Digital Sustainability Definitions: The Same but Different

Although the Information Systems (IS) discipline began its quest to contribute to sustainability several decades ago, we can recently observe new research streams emerging in this context. Among these streams is digital sustainability, highlighting the expanding diffusion of digital technologies and data. Considering the established IS genres on sustainability, we wondered whether the concept of digital sustainability is ‘new wine in old wineskins’ or has novel, unique characteristics. By surveying a sample of 37 papers from various areas, we identified 31 distinct definitions and disassembled them according to their digital component, sustainability component, relation between the components, impact, and user scope. The analysis showed similarities between digital sustainability and existing research streams, but also differences in terms of goal variety, socio-technical stance, and role of (advanced) digital technologies.