The energy and carbon footprint of the global ICT and E&M sectors 2010 - 2015

22 pages•Published: May 10, 2018

Abstract

This paper estimates the energy and carbon footprint of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Entertainment & Media (E&M) sectors globally for 2010-2015 as well as a forecast to 2020. It builds on two previous global studies (2007 and 2011) and a Swedish study (2015) by the same authors. The study is based on a extensive dataset which combines primary and secondary data for operational (use stage) energy consumption and life cycle greenhouse gas emissions (CO2e) for the included sub- sectors, including energy and carbon footprint data from about 100 of the major global manufacturers, operators and ICT and E&M service providers. The data set also includes sale statistics and forecasts for equipment to estimate product volumes in addition to published LCA studies and primary manufacturing data to estimate the embodied carbon footprint of products. The result shows that the ICT and E&M sectors have turned their previous growing footprints into shrinking ones despite a continuous increase in subscriptions and data traffic. Furthermore the results of this study is also indicating significantly lower levels than previous forecasts.

Keyphrases: carbon footprint, e&m sector, energy footprint, ict, ict sector, media sector

In: Birgit Penzenstadler, Steve Easterbrook, Colin Venters and Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed (editors). ICT4S2018. 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability, vol 52, pages 187-208.

Links:	https://easychair.org/publications/paper/MRdh
	https://doi.org/10.29007/nvd8

BibTeX entry

@inproceedings{ICT4S2018:energy_carbon_footprint_global,
  author    = {Jens Malmodin and Dag Lundén},
  title     = {The energy and carbon footprint of the global ICT and E&M sectors 2010 - 2015},
  booktitle = {ICT4S2018. 5th International Conference on Information and Communication Technology for Sustainability},
  editor    = {Birgit Penzenstadler and Steve Easterbrook and Colin Venters and Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed},
  series    = {EPiC Series in Computing},
  volume    = {52},
  publisher = {EasyChair},
  bibsource = {EasyChair, https://easychair.org},
  issn      = {2398-7340},
  url       = {/publications/paper/MRdh},
  doi       = {10.29007/nvd8},
  pages     = {187-208},
  year      = {2018}}

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