Building digital resilience for the climate crisis

Campus Plus is introducing another Australian Government Department of Education National Industry PhD Program PhD industry-academia collaboration that brings together The University of Queensland‘s Christoph Breidbach, PhD candidate Alexander Twigg and Appeggio‘s Melissa Ladd on a project exploring how to build digital resilience during climate crisis.

Climate change is an existential challenge for humankind. In response to its adverse effects, organisations increasingly use IT to achieve digital resilience of their operations; eg by duplicating IT systems in-house. However, such approaches increase carbon emissions and create socio-environmental problems due to the resource-intensive and often unethical production, operation and eventual disposal of soon-outdated IT systems.

This project explores how a new strategy called ‘Everything-as-a-Service’ (EaaS) can enhance Australian businesses’ digital resilience and environmental sustainability. By studying how EaaS shifts in-house IT ownership and operation to a service-centric model, and by facilitating this process using ‘no-code’ platforms, this project will provide empirically derived knowledge and tools guiding practitioners needing to cope with, and prepare for, climate change. The project’s impact thus extends beyond academia by helping Australian businesses build digital resilience, reduce carbon emissions and contribute to a more sustainable future for all.