Sustainable digital transformation: why sustainability is a business opportunity

At 20tab, we believe that sustainability is not only a moral imperative, but a powerful opportunity for innovation and growth. Through our experience in product development, we’ve seen how sustainability can fuel meaningful digital innovation. One of our recent projects, BarCode for Environment, is a great example of how digital tools can have a real environmental impact.

Why digital sustainability matters for businesses

The year 2024 has brought to the center of the debate an issue that was already very hot in previous years and is now a necessity.

The Agenda 2030, the PNRR, and the current sensitivity of companies and users are placing the green and digital turn at the center of government and business action: necessary in view of the climate emergency we are experiencing, necessary to build a future that offers new and "clean" opportunities.

It is news from last month that the "Piano Transizione 5.0" was approved, providing a total of about 13 billion euros, over the two-year period 2024-2025, for the digital and green transition of Italian companies. This is a treasure trove aimed at bringing domestic companies to embrace the challenge of digital and green transition in the immediate future, in a period that will mark a real epochal change in geoeconomic arrangements.

In fact, the sustainability discourse has also been pursued for several years within various sectors and fields of endeavor. In the software world, as early as 2022, there was talk of sustainable coding, indicating a set of technical choices and actions - but also a working context - that would meet certain requirements.

At 20tab, we make the ecological challenge our own, incorporating it also within our purpose, through the work we do together with clients and business choices.

From idea to impact: 20tab's digital and green products

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, part of the 20tab team worked with our partner Nephila on the Digital Team, whose goal was to lead the Public Administration towards the digitization of documents and forms in order to improve service to citizens and, of course, to meet the green challenge. You can read more about it here.

Even earlier, still in the PA sector and with the aim of reducing paper consumption, we contributed to the development of EasyPol, the application that allows payments to the Public Administration to be made in a completely digital way.

Coming to the present day, BarCode 4 Environment, a 20tab project realized together with GS1 Italy and the Sant'Anna Institute, is the app that allows consumers to obtain all the information on the environmental impact of a product by simply scanning the QR code (or barcode) on its packaging.

Speaking of circular economy, it has been really interesting and challenging to work on the portal differENTI of CONAI, the portal that collects and processes figures and information related to the separate collection of waste in Italy, making them visible and immediate through the use of maps and graphics. Developed from the ground up, it is now being continuously improved and expanded to provide citizens, journalists and researchers with all the data and evolutionary trends on the circular economy in Italy.

The AUTOMA project is a digital ecosystem for coastal environmental monitoring. It is capable of collecting and analysing data in real time using IoT sensors and machine learning algorithms. Thanks to interactive visualisation and intelligent dashboards, the system supports local authorities and administrations in sustainable land management and environmental risk prevention.

The ECMWF Copernicus Data Store is a platform developed for the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts for accessing and managing climate and environmental data from Copernicus, the European Earth observation programme. Our contribution focused on creating intuitive and scalable interfaces for accessing complex data and promoting a data-driven culture in scientific research and institutions.

ReTrace is a solution developed in collaboration with AstraKode for the traceability and certification of production and circular supply chains using blockchain technology. ReTrace enables every stage of a product's life cycle to be recorded, providing transparency regarding sustainability, regeneration and regulatory compliance. It is designed for sectors such as the refurbishment of WEEE, batteries and electronic components, where reducing waste and increasing trust along the supply chain is a priority.

20tab's sustainable choices

The why, the founding purpose of 20tab, is to generate positive impacts for users, business, community. And the environment.

That's why we choose to accompany our clients in their digital transition and green efforts, as we just told you, but also why we choose to work in a specific way.

• We build quality software by considering the consequences of our technical choices.
• We put users at the center of all our product design and software development, empowering them to make sustainable decisions and improve their lives.
• We use methodologies that allow us to be agile without wasting time, money or resources.
• We brought the topic of sustainability to the Product Management Day, an event born in 20tab, and we are sure that in the next edition there will be the same topic, along with that of the "ethical" development of digital products, also thanks to AI.
• We work remotely, contributing in our own small way to reducing emissions. And when we meet, we encourage the team to use public transportation.
• We also strive to create a healthy working environment, characterized by cooperation, positive contamination and innovation.
• We have achieved our goal of gender parity, with a balanced team of skills and values that keeps gender bias out of the products we create.

Turning sustainability into a competitive edge

Sustainability is not just an ethical imperative, it’s a driver of innovation and value. As digital professionals, we have a responsibility to create products that are not only usable and accessible, but also sustainable.

At 20tab, we help companies build sustainable, data-informed and impactful tech solutions aligned with global goals.