Rebound effects of progress in information technology

Telematics and Informatics

Birtel

2012

143

There is a growing consensus that ICT can make an important contribution towards the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, both by increasing the efficiency of existing processes, and by enabling substitution effects in an effort to implement more energy efficient paradigms in production and consumption. While, however, many studies based on theoretical reduction potentials have been presented, in practice, it has only been possible to cite a few examples of such reductions thus far. This paper presents the results of a first field experiment for one particular domain in which ICT can be substituted for more carbon-intensive technologies: using advanced videoconferencing technology to reduce intercontinental conference travel and thus travel-related greenhouse gas emissions. We organized a large resource management conference simultaneously on two continents and assessed the emissions caused by the attendeesrsquo; travel and by the Internet traffic and the additional equipment needed to connect the two venues. We further assessed, based on a survey, the emissions in the alternative scenarios of holding the conference at either one of the places, and the satisfaction of the participants with the two-site conference format. The results show that reductions of 37% and 50% in travel-related greenhouse gas emissions were attained as compared to the one-site alternatives, although more people took part than in any of these alternatives. At the same time, the attendees' experience has been overwhelmingly positive, showing that the multiple-site paradigm can serve as an acceptable alternative to the traditional one-site paradigm of holding an international conference. AbstractThere is a growing consensus that ICT can contribute to the reduction of anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, both by increasing the efficiency of existing processes and by enabling substitution effects to usher in more energy efficient patterns of production and consumption. While, however, many studies based on theoretical reduction potentials have been presented, in practice it has only been possible to cite a few examples of such reductions thus far.This article presents the results of a field experiment for one particular domain in which ICT can be substituted for more carbon-intensive technologies: using advanced videoconferencing technology to reduce intercontinental conference travel and thus travel-related GHG emissions. We organized a large resource management conference simultaneously on two continents and assessed the emissions caused by the attendees' travel and by the additional ICT equipment utilized to connect the two venues. We further assessed, based on a survey, the emissions in the alternative scenarios of holding the conference at either one of the places, and the satisfaction of the participants with the two-site conference format.The results show that reductions of 37% and 50% in travel-related GHG emissions were attained as compared to the single-site alternatives, although more people took...

Section: System Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Internet-based multiple-site conferences on greenhouse gas emissions

Coroamă

Telematics and Informatics

Birtel

2012

143

“…These new aspects are: 4 Dematerialization effects of computing result in relevant reductions in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, if not compensated by rebound effects [29,30]. 5 Embedded ICT hardware can also compromise established recycling processes [31][32][33].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethical Issues in Ubiquitous Computing—Three Technology Assessment Studies Revisited

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

2015

This paper discusses ethical issues in ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing from the perspective of the general discourse on ethics in computing, which started in the 1970s, two decades before the "ubicomp" vision emerged. The IFIP "Human Choice and Computers" conferences are used as points of reference for the general computing ethics discourse, and three technology as-sessment projects related to the ubicomp vision serve as a (nonrepresentative) sample of documents from the discussion of ethical issues in a ubicomp world. Revisiting these studies from the general computing ethics point of view shows that the basic issues have persisted, but ubicomp has added new aspects that were not anticipated in the earlier discourse. Abstract. This paper discusses ethical issues in ubiquitous (or pervasive) computing from the perspective of the general discourse on ethics in computing, which started in the 1970s, two decades before the "ubicomp" vision emerged.The IFIP "Human Choice and Computers" conferences are used as points of reference for the general computing ethics discourse, and three technology assessment projects related to the ubicomp vision serve as a (nonrepresentative) sample of documents from the discussion of ethical issues in a ubicomp world. Revisiting these studies from the general computing ethics point of view shows that the basic issues have persisted, but ubicomp has added new aspects that were not anticipated in the earlier discourse.

“…The program first focused on substitution effects, such as electronic media substituted for print media [101], or videoconferencing substituted for travel [102] and their counteracting induction and rebound effects [103]. The chapter by Coroama, Moberg, and Hilty [88] in this volume provides an update on the substitution of electronic for traditional media.…”

Section: Energy Demand Throughout the Life Cycle Of Ict Devicesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2003, a controlled experiment was conducted that confirmed that increasing processing power of PCs was overcompensated for by new software versions in terms of user productivity, at least for the basic tasks of file handling and text editing. New versions of operating systems and text processors not only forced users to buy new PCs because of their higher demand of computing power (and therefore shortened lifetime of hardware), they also increased the time users would spend at the machine to perform the same task as before [103,113]. This trend, known as "software bloat", came to a temporary halt with the emergence of small mobile devices, in particular smartphones and tablets -thanks to the limitation of the energy density of their batteries.…”

Section: 6mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Energy Demand of ICT: A Historical Perspective and Current Methodological Challenges

Aebischer¹,

Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

2014

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, ac-counting for embedded ICT, and assessing the effect of software on ICT energy consumption. Abstract. 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.