Digital technology must be developed according to sustainability criteria and, at the same time, represent an essential tool for building a sustainable future. This is the assumption that encapsulates the concept of Digital Sustainability: a concept that must be increasingly central to the strategies and operations of companies and organisations, which today are grappling with a digital transformation that cannot be ignored, but rather managed and well directed, so that it can express its full potential.
And it is precisely to help companies and organisations apply these principles that, in 2023, the Foundation for Digital Sustainability published the UNI Reference Practice on Digital Sustainability: a document that defines the requirements and performance indicators (KPIs) that digital transformation projects and processes must have in order to be considered consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Agenda 2030. A document that, two years later and after careful work, has been updated – here is the new version published on the UNI website – to respond even better to the expectations and needs of organisations that, in this period, have been able to experiment its use in their projects. The new edition of the Praxis will be publicly presented on 30 September in a dedicated webinar – registration is still open – together with the main experts who participated in its realisation. In this article, also through the comments of those who worked on it, we see the main new features of this revamped version.
Simplification and homogeneity: the new version of the Praxis
Overall, the Praxis is a tool that guides the organisation in assessing the sustainability impacts of a project – both on results and processes – and in identifying sustainable development goals on which to act. Organisations adopting a digital sustainability policy need to define an action plan to implement it: here, Praxis is an invaluable tool for organisations, and it has been further improved to facilitate its adoption. “The first version of PdR 147 is from 2023. After two years of use in the field, one very simple thing emerged: we needed to make it ‘work better’ for those who actually use it in projects,” explained Stefano Epifani, President of the Foundation for Digital Sustainability.
“Organisations asked us, above all, for simplification and homogeneity. That is why the 2025 revision introduces a single five-level metric, inspired by the maturity levels of the Capability Maturity Model: the same scale for all KPIs, so measurement becomes comparable over time and between projects‘.
For this update, the working group therefore undertook a revision of the contents, with the elimination of KPIs that were difficult to apply, a reclassification of existing ones and, in particular, a strengthening of the aspects that were most lacking in daily practice: organisational impacts, process KPIs and procurement KPIs. The objective? To shift the focus from technology alone to the governance of transformation processes. “In the first two years of application of the Praxis, we gathered many useful indications to make its application easier and more convenient: it was therefore natural to rethink the indicators as well,” emphasised Salvatore Marras, the Foundation’s Public Sector Manager and Project Director.“We drew on the experience of the users and with a survey we noted the most challenging ones and the suggestions to improve them. Critical issues included measurement, which varied from one KPI to another, and we found it useful to adopt a more homogeneous methodology inspired by the Capability Maturity Model. For example, it is not so important what level the carbon emission reaches (the CUE of the ISO standards) as that it is measured, that it is monitored and that, above all, it is part of a logic of continuous improvement‘.
What’s new: from indicators to certification
The Practice, in order to ensure the measurement of the level of digital sustainability, identifies 50 performance indicators: these arise from an analysis in the different areas – architectures, infrastructures and applications – that characterise the choices on organisational aspects and criteria for the development of digital transformation projects. The indicators refer to 11 of the 17 SDGs of Agenda 2030, and are broken down into 23 operational objectives (targets). “The new version of the UNI/PdR 147 Practice represents a fundamental tool to integrate digital sustainability in a concrete way into corporate operational and decision-making processes,” commented Giulia Parenti, Head of Digital Products at Plenitude. “At Plenitude, we are evolving our governance model of the IT and digital project portfolio to include indicators derived from Praxis 147, useful for measuring the impact of initiatives on key issues such as clean energy, innovation and climate action. This approach allows us to bring digital sustainability into a strategic business process. The introduction of an evaluation and monitoring system based on these principles allows us to go beyond a purely economic-financial logic, and to create awareness and focus on the ability of the most digitally mature initiatives to generate positive, measurable and sustainable impacts over time“.
Another need addressed by the working group in this revision of the Practice was to align the framework with what companies already report. Thus, a clear disclosure principle – results reported in a transparent, verifiable and accessible manner – was included and the Practice was linked to ESG reporting, ESRS, and the technical environmental criteria of the EU Taxonomy. Last but not least, specifications for the certification of both organisations and experts have been introduced to provide guarantees of competence and compliance. “The new UNI/PdR 147 transforms certification from a simple compliance to a tool for measurement and continuous improvement,” explained Giuliano Razzicchia, Digital Sustainability at Enel Group. “By adopting a solid management system, companies can translate their digital sustainability goals into concrete actions that can be measured through KPIs, and also transparently demonstrate their commitment thanks to the support provided by the corporate reporting practice. It is therefore not a bureaucratic constraint, but a strategic lever for a more efficient and responsible future‘.
An important tool towards Industry 5.0
The Praxis fits fully into the scenario outlined by the EuropeanIndustry 5.0 approach, which integrates sustainability, resilience and the centrality of the human being in digital transformation. And this, as emphasised by Domenico Squillace, President of UNINFO, makes it an important ‘guide’ in the hands of organisations: ‘the evolution towards Industry 5.0 represents a paradigm shift for the production system: sustainability, resilience, and the centrality of the human being become the pillars around which to build digital transformation. In this scenario, technical standardisation takes on a crucial and strategic role. It is not a mere support, but an enabling factor that makes innovation reliable, measurable and shared. Acting as a common language between businesses, institutions and society, it provides criteria, methodologies and concrete indicators to guide organisations through the so-called ‘twin transition’, ensuring that digitisation goes hand in hand with sustainability. The challenge is first and foremost cultural and organisational. Industry 5.0 needs solid and recognised standards to translate its values and goals into concrete practices. In this perspective, UNI/PdR 147 represents an important reference. UNINFO, as UNI Federated Body for ICT, is ready to take charge of its transformation into a technical standard: a strategic step that would consolidate the Practice and strengthen its role as an essential tool for measuring the sustainable impact of digitisation