Digital Europe: E-commerce and Sustainable Development

Deliverables

"Cymru-Ar-Lein and sustainable development" is a case study report with the Welsh Assembly Government looking at the scope for exploiting synergies between epolicies and sustainable development policies. The case study assesses the economic, social and environmental implications of four specific Cymru Ar-Lein initiatives, which are described below. ECommunities in Wales: The eCommunities Programme will initially target the most deprived areas of Wales encompassing all of the Objective 1 status communities that also come in the most deprived 100 areas as measured by the Assemblys Multiple Index of Deprivation. Two models of eCommunity are possible. One where home internet access is provided in a community and another where access to technology and information is provided by a community access points. Eprocurement in Wales: Total procurement of Assembly sponsored bodies is in excess of £3 billion per year. Following the publication of Better Value Wales, the review of procurement in the Welsh public sector, the Assembly Government accepted recommendations to -develop an e-procurement system (WAG, 2001b). Several pilots are already in operation and stage one of the e-procurement site, an all Wales procurement website, is on track to be launched in summer 2003. One reason for implementing e-procurement is the opportunity it presents for local suppliers in Wales. Cymru Arlein states: In order to stimulate Welsh e-businesses and improve economic and environmental sustainability it is essential that we develop ways of using ICT to stimulate increased procurement within Wales. Broadband for lifelong learning: Cymru Ar-lein includes an objective to Improve ICT facilities in all training and education establishments and enable effective use of these facilities. In July 2002 the Assembly Government announced £100m to provide a core high-speed broadband network for local authorities to connect all schools, libraries and community learning centres. The Assembly Government has commissioned Logical (UK) Ltd to create a broadband Lifelong Learning Network for Wales. This will provide high-speed broadband internet access into each local authority, building on existing further and higher education provision. Joint Initiative for Government Services Across Wales (JIGSAW): JIGSAW is an initiative of the Wales Agriculture Department to modernise its service delivery to farmers throughout Wales. Better use of Information Technology is seen as key to this modernisation process, which began in 2000 and is due to be complete by 2003. The aim is to provide joined up services to farmers through automating administration processes. This will involve using the internet for farmers claim submissions under the EU Common Agricultural Policy and creating digital GIS records to verify land area data which is required to process claims.

"ERegions: Sustainable regional development in Europe" is a report focusing on the impact of ICT intensity on spatial patterns of development in Europe with analysis at the EU level and across Italian provincia. The objective of the analysis was to look at the potential impact of ICT on regional growth and convergence. We have addressed two different questions: - Will market forces alone deliver a more balanced spatial development or will they create a new digital divide between EU regions? In particular: -- To what extent digital technologies have a clustering impact? -- To what extent the gravity power of European core changes in the new digital age? ie, if clusters do characterise the digital economy as well as the traditional one, are the new patterns simply reproducing traditional divides? - What is the role of public initiatives? Using econometric analysis we have addressed Question 1 both at member state level and Italian level (counties) focusing on broad policy questions. Using a comparative case-study (Piedmont, Ruhr and Wales) we have analysed in detail more specific policy measures (Question 2). The issues addressed are relevant for two strategic objectives of the European Union. Firstly, the European Union is committed to achieving regional cohesion (EC Treaty, Art 158). Secondly, the adoption of the Lisbon strategy set the strategic objective for Europe to become the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world. The contemporaneous launch of the e-Europe Action plan recognises that ICT plays an essential role in the transformation. Research results show the existence of both complementarities and trade-offs between the two objectives. On the one hand, as far as the ICT-dimension of the change is concerned, the empirical evidences provided seem to show that the increasing use of ICT in the economy will lead to greater dispersion of economic activity, i.e. less regional disparities. This would suggest that policies fostering the adoption of ICT by industries and regions would indeed favour a more geographically cohesive Europe. On the other hand, there is evidence that the parallel shift towards more knowledge- and skill-intensive activities might counterbalance this dispersion effect. This effect points out a potential important trade-off in European policies: the shift towards the knowledge-based European economy envisaged in Lisbon might result in less regional cohesion. As said above, clustering is not the only dimension we looked at. An eventual clustering of ICT and new industries does not automatically lead to a reinforcement of the traditional regional imbalances. If ICT and new activities cluster in the periphery, this would rather contribute to the creation of a multi-centric Europe as envisaged in the European Spatial Development Perspective (EC, 1999). There is some evidence suggesting that this might actually be the case: some peripheral EU countries such as Finland, Ireland and Sweden are the most specialised in ICT in the EU, with respect to a variety of measures of ICT specialisation, such as the share of ICT in the total manufacturing exports, in gross value added, and in R&D (OECD, 2000; Koski at al., 2000). Our econometric analysis broadly confirms this view. However, results are still statistically weak and should be considered only tentative. More research is needed. The final line of research concerned the elaboration of policies for fostering long-term growth at regional level: the econometric results suggest that regional policies aimed at attracting low-skill functions (such as call centres) in ICT-intensive industries are likely to fail in creating new clusters, as agglomeration forces for ICT-intensive, low-skill activities are weak (Kolko, 2001). In this sense, high-IT industries are unlikely to offer poorer countries long-term sustainable economic growth (Kolko, 2001, p 18), as poorer countries and regions have stronger comparative advantage in low-skilled rather than high-skilled labour. Policies should be rather aimed at improving the local education and research system in peripheral regions. The case of Ruhr in Germany (see comparative case-studies report) or Oulu in Finland (Cooke, 2002) shows that this strategy might indeed be, in some cases, successful.

