CDR at the Digital Summit 2020: Digital sustainable living
Throughout a two-day conference devoted to "digital sustainable living", high-ranking representatives from politics, business and research discussed how we can shape digital transformation in a sustainable way that serves the common good.
Now in its 14th year, the Digital Summit celebrated a true premiere in 2020: For the first time, the conference took place in a completely digital format. While individual moderators hosted the event from a studio in Berlin, the participants and panellists were able to join virtually. A total of more than 7,000 people discussed various aspects of digital transformation at around 30 events spread across ten platforms over two days. "Smart Living", "digital education" or "artificial intelligence in today’s world of work"; as always, there was no shortage of pressing topics and competent experts.
As in previous years, the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection was also involved in the summit and organised a panel under the heading: "Anchoring values with CDR". Minister Christine Lambrecht opened the discussion with a speech in which she emphasised the importance of corporate responsibility and spoke of the role of the Ministry's CDR Initiative:
"Corporate action should be people- and value-oriented in order to strengthen one of the most important currencies in the digital world – namely trust. With the CDR Initiative, we have created a forum where business and politics can enter into a lasting exchange on how to successfully shape the digital transformation in a way that serves the common good."
In addition to the Minister, Alexander Brink, Professor of Business and Corporate Ethics at the University of Bayreuth, Birgit Klesper from Deutsche Telekom and Kate Heiny from Zalando also spoke on the panel. Both companies are also members of the CDR Initiative. A key conclusion from the discussions was that, while digitalisation can be a valuable driver for sustainability, it all depends on the way in which we shape this process. "People must always be at the centre of all efforts," emphasised Minister Lambrecht. Digitalisation is a means to an end, she concluded. And that end must be to shape our society in a sustainable way that serves the common good.
