When I began my master's research into digital technologies and sustainability in industrial lifecycle services, I expected to find a straightforward relationship: more digitalisation equals better sustainability outcomes. What I found was considerably more nuanced — and considerably more interesting. The research, which explored the intersection of digitalisation and sustainability in Hitachi Energy's transformer services — and was later developed into an accepted paper for the EPIEM conference — revealed something that I think has broad relevance far beyond the energy sector. Digital transformation and sustainability transformation are most powerful when they happen together. But in most organisations, they are still being managed as separate agendas.
What the twin transition means
The concept of the twin transition — simultaneous digital and green transformation — is gaining significant traction in European industrial policy and in the sustainability frameworks of major corporations. The logic is straightforward: digital technologies create the data infrastructure that makes sustainability measurable. And measurable sustainability creates the business case that justifies digital investment. In practice, this means that an industrial company deploying digital monitoring tools across its asset lifecycle is not just improving operational efficiency. It is also capturing the data needed to track energy consumption, reduce waste, extend asset life and report against sustainability commitments — all from the same digital investment.
Sustainability without data is aspiration. Data without a sustainability purpose is noise. The twin transition is what turns both into value.
Where most companies get stuck
The challenge I observed in my research — and that I continue to see in advisory work — is that digital and sustainability initiatives are typically owned by different teams, measured by different KPIs, and funded through different budget cycles. They share goals but rarely share roadmaps. The result is duplication of effort, missed integration opportunities, and sustainability reporting that lags behind the digital capability that already exists to produce it. Companies are sitting on data that could demonstrate significant sustainability progress — and not using it, because the connection between their digital systems and their sustainability reporting has never been deliberately designed.
The commercial case for integration
For companies operating in energy, infrastructure, industrial services or technology — where regulatory pressure, investor scrutiny and procurement requirements around sustainability are increasing rapidly — the business case for an integrated twin transition approach is not a future consideration. It is a present competitive reality. Companies that connect their digital investments to measurable sustainability outcomes gain advantages across regulatory compliance, customer trust, access to green finance, and long-term asset value. Those that treat them as separate workstreams will spend the next decade catching up to organisations that are already doing both simultaneously. This is the insight that shaped my research, and it is the lens through which I approach sustainability and digital transformation advisory work today. The transition is already underway. The question is whether your organisation is navigating it deliberately — or discovering it in retrospect.
This article draws from Jaimee's accepted EPIEM conference paper, "The Twin Transition in Transformer Lifecycle: A Literature Review," developed from her MSc research in Innovation and Technology Management at the University of South-Eastern Norway, recognised with the SINTEF Master's Thesis Relevance Award runner-up diploma.