"Virtual Dematerialisation: E-business and Factor X" is a report focusing on the contribution of ICT to improvements in resource efficiency and transport intensity at the macro, meso and micro levels. This paper presents the research on environmental effects of e-business and e-work. The research strand explored the implication of ICT and its applications from the micro- (case study), meso- (different e-business types) and macro-level (macro-economic and policy level). The macro-analysis-module aimed at quantifying the potential contribution of e-business and ICT to dematerialisation and resource productivity. The analysis followed a top-down approach complementary to the case study based microanalyses. It compromised the analysis of energy-use and selected material flows (CO(2)) of three EU Member States to determine whether there is any macro-level evidence of dematerialization and increased resource productivity resulting from e-business and ICT. From a micro and meso level perspective, the research object has been the provision of new IT based applications instead of traditional products, services and customs (e-commerce and telework). The research quantified the resource- and transport efficiency of e-business in different case studies and identified key factors determining the impact on resource- and transport efficiency.

"Social Responsibility in the Information Society" is a report focusing on the risks and opportunities for business and social capital created by the integration of ICT into society and the eight features of the Information Society. The case study in collaboration with AOL Europe investigates the potential contribution of business to digital inclusion. The case study identifies the following demand and supply side barriers to promoting digital inclusion: Demand-side barriers: Lack of demand A significant proportion of EU citizens is not online and hqs no interest in being online. Traditionally excluded groups are over-represented among those who are not motivated to go online. Of the 27% of non-users in the EU who are not interested or dont want to use the internet, 40% are retired, 39% are on a low income and 31% are based in home (European Commission, 2001). Ignoring them will only further limit their opportunity to benefit from online opportunities. Resistance to public internet access points Public internet access points (PIAPs) are intended to provide a first point of contact with the internet. The term refers to publicly funded internet access terminals in libraries and community centres, privately run internet cafes and internet access kiosks. But PIAPs are not fulfilling their function - 41% of non-users are not interested in public access points under any circumstances. In fact, a study by OFTEL indicates that alternative access points are more popular among people who already have internet access at home (Oftel, 2002). Lack of awareness Experience in the UK, the only EU country so far to pursue a mass media internet awareness campaign suggest that ongoing resistance to the internet could benefit from a high profile awareness raising campaign. Internet penetration among low-income individuals in the UK is higher than expected, indicating the success of the UK Online campaign (Booz Allen Hamilton, 2002). Perceived cost The low perceived value of the internet among non-users makes cost, or at least perceived cost, a significant barrier to internet access. 47 % of non-users in Germany feel that the cost of access is too high (Kubicek, 2000). In the US, 11 % of non-users stopped going online due to high costs, and in the UK, cost prevents 8 % of non-users going online (Lenhart et al, 2000)(Office of National Statistics, 2001a). When decisions have to be made about how limited household income is spent, perceived value is all-important. Supply-side barriers: Inadequate public internet access points The availability of PIAPS varies dramatically across the EU from 0.45 per 1000 inhabitants in Finland to fewer than 0.05 per 1000 inhabitants in France (European Commission, 2001). There are some noteworthy examples of PIAPs but they are often beset by problems, including: insufficient personnel to offer adequate training; precarious finances that threaten long term sustainability; and outdated or insufficient technology. Real cost For Europes lowest income earners, the real price of computer hardware remains a barrier. Estimates are that 15% of the UK population cannot afford to purchase a computer (Department for Education and Skills, 2001). This figure will be far higher in the candidate countries. Limited availability of flat rate in Europe Evidence is mounting that online behaviour develops as usage increases. Experienced internet users spend a larger proportion of time online sending emails, doing professional work, looking for news or trading stocks, whilst new users spend a greater proportion of time in chat rooms, playing games and browsing (UCLA, 2001). Time spent online is strongly influenced by pricing packages. In countries with metered access charges, the average person spends 5 to 9 hours a month online. This compares with 32 hours in the USA and 20 hours in New Zealand where a large proportion of users have flat rate access (OECD, 2001). Giving all EU citizens the choice of flat rate narrow band internet access poses a regulatory challenge. Lack of relevant content Research indicates that there is still a shortage of content to motivate disadvantaged groups online. A study by The Childrens Partnership in the US identified four content-related barriers to getting disadvantaged communities online. There is a real lack of relevant, particularly local, information and very limited cultural diversity in the content available online. Information is still overwhelmingly in English and tends to be designed for an audience with average or advanced literacy skills (The Childrens Partnership, 2001).

