Amidst the dot.com fever, a cool gaze at the future

1999 will be remembered as the year when dot.com fever swept through the business world. Barely a day went by without a new start-up being launched, or an established company expanding into cyberspace. Government also caught the bug, with a succession of ministerial speeches and initiatives designed to carry forward the recommendations of the Cabinet Office report into ‘e-commerce@its.best.uk’.

But although much attention has focused on the economic potential of e-commerce, there have been very few attempts to assess its wider environmental and social impacts. What will it mean for local communities and levels of social exclusion? How will it affect transport, energy use and the future shape of our towns and cities?

These questions lie at the heart of an exciting new project being launched this month by Forum for the Future. The project - which is called Digital Futures - will involve a consortium of companies, government departments and research organisations, working together to explore the sustainability implications of the predicted explosion in e-commerce.

James Wilsdon, the Forum’s senior policy adviser, explains that "our goal is to come up with some useful recommendations to ensure that the new digital marketplace becomes a powerful ally of sustainability, rather than a spur to yet more social exclusion and environmental destruction".

The project’s corporate partners include BT, Kingfisher, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Corporate Banking Services, The Post Office, South West Regional Development Agency and Sun Microsystems. The DTI and DETR are also actively involved, both in funding the project and in the research process.

As the research progresses, the Forum plans to engage with a wider circle of businesses, RDAs, local authorities, NGOs, consumer groups, trade unions and other stakeholders, in order to promote the need for an integrated approach to e-commerce and sustainability.

Hilary Thompson, head of communications at NatWest CBS, welcomed the project as "a great opportunity to carry our commitment to sustainability through to our internet operations. E-commerce is evolving incredibly quickly, and it’s vital that the sustainable business agenda keeps pace." Digital Futures will run throughout 2000, with a final report due in early 2001. This will set out an ‘agenda for a sustainable digital economy’, with key recommendations for government, business, regional development agencies and local authorities.

Forum for the Future, James Wilsdon,
j.wilsdon@forumforthefuture.org.uk

Research partners

Demos
E-commerce and social capital

Green Alliance
Greening the knowledge economy

Forum for the Future
Sustainable e-business

Local Futures Group
Economic and social geography of the digital revolution

New Economics Foundation
Access, participation and social inclusion

Science Policy Research Unit
Scenarios for e-commerce and sustainability

Town and Country Planning Association
Planning in the digital economy

UK CEED/ Bradford University
Transport and distribution

18 October 2001

James Wilsdon