Teletrabalho x Sustentabilidade: os impactos ambientais das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação em meio a pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

The intense digital transformation leveraged by the COVID-19 crisis and the spread of teleworking can invisibly reproduce imbalances, especially with regard to excessive consumerism and waste of energy related to Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's), which expresses a mistaken image that digital technologies and practices have no environmental and human impact. Therefore, the objective of this study is to present the relationship between teleworking and the impacts of ICT's on the dimensions of sustainability, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. For its elaboration, an exploratory research was carried out, through a systematic review of the literature of the last 5 years. In total, 301 articles were analyzed, and in the last stage, 10 articles relevant to the research were identified. The study made it possible to identify contributions that mitigated challenges related to logistics, sustainability, mobility, costs, efficiency and quality of life for workers. On the other hand, it was also possible to identify disadvantages that can make teleworking unfeasible, such as social, family, psychological, organizational, structural, and management problems. The paradigm that telecommuting was unfeasible in the Brazilian scenario has been broken. Given the diversity of available evidence, it is possible to conclude, in principle, that the real impact of ICT’s is not being presented or evaluated sufficiently to affirm that teleworking has a positive impact on sustainability. However, with the analysis of data and information collected during the research, it is possible to affirm that this study fulfills its general objective, presenting the relationship between teleworking and the impacts of ICT’s in the dimensions of sustainability, in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, new studies are suggested in order to better relate the theme to ICT’s.