
Reference List
Berkhout, F. & Hertin, J., 2001. Impacts of Information and Communication Technologies on Environmental Sustainability: Speculations and Evidence [Online]. Web.
Doppelt, B., 2006. Leading Change towards sustainability: A Change Management Guide for Business, Government and Civil Society. New Jersey: Greenleaf Publishing, 179-181.
Felleman, J., 2008. Deep information: The Role of Information Policy in Environmental Sustainability. London: Greenwood Publishing Group, 12-16.
Loucks, L. O., 2005. Sustainability Perspectives for Resources and Business. New York: CRC Press, 118-121.
Mendelson, H., 2002. Information Systems and the organisation of modern Enterprise. Journal of Organisational Computing, 4(2), Pp: 302-309.