Do Businesses Protect the Environment Through Appropriate Decisions in the Context of Choosing Information and Communication Technologies?

Technological progress, digitalization and globalization of economic activity contribute to the growth of the use of information and communication technologies in enterprises. On the one hand, modern information technologies support pro-environmental activities, but on the other hand, they are a source of waste themselves. For this reason, their use in enterprises should be analyzed and controlled in the context of their multi-faceted impact on the natural environment. This article focuses on: (1) analyzing the relationship between variables defining the level of actions taken in the field of ICT to protect the natural environment and the level of digitalization of the enterprise and (2) identifying a synthetic measure of development defining the level of involvement of enterprises in digitalization and environmental protection. The analysis will be performed on data describing actions taken by enterprises grouped by European Union countries in the context of the use of ICT equipment for environmental protection and environmental values for 2022. Based on the chi-square test, it was found that statistically significant relationships are observed only for medium and large enterprises. The synthetic measure of development allowed for the indication of model countries due to the actions taken aimed at pro-environmental behavior in relation to ICT services and equipment. There were also no significant linear relationships between a high level of digitalization of enterprises and thinking in environmental categories in the context of actions taken in relation to ICT services and equipment.