Rat für digitale Ökologie

The Rat für Digitale Ökologie (RDÖ) is an interdisciplinary initiative dedicated to the comprehensive analysis and design of digitalization in all areas of society.

The main mission of the RDÖ is to make digitalization comprehensible as a central socio-political issue and to initiate debates on systematic questions of digitalization. The council advocates for a sustainable, future-proof, and open society and emphasizes the necessity for society to determine how it wants to use technologies, rather than the other way around[3,.

The RDÖ produces comprehensive position papers and strategy documents that address the economic, cultural, political, psychological, and other dimensions of digitalization. A central document is the position paper for the federal election, which includes demands for a sustainable digital policy, the promotion of open source, resource and energy efficiency, as well as the establishment of a digital ministry[2].

An important focus of the RDÖ is on the sustainability of digitalization. The council calls for measures to reduce the ecological footprint of digital technologies, such as minimizing electricity consumption and CO2 emissions from server farms and hardware production. It is emphasized that the entire information technology sector has a significant share of global greenhouse gas emissions and that simple technical measures, such as programmed breaks when using digital tools, can drastically reduce usage[3].

The RDÖ also advocates for digital sovereignty, which includes the security of digital infrastructures, the trustworthiness of digital services, the integrity of digital communication, and the transparency of algorithmic decisions. This is intended to enable citizens to use digital offerings with full control and decision-making freedom[2].

The council emphasizes the need for a common digital policy at the European level and supports initiatives such as Gaia X and the Data Governance Act to promote big data analyses within the EU. Additionally, the development of a public-law network is called for, which can functionally compete with established commercial networks but does not pursue commercial interests[2].

The RDÖ consists of 14 members from various fields such as science, business, computer science, architecture, design, law, and politics. Prominent members include Harald Welzer, Gerd Billen, Dr. Constanze Kurz, and Dieter Janecek. The council is initiated and supported by the FUTURZWEI. Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit[2].

• 1 - https://ratfuerdigitaleoekologie.org/arbeitskreis
• 2 - https://www.basecamp.digital/rat-fuer-digitale-oekologie-digitalisierung-erden/
• 3 - https://allianzfoundation.org/de/rat-fuer-digitale-oekologie/
• 4 - https://www.ratfuerdigitaleoekologie.org/en/
• 5 - https://mastodon.social/@rdoe