"The environmental and social impacts of e-banking" is a case study report with Barclays plc comparing the environmental impact of bill payment online and through a traditional branch network and outlining the social impacts of online banking. At first sight a virtual product or service such as e-banking seems to have no environmental impacts: no paper cheques or statements, no bank branch, and no petrol used in getting to and from the bank. However, compare the environmental impacts of paying a bill online and paying it in at a bank branch by calculating the ecological backpack of the different scenarios. The branch scenario has a backpack of 2.76kg and the online scenario 1kg. E-bankings backpack may be smaller but it is still significant, roughly equal to the ecological backpack of producing four aluminium drinks cans. E-banking may have no branches yet it still requires administration, offices and the considerable infrastructure of the internet as well as the users ICT device. The most significant element in both scenarios is the impact of electricity usage: half of e-bankings backpack and two-thirds of branch bankings backpack. Moreover, this is not a question of either/or: one kind of banking does not substitute another. Firstly, branches offer services that e-banking finds difficult such as face-to-face advice and cash payments. Secondly, not everyone has access to the facilities to bank online. Therefore e-banking is likely to have an additional effect as the infrastructure for e-banking and branch banking are both required.

"Mobile telephony and sustainable development" is a case study report with Vodafone looking at the contribution of mobile telephony to more sustainable development in Poland and other EU accession countries. The case study focuses on Poland, a country facing a number of social and economic challenges, and where access to telephone connectivity is relatively low. Here, and across the world where similar conditions prevail, pro-active engagement in addressing the latter of these issues could have a noticeable affects on the former. Research in Poland revealed that in 1989 when Poland had its first free elections, telephone penetration was extremely low, with only Albania in Europe worse off. Since then, the number of phones per hundred people has increased to around 30 per cent, but this is still low compared to the rest of Europe. There are a number of other problems with fixed line telephones in Poland: - Waiting lists for a new fixed line connection are around seventeen months; - Regional discrepancies are great: in cities, penetration of fixed line phones is almost twice as high as it is in rural areas; in the south-east of Poland, fixed line penetration dips below 16 %. - The rate of growth has slowed: whereas in the late nineties there were around a million new connections made each year, in 2000 only 500,000 new fixed line connections were made by TPSA, and in 2001 this declined to 300,000. A recent article in the Warsaw Business Journal stated that "There has been a significant reduction in the number of new fixed-line telephones, and demand for fixed-line telephony components has fallen by a third". Mobile operators have been more successful in bringing telephone connectivity to people in Poland, in a relatively short period of time. There are now very few areas in Poland where a mobile won't work. Mobile networks now cover 94% of the geographic area of Poland, and 98% of the population. The percentage of Poles using mobiles has gone up from around 26% when the project's research in Poland began, to over thirty % when the report was nearing completion in early 2003. Use of mobiles in Polish big business is also quite striking. The case study also investigated the importance of social capital and how ICT, and in particular mobile phones, could contribute. There are three key features of mobile phones that make them significant for social capital. - Portability The mobile allows users to be perpetually in contact with whoever they choose to be (as long as they have a mobile too), independent of place. The mobile increases the accessibility of users, allowing them to maintain regular contact with those who are most important to them, and to manage a wider network of associations. Added features of the mobile telephone, such as caller identification, give control of this accessibility most definitely to the phone owner. - Individual ownership Whereas the standard model of ownership of the fixed line telephone has been based on households or groups (except sometimes in an office environment), mobiles are usually owned by individuals. This is a necessity stemming from the portability of the device, making it difficult to share. Thus a mobile telephone number is a code for direct access to one person, bypassing that person's family, flatmate, partner or friends. - Text messaging Texting is a qualitatively different type of communication from anything that has existed before. It is used to communicate things that would not always justify a voice call, such as simple greetings or expressions of emotion. As the Finnish social scientist Timo Kopomaa puts it, "the threshold for making contact is lower".

