“It doesn’t feature high enough on my priority”

“Without being driven from the top it’s probably never going to happen”

Many participants referenced the lack of leadership around digitals role in sustainability both within their own organisations. There’s an expectation that it needs to be driven from a leadership level - “I sat in on our Chief Digital officer giving a presentation on the new digital strategy and and net zero doesn't feature at all. It doesn't feature in terms of any of the organising drivers or or levers.” (Digital and technology lead).

And also at a central, cross public sector level - “CDPS needs to come in with a much more strategic Pan Wales approach to these are our priorities for Wales based on what ministers are saying and where we've got 2030 targets that we need to be meeting. People can't leave that until 2028, 2029 to start thinking about it is something that we've got to be doing right now”. (Digital and technology lead in a Local Authority).

Participants mentioned the role of leadership in their digital transformation journeys so far. Some with positive experiences - “I think having a chief exec who very much allows you to get on with this thing has been invaluable. I've looked at other teams who have only just started to get into this way of thinking and I largely do think it's the SLT who has driven us doing this kind of stuff.” (Digital and technology leader in a Local Authority).

Whereas others had had less positive experiences with their leadership - “I find a lot of things within the council needs to be implemented from the top but are implemented from the bottom. You're meant to be the the leader for change. It's like I'm the lowest paid member of the team. Why is it my job to do that?” (Digital and technology practitioner in Local Authority) and “It's all playing the long game and trying to do it from the bottom up, which is not right. It should come from the top down.” (Digital and technology practitioner in a University).

The lack of urgency around the climate crisis was mentioned with parallels drawn to the transformation that was made possible during COVID - “In COVID loads of stuff happened. We went from no virtual appointments to most healthcare professionals able to do digital appointments. So they were able to do it. But it is because other things stopped in order for them to do it. When there was a crisis they can do it, but I haven't really seen that transformation except for in COVID to be honest.” (Sustainability lead in Health and Care).


“Because we are focused on COVID a lot of things that we would have done previously, like sustainability, has fallen into the back of the queue”

A few participants mentioned the impacts of COVID on their ability to work and think more strategically - “Benefits realisation and measurements has stalled a little bit with COVID. We were at the point where we'd initiated quite a big exercise and then COVID hit and as with everyone it was drop everything else and focus on what's going on” (Digital and technology lead in Central Administration).

“It was very much put it under the COVID cost code and then nobody will question it” (Digital and technology practitioner at a Local Authority).

“Ultimately when you're faced with like a crisis, like a pandemic, you've you've gotta take the most effective route that's available to you” (Digital and technology practitioner in Central Administration).


“We still need to make decisions on a number of factors, it's never going to be clear cut.”

It was recognised by many participants that they have other priorities in their decision making aside from sustainability -“We have to buy stuff that meets the requirements otherwise may as well not bought it in the first place” (Digital and technology lead in Central Administration).

A lot of people mentioned the need for face to face service delivery due to not excluding people who can’t use digital channels - “We need to make sure that we don't leave leave people out in terms of that digital exclusion which takes away a little bit from from the net zero point” (Service Manager in Central Administration) or due to effectiveness of the service “It’s not always been the greatest success, because sometimes it doesn't feel personal enough.” (Digital and technology lead in a Local Authority).

Others mentioned the need for higher emission websites if video and photo content most effectively serves the user need - (Service Manager in Central Administration).

Costs were also mentioned and whether a more sustainable option warranted any higher costs associated. A few people mentioned the challenges with refurbished kit due to these types of devices being outside of warranty and needing more support during their lifespan.