Abstract

How can the developments towards the information society be linked with the challenges of sustainable management, both strategically for the entire industry and in practice for individual companies? A dialogue process between representatives from business, politics and research began in summer 2001 with this ambitious question in mind. Under the name NIK (Sustainability in Information and Communication Technology), a project was initiated by the Federal Government via the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to draw up a roadmap for sustainable information and communication technology. The results were presented at an expert forum in Berlin in November 2003. The central elements of the dialogue were focus groups whose core task was to formulate objectives and develop and agree on proposals for the implementation of guiding visions. In addition to the key areas of mobile communications and public procurement, the initiative focussed on displays. The following areas of innovation were pursued for a sustainability-orientated display industry: - - - - Creating the conditions for recycling cathode ray tubes on an industrial scale Proactive development of recycling processes for flat screens Development and production of new flat display technologies Development of sustainable product utilisation systems for electronic paper.

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