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Less digital for more life?

  • Publié le 13 March 2025
  • 4 min

The wave of digital technology has swept over our societies, bringing an uninterrupted flow of revolutions across all sectors. It advocates for social and societal utility that is beyond reproach and even represents an asset in the energy and ecological transition. However, every coin has two sides, as every technological advancement is inevitably caught up by the ways it is used. Technology always breeds more technology when the sole concern is to gain efficiency and power. This is what is known as the “rebound effect.”

Nonetheless, the intangible has tangible effects on the planet and climate change. Digital technology relies on a complex infrastructure of production, operation, and data storage that consumes limited resources and generates waste that is difficult to recycle.

While the environmental dimension of digital sobriety is often highlighted, it is crucial to broaden the reflection to the impacts on life. Beyond natural resources, the omnipresence of digital technology shapes our lifestyles, influences our well-being, and redefines our social interactions. These transformations raise questions about our collective responsibility and the need to integrate a more holistic approach.

How can we reconcile innovation, digital sobriety, and respect for life? What levers can we mobilize to embed digital technology in a truly sustainable and responsible approach? To answer these questions, Sophie Lavault, a PhD in neuroscience, clinical psychologist, and research engineer, and Agathe Nicolle, CSR Manager at Willing, share their perspectives to analyse the impacts of digital technology on the environment, society, and individuals, while exploring actions to implement for a more sober and responsible digital world.

Digital technology: progress at the expense of life?

The invasion of digital technology leads to a flood of notifications and data to process, both in personal and professional spaces. This affects users’ nervous systems on multiple levels: increased mental load, cognitive fatigue, difficulty concentrating, trouble regulating stress, and challenges in maintaining focus on tasks that do not provide immediate gratification.

When the brain is faced with a large amount of data to process in a limited time and incessant notifications, two major phenomena occur:

  • We favor a fast, automatic, and uncontrollable thinking system, which is the seat of all our cognitive biases. We no longer have the space or time to use our critical thinking, which is supported by a slower, more energy-intensive thinking system but also more aligned with our values and what feels meaningful to us.
  • We overstimulate our stress system, at the expense of rest and recovery. We remain on alert, constantly checking for emails or important information, jumping from one task to another, sometimes forgetting to connect with our feelings, such as fatigue, which signals us to slow down.

In addition to the issue of sedentariness caused by screen use, the effects on our psychological functioning are critical, highlighting how crucial it is to consider the impact of digital technology on life as a whole.

Faced with these challenges, a paradigm shift is essential. Digital sobriety should not be endured but envisioned as an opportunity for adaptation. This is where CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) plays a key role.

Reinventing digital technology: CSR as a lever for adaptation

While excessive digital practices are promoted in several countries worldwide, low-tech offers a reasoned, resilient, and accessible approach to technology. At the intersection of innovation and ethics, digital sobriety emerges as an essential lever to address contemporary challenges. It invites us to rethink our practices and transform our organizations to better align them in the long term with the principles of social, societal, and environmental responsibility.

1. Limiting the environmental footprint

The production and use of digital technologies come with a significant ecological cost. Extraction of rare resources, energy consumption of infrastructures, and difficult-to-recycle electronic waste: every link in the chain has a tangible impact. To reduce this footprint, organizations can act at multiple levels, as encouraged by the REEN* law of 2021: reducing equipment obsolescence, promoting refurbishment, sharing usage, and designing less energy-intensive digital services.

2. Preserving health and well-being in the face of information overload

The omnipresence of digital technology profoundly alters our lifestyles and work rhythms. Hyperconnectivity, cognitive overload, and impaired attention: the impact on well-being is real. Encouraging the right to disconnect, rethinking the balance between online work and physical interactions, and raising awareness about the risks of digital overconsumption are key levers for a more human-centered digital approach.

3. A societal responsibility: rethinking economic models and practices

Behind the rise of digital technology lie critical ethical and societal challenges. Resource extraction often relies on precarious working conditions in certain countries. The massive accumulation of data raises concerns about privacy, surveillance, and the exploitation of personal information. Finally, technological overproduction aligns with a logic of excessive consumption, contrary to circular economy principles. Promoting more sustainable models, encouraging transparency in data management, and supporting responsible alternatives (open source, shared infrastructures) are pathways to embedding digital technology in a more virtuous dynamic.

Towards a balanced approach to digital technology

A sober digital approach does not mean a step backward, but a transformation guided by responsible innovation. It is time to rethink our practices to combine performance and ethics, fully integrating these challenges into organizational strategies.

Under the lens of the three pillars of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), digital sobriety is not limited to reducing environmental impact. It also encompasses health and societal ethical issues. By rethinking their practices, organizations can transform digital technology into a lever for sustainable progress.

