  The advent of digital technologies such as social media, mobile, analytics,
cloud computing and internet-of-things has provided unique opportunities for
organizations to engage in innovations that are affordable, easy-to-use,
easy-to-learn and easy-to-implement. Transformations through such technologies
often have positive impacts on business processes, products and services. As
such, organizations have managed to increase productivity and efficiency,
reduce cycle time and make substantial gains through digital transformation.
Such transformations have also been positively associated with reducing harmful
environmental impacts by providing organizations alternative ways of
undertaking their business activities. However, in recent times, especially
with an abundance of technologies being available at near-zero costs, questions
regarding the potential negative impacts of digital transformation on the
environment have arisen. The morass of the ubiquitous technologies around us
necessitates the continuing creation of large data centers, that are increasing
their capacity yielding a negative impact on the environment. Considering this
dialectical contradiction, a panel was conducted at the Australasian Conference
on Information Systems (ACIS) in Perth, Australia, in 2019. Its aim was to
invigorate the dialogue regarding the impact of digital transformation on
environmental sustainability and suggested some directions for future research
in this area.
