Abstract

Such as Janus, the ancient Roman god who presided over all beginnings and all transitions, information technologies now have the privilege of accompanying any new technical invention. Faced with the increasing risk of climate change, the concept of sustainable development appears to be unanimously accepted by political and economic authorities. When pressed to put forward new strategies to be implemented, many of them declare : “Thanks to green growth supported by modern information and communication technologies”.

Terminal has made a survey of what now appears to be obvious ; this special issue addresses the role of information technology applied to sustainable development with three questions : “green information technology”, “environment information and awareness”, “a toolkit for sustainable development”.

Be they researchers, engineers, medical practicians or academics, the authors of the papers in this issue all make a contribution to the necessary assessment of the use of information technology in every aspect of sustainable development in an attempt to answer this question : is another world still possible ?