GAP-JOURNAL 2012/13 - AFA

Andreas Thöni
Informationtechnology as adriverfor “generation-sensitive” air
transportationwithafocus on environmental sustainability
Introduction
Preserving this world liveable for future generations is one of the major challenges we
face today. Various problems have been named inthe recent past –e.g. climate change,
resource shortages or overpopulation ingeneral. All of them may lead tothe accusation
of coming generation that the current has lived on their costs. Therefore, this paper
understands “generation-sensitiveness” as the commitment of the current generation to
keep society and planet earth atleast asliveablefor future generations as it is now.
Within this context, sustainability has been adopted byvarious policy institutions and
private sector companies asamajor target tobeachieved over the next years. Sustainability
can be understood in different ways. Elkington highlighted the necessity to appreciate
sustainability asacombination ofthree dimensions: economic, environmental and
social (Elkington 1999). Economic sustainability has been the core ofbusiness management
ever since. Environmental and social sustainability have gained significance
over the last years. Especially environmental sustainabilityhas become important due to
ecological concerns combined with increasing regulations as well as demand-driven
factors. This has been fostered at the international level –the European Union (EU) set
targets toreduce greenhouse gases by20% and increase energy efficiency by20% until
2020 (European Commission 2012).
Environmental sustainability isstrongly connected with the generation-sensitiveness
outlined above. Ifthe environment isdrastically harmed by the current generation, future
generations will suffer from the consequences. The effects can e.g. reach from
drastic forms ofclimate change to resource shortages. Asaconsequence, to achieve real
sustainability for future generations, it has tobeimplemented in all sectors ofthe economy
worldwide. However, not all sectors can be seen similarly –especially the air
transport industry is an example ofasector that shows highly disproportional environmental
effects (seeTable 1below).
Over the last decades, information technology (IT) has been akey in global economic
progress. Both, business and governments nowadays strongly underline the importance
of IT and governments worldwide are prioritizing ITintheir agendas (World Economic