Abstract
We study how industrial manufacturing firms with resource operations that are both hard-to-abate and hard-to-digitalize deploy digital resources to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Based on a case study of three German industrial manufacturers engaging in so-called twin transformations, we suggest that greenhouse gas emission reductions in industrial manufacturing firms require the joint and interdependent management of digital and physical resources, such that physical resources need to be managed digitally while digital resources need to be physically optimized. Using digital resources for datafication, automation, and virtualization improves greenhouse gas emission reductions because they allow optimizing and substituting physical resources. At the same time, digital resources need to be scaled and environmentally optimized through the management of physical resources in terms of renewable energy self-supply, resource eco-substitution, and circular IT stewardship. Our findings provide nuanced insights into the role of digital resources as a complementary yet not sufficient enabler for the sustainability strategies of firms and shed new light on how physical and digital resources need to be jointly managed to achieve net-zero targets.
DOI
10.17705/1jais.01011
Recommended Citation
Glanze, Eva; Recker, Jan; and Bockelmann, Theresa, "Digital Sustainability With Physical Constraints: Insights From Twin Transformations in the German Manufacturing Industry" (2026). JAIS Preprints (Forthcoming). 255.
DOI: 10.17705/1jais.01011
Available at:
https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais_preprints/255