At Willing, we support businesses and communities in this transition by integrating digital sobriety at the heart of their CSR strategies. Through our expertise center, Willing Impact, we help reconcile performance and responsibility, making digital technology a driver of sustainable transformation.

Sophie Lavault, Doctor of Neuroscience, clinical psychologist, research engineer

Agathe Nicolle, CSR Manager at Willing

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Regional philanthropy

  • Every year, we sign sponsorship agreements with various organizations and associations. By way of example, in 2023, we were sponsors for over 100 days.
  • Since 2023, we have been a partner of Nos quartiers ont des talents (NQT), an association that promotes the professional integration of local young graduates, through which we mentor young professionals and pass on our knowledge and experience.

Partnerships with schools

  • We invest in our team members’ schools and alumni networks, and regularly take part in their events: company forums, entrance competitions, challenges, case studies, hackathons, etc.

Local charity events

  • We take part in charity events in our regions all year round, often initiated by our team members. Examples include the Toulouse and Paris marathons (2022, 2023 and 2024), awareness-raising and fundraising for Pink October (2023), Clean my Calanques (2024) and the Pink October race (2024).

Reducing our greenhouse gas emissions

  • Since 2022, our annual carbon footprint has been calculated by a qualified service provider (in accordance with the GHG Protocol).
  • We use this GHG assessment to evaluate and correct our scope 1, 2 and 3 reduction trajectory.

Sustainable purchasing and waste management

  • Our purchasing policy prioritizes purchases of reconditioned equipment or products made by environmentally engaged suppliers whenever possible, such as French non-profit organizations set up to help disabled people find work (like ESAT), in line with our continuous improvement approach.
  • We have set up selective sorting and recycling systems in each of our offices for paper/cardboard, metal, plastic and glass waste.

Promoting soft mobility

  • We pay 75% of our team members’ public transport fares.
  • We travel by train for business trips, as part of our Company Agreement, to reduce our carbon footprint.

Building on sustainable IT

  • Our website is eco-designed and developed, in line with our purpose and commitments (WCAG).
  • We give our used IT equipment to our team members’ children, associations or local schools.

Encouraging diversity and equal opportunity

  • We have a fair and inclusive recruitment process that gives everyone an equal chance, whatever their level of experience, origin or religion.
  • Our “Diversity” charters testify to our zero tolerance of all forms of discrimination.
  • We recruit students responsibly every year on work-study contracts and in internships, to help integrate young people into the world of work.
  • We have partnered with the Nos quartiers ont des talents association which accompanies disadvantaged young graduates, helping young professionals along the path to employment and facilitating the transmission of knowledge between generations.
  • We have assigned a representative in the fight against discrimination and promotion of diversity, Jennifer Borderie, whom our team members and candidates can contact in reference to such issues.
  • We have also set up a free helpline in collaboration with Malakoff Humanis to assist team members in difficult situations, for example due to harassment, discrimination, illness, social fragility or disability. (Phone: 3996.)

Promoting and accelerating gender equality

  • Our 2023 Company Agreement includes exceptional leave for female team members in the event of an abortion.
  • We offer parenting support including tripartite interviews on leaving for and returning from maternity and paternity leave.
  • Our professional equality index is the focus of a specific action plan. It stands at 93/100 for 2024 and is constantly improving.

Integrating people with disabilities

  • Marie-Cécile Batigne is our disability representative, in charge of supporting disabled team members and raising awareness among our teams.
  • Our 2023 Company Agreement provides for specific leave for any team member with a child who is diagnosed with a disability or pathology.
  • We have drafted an in-house memo providing information on leave options for caregivers.
  • We assist team members with the RQTH process and protocol to recognize their status as a disabled worker in France.
  • We adapt our workstations to the needs of our disabled team members to provide them with an inclusive working environment and encourage them to remain in employment.

Across-the-board CSR

  • As part of our drive to raise awareness of CSR issues among all our team members, our Willing Management Committee has received training and is regularly updated on these issues. All our offices have joined the Climate Fresk initiative, where during the workshops, we roll out our awareness-raising campaigns.
  • Our corporate project supports initiatives addressing the core issues and fields of action covered by ISO 26000.

A participatory, consultative approach

  • We assign an ambassador to relay our corporate project in each of our offices. It is their role to align the policies of our Executive Committee, Management Committee and Works Council with our teams’ proposals.
  • We use visual management techniques to communicate the progress of our corporate project in each office, and to collect questions, suggestions and contribution requests from our teams.

Business ethics

  • We have an Ethics Charter with a code of conduct that governs all professional relations with our partners based on seven immutable principles: solidarity, integrity, respect for others, honesty, rigor, loyalty and respect for professional secrecy. This encourages our suppliers to also act responsibly and protect the environment.