ICT Innovations for Sustainability

This introductory chapter provides definitions of sustainability, sustainable development, decoupling, and related terms; gives an overview of existing interdisciplinary research fields related to ICT for Sustainability, including Environmental Informatics, Computational Sustainability, Sustainable HCI, and Green ICT; introduces a conceptual framework to structure the effects of ICT on sustainability; and provides an overview of this book.

The global economy is not particularly energy-efficient. At current levels of consumption, we now waste about 86 % of the energy now used to maintain economic activity. This magnitude of waste imposes huge costs that constrain the robustness of the world economy. At the same time, however, there is an array of untapped cost-effective energy efficiency resources that can restore both energy and economic efficiency. Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) may be the key to unlocking that potential.

Green IT is a mandatory process required for energy consumption reduction and sustainable development. Many actors are involved in the development and adoption of Green IT, ranging from individual persons to research groups, companies, governments, and countries. This chapter identifies actors for innovation in the field of Green IT, explores, and defines them. Their interactions are detailed and their influence on the Green IT landscape is pointed out. A definition of Green IT is given as a common understanding to form a basis for all further investigations of this sector. Then we detail the different actors of innovation in Green IT and outline their relationships to understand the keys for better development and adoption of Green IT.

This chapter provides an overview of energy demand issues in the field of ICT with a focus on the history of measuring, modelling and regulating ICT electricity consumption and the resulting methodological challenges. While the energy efficiency of ICT hardware has been dramatically improving and will continue to improve for some decades, the overall energy used for ICT is still increasing. The growing demand for ICT devices and services outpaces the efficiency gains of individual devices. Worldwide per capita ICT electricity consumption exceeded 100 kWh/year in 2007 (a value which roughly doubles if entertainment equipment is included) and is further increasing. Methodological challenges include issues of data collection and modelling ICT devices and services, assessing the entire life cycle of ICT devices and infrastructures, accounting for embedded ICT, and assessing the effect of software on ICT energy consumption.

CMOS circuits have been the workhorse of ICT for 40 years. Due to the unique scaling property of this technology, energy efficiency has enormously improved during that time, notably by lowering the supply voltage from the long-time standard of 5 to 1 V and less. As the era of “happy scaling” has come to an end, progress becomes increasingly difficult and techniques beyond 2D size reductions have come into play. A superior and viable alternative to CMOS has yet to be found.

Data centers are the backbone of today’s information technologies. With increasing usage of cloud services and web applications, the need for remote computing and storage will only grow. However, one has to consider that increasing numbers of server and storage systems also mean increases in energy consumption. The power demand is caused not only by the IT hardware, but is also due to the required infrastructure such as power supply and climatization. Therefore, choosing the most appropriate components as well as architectural designs and configurations regarding energy demand, availability, and performance is important. This chapter depicts influencing factors and current trends for these design choices and provides examples.

The IT industry in general and data centers in particular are subject to a very dynamic development. Within a few years, the structure and components of data centers can change completely. This applies not only to individual data centers (see [27], in this volume), but also to the structure of the data center market at the national or international level. The sizes, types, and locations of data centers are changing significantly because of trends such as the consolidation of data centers, the increasing use of colocation data centers, virtualization, and cloud computing. The construction of large cloud data centers, for example Google in Finland, Facebook in Sweden, or Microsoft in Ireland, is an example of these developments. In consequence, there is an impact on the overall energy demand of data centers. This chapter discusses these developments and the impact on the overall energy consumption of data centers using the example of Germany.

Estimates of the energy intensity of the Internet diverge by several orders of magnitude. We present existing assessments and identify diverging definitions of the system boundary as the main reason for this large spread. The decision of whether or not to include end devices influences the result by 1–2 orders of magnitude. If end devices are excluded, customer premises equipment (CPE) and access networks have a dominant influence. Of less influence is the consideration of cooling equipment and other overhead, redundancy equipment, and the amplifiers in the optical fibers. We argue against the inclusion of end devices when assessing the energy intensity of the Internet, but in favor of including CPE, access networks, redundancy equipment, cooling and other overhead as well as optical fibers. We further show that the intensities of the metro and core network are best modeled as energy per data, while the intensity of CPE and access networks are best modeled as energy per time (i.e., power), making overall assessments challenging. The chapter concludes with a formula for the energy intensity of CPE and access networks. The formula is presented both in generic form as well as with concrete estimates of the average case to be used in quick assessments by practitioners. The next chapter develops a similar formula for the core and edge networks. Taken together, the two chapters provide an assessment method of the Internet’s energy intensity that takes into account different modeling paradigms for different parts of the network.