"The environmental and social impacts of digital music" s a case study report with EMI comparing the environmental impact of buying a physical CD compared to downloading a CDs worth of music and outlining the social impacts of digital music. The case study assesses the environmental and social impacts of digital music. Downloading 56 minutes of music (compressed to a file size of about 56MB) over the internet is more than two and a half times less resource intensive than going to a shop to buy a CD, even if the music is burnt onto a CD-R. Downloading 56 minutes of music (compressed to a file size of about 56MB) is also two times less resource intensive than buying a CD online, even if the music is burnt onto a CD-R. The above two calculations are based on the following assumptions: a fast internet connection is used; there is no additional consumption of music; and less than 10 per cent of the storage capacity of the CD-R is used. A different set of assumptions could reverse the above conclusion. A slow connection speed, use of a entire CD-R for just 56 minutes of music or unselective downloading could lead to higher resource consumption than in the physical retail or online shopping scenarios. In the physical retail and online shopping scenarios where there is a physical product, production sites contribute a relatively small amount to overall resource intensity due to the fact that a large number of CDs are produced at once. In contrast, buildings with a lower turn-over of CDs (such as National Distribution Centres and CD shops) make a significant contribution to overall resource intensity. Consumer trips by car are the third highest contributor to material intensity in the physical retail scenario. In contrast, as we can see in Table 1 transport from producer to retailer is insignificant due to scale effects. It is too early in the uptake of digital music to identify clear social impacts. However some trends can be identified, and the research concentrated on the opportunities and risks of these emerging trends. The case study identified four key areas where the development of digital music is creating social opportunities and risks: - Access to music - New opportunities for creativity - Promoting diversity - Participation

"Making the Net Work: Steps towards a sustainable networked world" is a summary of 14 key findings and conclusions from the project with specific recommendations for government and business. The objective of the summary report is to provide decision makers with an easily accessible overview of the project and targeted recommendations. The summary uses illustrations to make the publication more appealing. It is structured around the following fourteen questions that draw on the key findings of the project. - Do smaller products use less stuff? - Do virtual products have physical impacts? - Who is responsible - business and consumers? - Can ICT boost Europe's poorer regions? - Where is the value in remote working? - If we are connected, are we all included? - What can mobile do for access? - What are the benefits of broadband? - Can ICT overcome distance? - Is the networked society a trusting society? - Is e-business good business? - Does the networked world change the rules for CSR? - How de we deal with change? - What happens when environmental and social effects conflict?

"Comparative Regional Case study" is a case study report comparing the e-performance of Wales, Piemonte and the Ruhr and the effectiveness of different strategic approaches to the use of ICT for regional development. This comparative case study intends to support the macro-level analysis outlined in the theme report by providing micro-level evidence of the factors influencing the location and development of e-business. In particular, the comparative case-study will complement the theme report focusing on micro aspects concerning human capital, knowledge spillovers, infrastructures issues and will concentrate on specific policy measures. The case study focuses on three regions: Piedmont (IT), Wales (UK) and the Ruhr (DE), which have a solid industrial tradition, but whose business environment and society are in the process of adapting to the digital economy. The Ruhr has been successful in creating new businesses, helped by the public effort to foster the development of ICT. For example, in the Ruhr there are 30 public-funded incubators (out of 60 in the whole of North-Rhine Westphalia), much more than in Piedmont (where just now the Torino Wireless project is being launched). In Wales, several public programmes targeted at reducing the digital divide have been launched. In Piedmont, initiatives are mainly coming from the private side. Positive factors for the Ruhr are also a denser network of relationships (the region is much smaller and therefore more concentrated) and the presence of VC/incubators (even though less than in other cities in Germany, still more than in Piedmont). Besides, there is the excellent German performance in computing services. The results confirm the importance of a local network of tertiary formation and research institutions, particularly if there are close relationships and exchanges between the two worlds. In the Ruhr area, the strong public effort to foster ICT development seems having some success in waving those weaknesses that characterise the area with respect to Piedmont, such as the less articulated economic structure (with predominance of big firms) generally less oriented towards innovation (steel and coal vs. mechanical engineering). Wales ICT planification policy is necessary to compensate a still relatively weak industrial and services structure, the absence of big international companies that could play the role of a leading actor stimulating the new and old economy. Concerning spatial distribution of these activities within each region, the Ruhr area is made of several ICT clusters, two of them being localised in the region of Duisburg and Dortmund, whereas in Piedmont, the presence of ICT start-ups is mostly localised in Turin and in Wales in Cardiff and its suburb. In the three cases, the role of leading cities is of utmost importance. Piedmont has the drawback of relying only on Turin, which is concentrating most of its activity on the new economy, while Wales and Ruhr, still chained to the past and not able to completely transform the economic landscape, suffer from competition of cities outside the region.

