Issues and Opinions: Creative Construction and Technoficing for a Sustainable Future

As information technology (IT) permeates our society and its unbridled use increases, there are increasing concerns about its environmental footprint. Many environmentalists argue that IT, rather than addressing grand societal challenges such as climate change and global warming, is actually contributing to them. To address such concerns, we propose creative construction and technoficing as the two approaches to ensure that information technology is environmentally friendly and its harmful environmental consequences are minimized. These two approaches emphasize building durable and simple but effective technology products, thus minimizing their adverse environmental consequences. We also offer several potential research directions and use several examples to explain why creative construction and technoficing are essential to keeping IS green. Our proposed research directions emphasize the importance of future research focusing on different perspectives that can inform how governments, organizations, and individuals can help manage limited planetary resources and remain sustainable even without the incessant need for regular product upgrades.