Environmental assessments of digital services seeking to take into account the Internet’s energy footprint typically require models of the energy intensity of the Internet. Existing models have arrived at conflicting results. This has lead to increased uncertainty and reduced comparability of assessment results. We present a bottom-up model for the energy intensity of the Internet that draws from the current state of knowledge in the field and is specifically directed towards assessments of digital services. We present the numeric results and explain the application of the model in practice. Complementing the previous chapter that presented a generic approach and results for access networks and customer premise equipment, we present a model to assess the energy intensity of the core networks, yielding the result of 0.052 kWh/GB.

Direct energy consumption of ICT hardware is only “half the story.” In order to get the “whole story,” energy consumption during the entire life cycle has to be taken into account. This chapter is a first step toward a more comprehensive picture, showing the “grey energy” (i.e., the overall energy requirements) as well as the releases (into air, water, and soil) during the entire life cycle of exemplary ICT hardware devices by applying the life cycle assessment method. The examples calculated show that a focus on direct energy consumption alone fails to take account of relevant parts of the total energy consumption of ICT hardware as well as the relevance of the production phase. As a general tendency, the production phase is more and more important the smaller (and the more energy-efficient) the devices are. When in use, a tablet computer is much more energy-efficient than a desktop computer system with its various components, so its production phase has a much greater relative importance. Accordingly, the impacts due to data transfer when using Internet services are also increasingly relevant the smaller the end-user device is, reaching up to more than 90 % of the overall impact when using a tablet computer.

Sustainability intersects Information and Communication Technology in two domains: Green IT (how can we make ICT itself more sustainable?) and Green by IT (how can we achieve sustainability through ICT?). On a closer look, it is software that links these two fields: In “classic” Green IT, there are many ways to build and use hardware in a more energy-efficient way. On the software side, Green by IT has often been software-based until now, involving tools that help to optimize logistics and automate processes to save energy, for example. However, the debate over software-induced energy consumption is just beginning. To date, few studies have been conducted about the energy saving potential of software itself. Therefore, it is important to investigate the meaning of sustainable software and sustainable software engineering. This chapter provides definitions of these concepts. In addition, it presents a reference model of sustainable software as well as its engineering. However, it provides only a short introduction of the model itself. The sub-model “Sustainability Criteria for Software Products” and sustainable software process models are examined in greater detail.

Technologies for storing, transmitting, and processing information have made astounding progress in dematerialization. The amount of physical mass needed to represent one bit of information has dramatically decreased in the last few years, and is still declining. However, information will always need a material basis. In this chapter, we address both the upstream (from mining to the product) and the downstream (from the product to final disposal) implications of the composition of an average Swiss end-of-life (EoL) consumer ICT device from a materials perspective. Regarding the upstream implications, we calculate the scores of the MIPS material rucksack indicator and the ReCiPe mineral resource depletion indicator for selected materials contained in ICT devices, namely polymers, the base metals Al, Cu, and Fe, and the geochemically scarce metals Ag, Au, and Pd. For primary production of one kg of raw material found in consumer ICT devices, the highest material rucksack and resource depletion scores are obtained for the three scarce metals Ag, Au, and Pd; almost the entire material rucksack for these metals is determined by the mining and refining processes. This picture changes when indicator scores are scaled to their relative mass per kg average Swiss EoL consumer ICT device: the base metals Fe and in particular Cu now score much higher than the scarce metals for both indicators. Regarding the downstream implications, we determine the effects of a substitution of primary raw materials in ICT devices with secondary raw materials recovered from EoL consumer ICT devices on both indicator scores. According to our results, such a substitution leads to benefits which are highest for the base metals, followed by scarce metals. The recovery of secondary raw materials from EoL consumer ICT devices can significantly reduce the need for primary raw materials and subsequently the material rucksacks and related impacts. However, increased recycling is not a panacea: the current rapid growth of the materials stock in the technosphere necessitates continuous natural resource depletion, and recycling itself is ultimately limited by thermodynamics.

The increasing penetration of society with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is resulting in growing waste volumes. Typical of this waste is the combination of its intrinsic value due to the high content of basic and precious metals with health and environmental hazards caused by the occurrence of toxic substances in combination with inadequate recycling practices. Based on the principle of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR), industrialized countries have legislated WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment) management. As a consequence, producers established take-back schemes. In developing countries, the absence of a legal framework and formal recycling infrastructure as well as the presence of the self-organized informal sector has complicated similar efforts. In some countries, progress could be achieved through the promulgation of a legal framework and the establishment of basic recycling infrastructure. The environmental and social aspects associated with the improper recycling of WEEE and the sustainable reintegration of secondary resources demands strong efforts from industry, government, and civil society.

