The Sustainability of AI and AI for Sustainability: Confronting the Paradox of Responsible Innovation

Call for Papers

The Sustainability of AI and AI for Sustainability: Confronting the Paradox of Responsible Innovation

Journal:Journal of Responsible Innovation

Manuscript deadline: 1 September 2026

This special issue tackles the paradox that AI is both a major sustainability problem (huge energy, water, mineral and labor footprint) and a key tool for sustainability (e.g., in grids, agriculture, health, climate, smart cities). It asks how AI can be designed, governed, and deployed so that it genuinely supports just and sustainable futures, using responsible innovation principles like anticipation, reflection, inclusion, and responsiveness.

Special Issue Editors

• Dr Sanjeev Khagram, Principal Editor

• Dr Mareike Smolka, Principal Editor

• Dr Michael Lepech, Stanford University

• Rebeca Hwang, Stanford University

• Dr David Keith, Melbourne Business School

• Dr Ujwal Kayande, Melbourne Business School

Core focus areas

• AI for sustainability: critical analyses of AI applications in sectors such as energy/decarbonization, water, agriculture/food systems, transport and smart cities, asking who benefits, who bears the costs, and how justice and inclusion are handled.

• Sustainability of AI: environmental and social footprint of AI (energy, carbon, water, minerals, labor) and governance tools to mitigate it (e.g., reporting standards, carbon pricing for compute, siting rules for data centers, “algorithmic frugality”).

• Cross-cutting themes: governance and regulation; innovation and entrepreneurship; justice, equity and inclusion (Global North/South, vulnerable communities); and critiques of techno‑optimism that ignore growth-driven political-economic structures.

Sectors/verticals (examples)

• Energy & decarbonization (AI for grids vs. data-center energy demand).

• Water resources & security (AI for irrigation/management vs. data centers’ water footprint).

• Agriculture & food systems (precision ag vs. farmer autonomy, lock‑in, food sovereignty).

• Transportation & smart cities (optimisation vs. surveillance, bias, rebound effects).

Submission & timeline

• ~500‑word abstracts (excluding references) emailed to Sanjeev Khagram and Mareike Smolka; abstracts should clearly state the problem, questions, method (if relevant), theory, and contribution.

• Abstract deadline: 31 May 2026; invited authors submit full manuscripts via the JRI system by 1 September 2026.

• Selected authors will join a workshop around Oct–Nov 2026; accepted articles are published online on a rolling basis after peer review.

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