Lisbeth Hesse, Christoph Derndorfer, Nadhira Gunatilleke, Thomas Schauer

available in English

The publication provides an in depth analysis about the impact of information technology on resource consumption. It indicates two principal pathways, namely addition and substitution. While on the one hand a substitution of many real activities by virtual ones is possible, there is also evidence that information technology will continue to boost industrial production, so that the service economy (regarding resource consumption) might rather add upon the industrial production instead of replacing it.

The study provides detailed analysis of direct and indirect effects in the areas of energy and paper consumption, travel and transport and discusses issues such as production and waste.

1 SUMMARY

2 PROBLEMATIQUE AND STRATEGIES

  2.1 The Problematique: Substitution or Addition?
  2.2 Assessing Strategies for Reducing Resource Consumption

3 PAPER AND PAPERLESS TECHNOLOGY

  3.1 Introduction
  3.2 About Paper and Paper Use
  3.3 Paper Consumption in Offices
  3.4 Office Imaging Equipment
  3.5 Document Management Systems (DMS)
  3.6 Potential of E-Books, E-Readers and E-Newspapers
  3.7 Energy Consumption of E-Book Devices Compared to Printed Books
  3.8 The Impact of Virtual Books
  3.9 Electronic Newspapers
  3.10 Perspectives
  3.11 Literature

4 TRAVEL AND TRANSPORT

  4.1 Introduction
  4.2 Attitudes to Travel and Transport
  4.3 Travel Distances, Travel Time and Mode of Transport
  4.4 Environmental Impact of Travel and Transport
  4.5 The Impact of IT on Travel Behaviour
  4.6 The Use of Information and Communication Technologies
  4.7 Telework and Travel
  4.8 Videoconferencing and Telepresence Costs and Markets
  4.9 The Social Dimension of Presence and Telepresence
  4.10 Travel and IT Interaction
  4.11 E-Shopping and Transport
  4.12 Perspectives
  4.13 Literature

5 ENERGY CONSUMPTION BY IT

  5.1 Introduction
  5.2 Status quo of Energy Consumption by IT
  5.3 Personal Computers and Note-books
  5.4 Displays
  5.5 Power Management
  5.6 Remote management
  5.7 Industry Initiatives
  5.8 Estimating the Total Impact
  5.9 Servers and Data Centers
  5.10 Virtualization
  5.11 Facility Energy Efficiency
  5.12 Cloud Computing
  5.13 Trends at Data Centres
  5.14 Trends at Infrastructure
  5.15 Impact by Mobile Phones
  5.16 Device Chargers
  5.17 Portable Media Players
  5.18 Game Consoles
  5.19 High-Resolution Media-Playback Devices
  5.20 Dematerialization within the IT Sector
  5.21 Outlook
  5.22 Literature
  

6. PRODUCTION AND WASTE

  6.1 Introduction
  6.2 Hazardous Materials Commonly Found in IT Products
  6.3 Product Design Considerations
  6.4 IT Hardware Production: GHGs
  6.5 Data and Missing Data
  6.6. Best Practice - Including Packaging
  6.7 Electronic Waste
  6.8 Worst Practice: Manual Dismantling in Africa and Asia
  6.9 Legislation and International Agreements
  6.10 Industry Initiatives
  6.11 Recycling and Separation
  6.12 Outlook
  6.13 Literature
  

7 RECOMMENDATIONS

  7.1 Paper and Paperless Technology
  7.2 Mobility and Transport
  7.3 Energy Consumption by IT
  7.4 Production and Waste

Printed version

The publication will be available end of February/early March.

Contact