Sales statistics of computing devices show that users are not replacing units one by one, but rather adding additional devices to their hardware portfolios. This chapter describes the outcomes of a first attempt to quantify the ecological implications of changes in the use of ICT hardware for computing services by using LCA and applying three different perspectives ranging from individual devices to global sales of desktop, laptop, and tablet computers. In particular, it addresses the question of which effect actually predominates: the increase in efficiency induced by the emergence of new technologies or the growing energy consumption due to an increased number of devices combined with a higher utilization rate by individual users. The comparison shows a clear reduction of the environmental impact per hour of active use; and the smaller the device, the smaller the impact due to the active use of the device. However, when the evolution in the use of these kinds of devices is taken into account as well, the picture changes. The calculations show that the higher in-use efficiency of individual devices is fully compensated by the efforts for the production of the increasing number of devices in use, without even considering increased use time. If increased use intensity is assumed as well, a clear increase of the overall impact per day can be observed.

The progress of technological development and the resulting rapid replacement of end-user devices has brought increasing issues of electronics waste upon our society. Interaction designers and researchers within the field of human-computer interaction have begun to tackle issues of environmental sustainability in recent years, including the problem of obsolescence. By considering the experiential aspects of obsolescence and the ways in which interaction design could have an impact on experience, the field presents promising approaches with potential to contribute to and complement current materials-focused solutions. In this chapter, we report on a survey of sustainable human-computer interaction research that investigates or addresses issues of obsolescence, presenting challenges as well as opportunities for interaction designers to contribute to solving these issues.

A methodology for the inclusion of sustainability assessment in the design of supply chains is introduced, with the aim of taking into account a sustainability perspective in logistics and industrial allocation choices. The presented approach is based on the initial collection and organization of data related to all stages of the product life cycle and of the possible alternative choices to be made for each production and transport stage. An optimization algorithm is then used to prune the space of alternative solutions and an advanced and flexible graphical user interface allows the exploration of the solution space.

We present a software system to create and implement internal markets in organizations that want to limit the CO₂ emissions or the use of scarce resources by their employees. This system can be applied to domains such as business travel by distributing a limited number of permits for business travel-related CO₂ emissions at the beginning of a period and then allowing the permits to be traded inside the organization. The system calculates the CO₂ emissions caused by planned trips and provides the market mechanisms to trade the permits. The approach can be generalized from emission permits to any scarce good that is assigned by the management to units or individual members of the organization, such as parking spaces. Both cases are described by way of detailed examples.

Material Flow Networks (MFN) are a modeling instrument in the field of material flow analysis (MFA) that helps to characterize current or future material and energy flows and stocks. Often, efficiency analyses such as life cycle assessments and cost accounting use such models to calculate the relationship between positive outcomes and negative impacts. The systematic integration of stocks makes it possible to analyze infrastructures that provide services, which is necessary in order to assess the effects of replacing material goods by services. The first part of this paper outlines Material Flow Networks as a period-oriented accounting system that systematically integrates stock and flow accounting. The second part is concerned with the question of how to construct the models and calculate data. From this perspective, the instrument becomes a modeling framework.

This paper outlines the development as well as the technical features of a corporate environmental management information system (CEMIS) and explains how integrated system-oriented information systems can facilitate environmental sustainability in business organizations. Furthermore, the paper discusses implications (lessons learned) of the IT-for-Green project. The paper also discusses further requirements of traditional CEMIS toward a next generation of CEMIS focusing on a more strategic level instead of a compliance approach and on an interactive exchange of information between stakeholders, as well as the realization of synergy effects using green services.

In this chapter, we investigate the concept of Smart Sustainable Cities. We begin with five major developments of the last decades and show how they can be said to build a basis for the Smart Sustainable Cities concept. We argue that for the concept to have any useful meaning, it needs to be more strictly defined than it has previously been. We suggest such a definition and bring up some of the concept’s more crucial challenges.

Considerable effort is put into the design and development of cleaner and more efficient energy systems. In this paper, we describe the problems arising when these systems are designed from a top-down technological perspective and when much development fails to account for the complex processes involved since people and their practices are key parts of transitioning to new systems. The transition to a smart grid not only demands new technologies, but is also fundamentally dependent on households taking on a role as co-managers of the energy system. The chapter illustrates how the emerging research field of “sustainable interaction design” may play a role in supporting these roles and in shaping sustainable practices.

