Digital transformation—life cycle assessment of digital services, multifunctional devices and cloud computing

Itten, René; Hischier, Roland; Andrae, Anders; Bieser, Jan; Cabernard, Livia; Falke, Annemarie; Ferreboeuf, Hugues; Hilty, Lorenz M.; Keller, Regula; Lees-Perasso, Etienne; Preist, Chris; Stucki, Matthias

doi:10.1007/s11367-020-01801-0

Cited by 40 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Recently, a method was developed to analyze the impacts of materials on a national level [61][62][63], and extended to assess the impacts of any intermediate sector and region for any impact category of any MRIO database [10]. It was applied to assess the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of global material production [10,[64][65][66][67][68][69], plastics production [64], ICT manufacturing [68], and the EU's food consumption [69]. However, an application to the G20's material production and consumption is missing in the scientific literature despite its importance for policy making, given the G20's key role in collective action to promote sustainable material production and consumption.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although the inclusion of downstream impacts is optional in scope 3 assessment [26], downstream emissions are critical for fossil resources as their combustion causes the vast majority of global GHG emissions [70,71]. Previous studies [10,[64][65][66][67][68][69] have tracked the use of materials (and the impacts related to their production) in the downstream chain, such as to analyze which fraction of the emissions of steel production were attributed to steel used in construction. Also, one study has allocated GHG emissions of global plastics production to the type of fossil fuel that is combusted [64].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food

Cabernard

Pfister

Hellweg

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Transparency in global value chains of materials, fuels, and food is critical for the implementation of sustainability policies. Such policies should be led by the G20, who represent more than 80% of global material, fuel, and food consumption. Multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analysis plays an important role for consumption-based assessment, including supply chains and their environmental impacts. However, previous accounting schemes were unable to fully assess the impacts of materials, fuels, and food. To close this gap, we provide an improved method to map key aspects of sustainability along value chains of materials, fuels, and food. The results show that the rise in global coal-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1995 and 2015 was driven by the G20’s metals and construction materials industry. In 2015, the G20 accounted for 96% of global coal-related GHG emissions, of which almost half was from the extraction and processing of metals and construction materials in China and India. Major drivers include China’s rising infrastructure and exports of metals embodied in machinery, transport and electronics consumed by other G20 members. In 2015, the vast majority (70–95%) of the GHG emissions of metals consumed by the EU, USA, Canada, Australia, and other G20 members were emitted abroad, mostly in China. In contrast, hotspots in the impact displacement of water stress, land-use related biodiversity loss, and low-paid workforce involve the G20’s food imports from non-G20 members. Particularly high-income members have contributed to the G20’s rising environmental footprints by their increasing demand for materials, food and fuels extracted and processed in lower-income regions with less strict environmental policies, higher water stress and more biodiversity loss. Our results underline the G20’s importance of switching to renewable energy, substituting high-impact materials, improving supply chains, and using site-specific competitive advantages to reduce impacts on water and ecosystems.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food

Cabernard

Pfister

Hellweg

2022

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…Marleen Jattke (ZHAW) showed how business models can extend the lifetime of mobile internet-enabled devices and therefore contribute to more sustainable consumption (Jobin et al 2020;Jattke et al 2020). As discussed during the 73rd Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment on global digital transformation, an increasing number of mobile Internet-enabled devices (MIEDs), whose production requires large amount of resources, energy, and causes emissions during production, are being sold (Itten et al 2020). Extending the lifetime of MIEDs can significantly reduce their ecological footprint.…”

Section: Responsible Public and Private Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How life cycle–based science and practice support the transition towards a sustainable economy

Stucki

Jattke

Berr

et al. 2021

Int J Life Cycle Assess

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Keyword LCA • sustainable economy • transition • decision-making • policy • circular economy 1. How can decision-makers use life cycle-based approaches to boost sustainable decisions? 2. Which life cycle-based approaches are best suited to reveal opportunities and risks for sustainability within the different economic sectors? 3. Which instruments are most useful for combining environmental, economic, and societal aims?These issues were additionally discussed in bilateral sessions, where experts exchanged their knowledge in Communicated by Matthias Finkbeiner.

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“…However, they faced technical (e.g., data collection, scalability, and security) and non-technical (e.g., business model) challenges [13,14]. In addition, the physical resources (i.e., material, energy, and emissions) required for digitalization must be considered jointly with the added benefit of the service [15]. Although digital aids can be an opportunity to facilitate the transition to sustainable travel, we still lack knowledge of how and when digitized processes could play a crucial role in sustainable travel.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Can Be Done to Change?—The Environmental and Behavioral Consequences of Interventions for Sustainable Travel

et al. 2022

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Digital transformation—life cycle assessment of digital services, multifunctional devices and cloud computing

Cited by 40 publications

References 13 publications

Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food

Improved sustainability assessment of the G20’s supply chains of materials, fuels, and food

How life cycle–based science and practice support the transition towards a sustainable economy

What Can Be Done to Change?—The Environmental and Behavioral Consequences of Interventions for Sustainable Travel

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