Modeling and evaluating the sustainability of smart solutions

Hilty, Lorenz M.; Aebischer, Bernard; Rizzoli, Andrea Emilio

doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2014.04.001

Cited by 51 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 32 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…However, there are very few scientific studies evaluating these resource efficiency potentials for industry. The Global e-Sustainability Initiative estimates that efficiency gains through digital production will allow for saving 81 billion liter of water and 4.2 billion MWh electricity [24], but parts of this study are heavily disputed in the scientific community [25].…”

Section: Resource Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

More Sustainability in Industry through Industrial Internet of Things?

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Industrial production plays an important role for achieving a green economy and the sustainable development goals. Therefore, the nascent transformation of industrial production due to digitalization into a so-called Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is of great interest from a sustainable development point of view. This paper discusses how the environmental dimension of a sustainable development can potentially benefit from the IIoT-focusing especially on three topics: resource efficiency, sustainable energy and transparency. It presents a state of the art literature analysis of IIoT-enabled approaches addressing the three environmental topics. This analysis is compared with the findings of a survey among Chinese industrial companies, investigating the sustainability-related expectations of participants coming along with the implementation of IIoT solutions. China has been chosen as a case study because it brings together a strong industrial sector, ambitious plans regarding industrial digitalization and a high relevance and need for more sustainability. The survey was conducted with the means of a questionnaire which was distributed via email and used for direct on-site interviews. It focused on large and medium sized companies mainly from Liaoning Province and had a sample size of 109 participants.

show abstract

Section: Resource Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

More Sustainability in Industry through Industrial Internet of Things?

2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The methodological challenges we identify seem to be of general importance for the assessment of indirect environmental effects of ICT (some are also described in [29], [30]). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Assessments of indirect effects of ICT on GHG emissions need to identify baseline emissions, i.e., the emissions that would be expected if the ICT use case under study were not adopted [29]. Isolating the adoption of specific ICT use cases from a baseline scenario can be difficult since ICT has widely penetrated society.…”

Section: Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

Indirect Effects of the Digital Transformation on Environmental Sustainability: Methodological Challenges in Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Potential of ICT

Bieser¹,

Hilty²

EPiC Series in Computing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The digital transformation has direct and indirect effects on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Direct effects are caused by the production, use and disposal of information and communication technology (ICT) hardware. Indirect effects include the changes to patterns of production and consumption in other domains. Studies quantifying both effects often conclude that net effects (indirect minus direct effects) can lead to a significant GHG emission reduction. We revisited a study by Accenture on ICT's GHG abatement potential in Switzerland by reassessing the main assumptions. Our results confirm that ICT has the potential to reduce GHG emissions in Switzerland, especially in the building, transport and energy domains. However, our results also suggest that the potential is smaller than anticipated and that exploiting this potential requires targeted action. Reasons for differences among these results (and the results of similar other studies) are: degrees of freedom in the assessment methodology, selection of ICT use cases, allocation of impacts to ICT, definition of the baseline, estimation of the environmental impact, prediction of the future adoption of use cases, estimation of rebound effects, interaction among use cases, and extrapolation from use case to societywide impacts. We suggest addressing these methodological challenges to improve comparability of results.

show abstract

“…It should be noted that other authors pose different positions or approaches to study. Authors such as [45,46] go one step further and consider the potential of smart technologies as a solution to the problems of environmental unsustainability, which is determined by the size of the carbon footprint and the environmental and energy impact that these technologies will cause during the improvement of other processes. In addition, according to [47], cities can be made sustainable without the use of smart ICT, and smart technologies can be used in cities without contributing to sustainable development; and, these technologies can also be used for sustainable development in locations other than cities.…”

Section: Smart City Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contribution of Smart Cities to the Energy Sustainability of the Binomial between City and Country

Villa-Arrieta

Sumper

2019

Applied Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Featured Application: This work analyzes the contribution of energy self-sufficiency in cities (smart cities) to energy security and the environmental sustainability of the countries.Abstract: Cities are at the center of the transition to a decarbonized economy. The high consumption of electricity in these urban areas causes them to be the main focus of greenhouse gas emissions. However, they have a high margin of capacity to increase energy efficiency and local energy generation. Along these lines, the smart urban management model has been proposed as a solution to the unsustainability of cities. Due to the global trend of population concentration in urban areas, cities tend to be representative of the population, energy consumption, and energy sustainability of their countries. Based on this hypothesis, this paper studied the relationship between the smart city model and the concept of energy sustainability. First, the research analyzed the relationship between urban population growth and energy sustainability; and then the self-consumption capacity of photovoltaic electricity of the main cities of the countries classified in the energy sustainability indicator (Energy Trilemma Index 2017) of the World Energy Council was analyzed. According to the results, the scope of action for self-consumption of photovoltaic electricity is broad and cities have the capacity to contribute significantly to the energy sustainability of their countries. Following the approach of other authors, the development of energy sustainability objectives and the installation of smart systems in distribution grids must be aligned with national objectives.

show abstract

Modeling and evaluating the sustainability of smart solutions

Cited by 51 publications

References 32 publications

More Sustainability in Industry through Industrial Internet of Things?

More Sustainability in Industry through Industrial Internet of Things?

Indirect Effects of the Digital Transformation on Environmental Sustainability: Methodological Challenges in Assessing the Greenhouse Gas Abatement Potential of ICT

Contribution of Smart Cities to the Energy Sustainability of the Binomial between City and Country

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About