A Structural Analysis of the User Behavior Dynamics for Environmentally Sustainable ICT

TL;DR

This paper analyzes ICT as a complex system to identify mechanisms influencing energy and resource use, proposing strategies for sustainability to reduce environmental impacts and support global sustainability goals.

Contribution

It introduces a structural analysis framework of ICT as a complex system, highlighting key interactions and proposing measures for sustainability improvements.

Findings

ICT system components and interactions identified

Proposed measures for efficiency, sufficiency, and consistency

Framework supports reduction of environmental impacts

Abstract

The sector of information and communication technology (ICT) can contribute to the fulfillment of the Paris agreement and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) through the introduction of sustainability strategies. For environmental sustainability, such strategies should contain efficiency, sufficiency, and consistency measures. To propose such, a structural analysis of ICT is undertaken in this manuscript. Thereby, key mechanisms and dynamics behind the usage of ICT and the corresponding energy and resource use are analyzed by describing ICT as a complex system. The system contains data centers, communication networks, smartphone hardware, apps, and the behavior of the users as sub-systems, between which various Morinian interactions are present. Energy and non-energy resources can be seen as inputs of the system, while e-waste is an output. Based on the system description, we propose multiple measures for efficiency, sufficiency and consistency to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental impacts.