Streamlined Assessment to Assist in the Design of Internet-of-Things (IOT) Enabled Products: A Case Study of the Smart Fridge

Abstract

This paper shows how designers of IoT-enabled products can assess the environmental impacts associated with the user behaviour and the service system around the product. High-quality secondary data and a user-behaviour survey were able to highlight critical aspects of a smart fridge's design. A streamlined LCA looked at just the in-use phase of the product within 4 PSS scenarios. The system included: the effects on the food waste; grocery shopping methods; fridge door openings; and how the users interact with the smart fridge features. The results show that a smart fridge as within a PSS can reduce the impact on the environment (GWP of 21,700 kg CO2-eq within the ‘average PSS scenario’ and GWP of 23,100 kg CO2-eq for the normal fridge with ‘typical scenario’). The product's increased emissions are counteracted by the reduction in GWP due to: reduction in food waste; and shifts from brick-and-mortar grocery shopping to e-commerce. Therefore some of the critical aspects of the product's design that are most influential on the environmental impact of an IoT fridge are: the design of the web-browsing capability; and the use-by date tracking system.

Quantifying the Net Environmental Impact of Using IoT to Support Circular Strategies—The Case of Heavy-Duty Truck Tires in Sweden

“…Further, to actually increase the share of tires that are retreaded (parameter F), the retreading company would need to be willing and able to act on the data supplied by the IoT solution, and adjust their sorting procedure accordingly. These findings echo the discussion in Dekoninck and Barbaccia [20] about the need to design for behavioral change so that the potential savings that IoT can bring are actually realized through user actions. When assessing IoT-enabled strategies, it is thus important to closely examine the context in which it is going to be implemented, including the current and expected behavior of actors along the product lifecycle.…”

“…Previous studies have investigated the potential for IoT to reduce environmental impacts in the use-phase of products (e.g., [20,21]). In this study, we add to this by showing that IoT can also bring significant impact reductions in the production phase since it can enable both product lifetime extension and increased product recovery.…”

“…They concluded that adding the sensors did not conserve energy, due to the high energy requirements in the life cycle of occupancy sensors. In a more recent conference paper, Dekoninck and Barbaccia [20] conducted a 'streamlined LCA' of a smart fridge, only focusing on the use phase and using global warming potential (GWP) as the sole indicator for environmental impact. They found that the smart fridge was environmentally preferable since the use-phase GWP impact associated with adding IoT (mainly caused by energy use for browsing the internet) was smaller than the savings achieved through reduced food waste and increased levels of online grocery shopping (rather than traveling to the store).…”

“…The available literature also presents recommendations for how designers might increase the net environmental benefit of the respective IoT solutions, both how to maximize the environmental savings enabled by the IoT solution and how to minimize the environmental impacts from the IoT solution itself. Focusing on the first aspect, i.e., how to achieve environmental savings, Dekoninck and Barbaccia [20] emphasize the need to design user interfaces that can actually change user behavior. Kumar and Mani [19] recommend prioritizing use contexts for which the potential for impact reduction is high.…”

“…Kumar and Mani [19] recommend local production of sensors, low-impact packaging for sensors, improved reuse of electronic components, and improved recycling techniques for electronics. Dekoninck and Barbaccia [20] note that the onfridge web-browsing system should be designed carefully to minimize added impacts from internet browsing.…”