"Making the Net Work: Sustainability in the digital society" is a book exploring four features of the digital society networks, information, trust and speed - and their contribution to sustainable development. The full length report is designed to make a significant contribution to thinking on the contribution of ICT to sustainable development. It is written in an easily accessible style that appeals to a wide readership, whilst targeting decision makers in policy and business in particular. External authors have contributed short commentary pieces to the report in order to add to the reports appeal and credibility. A short synopsis: As information and communication technologies (ICT) become embedded into society, things change. The digital society that we are creating is characterised by high connectivity, abundant information, an enhanced premium on trust and an ethos of speed. Together, these four features of the digital society equip us better than in any previous time in the industrial age to face the challenge of sustainable development, moving us closer to a system built around the values of sustainable development than ever before. What would a system built around the values of sustainable development look like, if we could design it from scratch? First, it would be global. Sustainable development is a global challenge: pollution doesn't recognize national borders and the consequences of climate change will be felt by everybody. It would be an interconnected system in which all individuals have equal opportunity to participate in a dense network of global connections. Compassion for others means that this interconnected, global system would need to have effective feedback mechanisms to make us aware of the consequences of our actions and nurture the empathy that prompts us to change the way we behave. The value of self-determination calls for individual empowerment. The system would encourage individuals to act independently rather than being controlled from the centre. And in the interests of future generations and the integrity of natural systems, the system would be guided by long-term responsibility towards human and non-human life. "Making the Net Work" explores the four features of the digital society: networks, information, trust and speed in depth, and argues that they create a markedly similar system. ICT is connecting us up at a global level, creating networks that facilitate global feedback mechanisms, connecting people and organizations to the consequences of their actions. It gives us access to unprecedented amounts of information and for the first time puts it within easy reach of individuals. And unlike broadcast media, ICT allows individuals to decide what information they want to receive and go in search of it. Relevant information can empower individuals to respond to feedback in the interests of sustainable development. But in an information-rich environment, there is still the problem of misinformation. People need some way of sorting the wheat from the chaff they need to know where to pull information down from. This is where trust becomes important. In a low trust environment, we are slow to believe the information we receive and reluctant to share it with others. Used within existing social networks, ICT can create additional channels for building the trust between people that allows information to flow on the network. Finally, the speed of technology increases the efficiency of information flows through the network and the rate at which we receive and respond to feedback. This allows us to respond more quickly to environmental and social challenges and be more effective at holding people and organisations with authority to account. The body of evidence on the effects of ICT on society, the environment and the European economy is building slowly, but to date it shows an ambivalent picture: gains in one area are offset by losses in another; outcomes are affected by individual actions and consumer behaviour, making them difficult to control and predict. This seems to contradict people's everyday experience of ICT: that it is having a profound effect on the way we live and how we connect to other people and the world at large. "Making the Net Work" goes to the heart of this contradiction, demonstrating that the way the four features of the digital society work together is what is most exciting about the contribution of ICT to sustainable development.

When counted at a company level, the emissions saved by employees working from home instead of commuting can seem significant, but looking at it from a macro-economic perspective commuting is just a small percentage of total passenger travel. Therefore telework will not deliver major environmental savings. Commuting accounts for 16 % of total passenger miles in Germany. If one quarter of the workforce could work from home twice a week, the total passenger saving would be as small as 1.6 %. This does not include rebound effects. There seems to be much more value in the social side of working from home via ICT, and the economic case for telework can also be made for many businesses. There are beneficial social implications for individuals, communities and companies. Telework and the individual - Teleworkers tend to work longer hours but - Generally report improvements in their quality of life. Telework and the community - Teleworkers enjoy greater flexibility to balance work and family commitments. - Having worked at home during the day people are more inclined to see friends. - Give more time and support to local community initiatives. Teleworking and the company - Teleworkers are likely to be more productive. - Companies can be more flexible and attract more diverse and able employees. - This diversity could encourage innovation. - Greater flexibility and job discretion can build trust and loyalty. However, these benefits are the result of a mix in home-working and time in the office. Permenant home working can result in a sense of isolation and can damage levels of trust within businesses. The value in looking at telework is that it is a reflection of wider changes in modern working patterns: social developments and the take up and use of technology.

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