The current patterns of production and consumption in the industrialized world are not sustainable. The goods and services we consume cause resource extractions, greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts that are already affecting the conditions of living on Earth. To support the transition toward sustainable consumption patterns, ICT applications that persuade consumers to change their behavior into a “green” direction have been developed in the field of Persuasive Technology (PT). Such persuasive systems, however, have been criticized for two reasons. First, they are often based on the assumption that information (e.g., information on individual energy consumption) causes behavior change, or a change in awareness and attitude that then changes behavior. Second, PT approaches assume that the designer of the system starts from objective criteria for “sustainable” behavior and is able to operationalize them in the context of the application. In this chapter, we are exploring the potential of gamification to overcome the limitations of persuasive systems. Gamification, the process of using game elements in a non-game context, opens up a broader design space for ICT applications created to support sustainable consumption. In particular, a gamification-based approach may give the user more autonomy in selecting goals and relating individual action to social interaction. The idea of gamification may also help designers to view the user’s actions in a broader context and to recognize the relevance of different motivational aspects of social interaction, such as competition and cooperation. Based on this discussion we define basic requirements to be used as guidance in gamification-based motivation design for sustainable consumption.

Renewable Energy Sources (RES) are considered a solution for a sustainable power supply. But integrating these decentralized power sources into the current power grid designed for a centralized power supply is a challenging task. We suggest distributed, agent-based and self-organized control algorithms for distributed units in a “Smart Grid” as a promising but challenging solution. Dynamical Virtual Power Plants (DVPP) are introduced as a first prototype of distributed controlled components of a Smart Grid. Tools and methods for a comprehensive evaluation of such new Smart Grid control methods in terms of technological indicators as well as sustainability indicators will be the next challenge in research and development for computer scientists in this domain.

While the traditional roles of the computer as a machine for scientific calculations, text editing, and graphic design are still significant, computers are increasingly perceived as means of accessing information and interacting with other people—i.e., as electronic media. The aim of this chapter is to analyze digital electronic media and their effects on environmental sustainability. Two fields of application are addressed: electronic media that may replace or augment traditional print media such as newspapers or magazines, and videoconferencing as a potential substitute for traveling to a face-to-face meeting or conference. In both cases, the environmental costs of the electronic media are compared to those of their conventional counterparts. The examples show that electronic media can represent an energy-efficient alternative to traditional activities such as long-distance travel. But they can also be added on top of existing activities instead of replacing them. In such cases, a net increase in the environmental impact results. The availability of small, energy-efficient devices being used as electronic media does not guarantee dematerialization. The overall resource use and emissions throughout the life cycle of the media product systems and, more importantly, at the macro level of total global production and consumption need to be considered. To achieve the dematerialization potential of new electronic media solutions, their efficiency needs to be combined with sufficiency; thus additional measures are necessary to turn the dematerialization potential of electronic media into environmental relief.

This contribution is based on the talk I gave at the conference on ICT for Sustainability, February 14–16, ETH Zürich [1], in which I reopened the discussion on the impact of ICT on energy consumption [2]. The chapter has four sections. The introduction connects my topic to the conference theme. In part two, I discuss energy conservation; the mutual substitutability of energy, time and information; and some fundamental aspects of the nature of these three quantities. In the third part I present two empirical case studies of this mutual substitutability. Finally, in the fourth section, I conclude by speculating on what these results may mean in term of ICT’s effects on sustainability, mindful of the role of time and of economic growth in this interaction.

This paper presents a critical review of the literature on the rebound effects generated by information and communication technologies (ICT). Following a discussion of the types of general rebound, including direct, indirect, and economy-wide, the literature on ICT-related rebound effects is critically assessed. The chapter suggests ways of overcoming rebound and lays out promising avenues of research to better understand and tackle rebound effects in ICT.

This chapter revisits a System Dynamics model developed in 2002 with the aim of exploring the future impacts of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on environmental sustainability in the EU, which then consisted of 15 countries. The time horizon of the study was 20 years (2000–2020). We analyze the results in light of empirical data that is now available for 2000–2012. None of the three scenarios that were developed by experts to specify the external factors needed to run the model were realistic from today’s point of view. If the model is re-run with more realistic input data for the first half of the simulation period, however, the main results regarding the impact of ICT remain qualitatively the same; they seem to be relatively robust implications of the causal system structure, as it is represented in the model. Overall, the impacts of ICT for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental burdens for 2020 tend to be slightly stronger if the simulation is based on the empirical data now available.