This report focuses on the contribution of ICT to improvements in resource efficiency and transport intensity at the macro, meso and micro levels. It presents the research on environmental effects of e-business and e-work.
The research strand explored the implication of ICT and its applications from the micro- (case study), meso- (different e-business types) and macro-level (macro-economic and policy level).
The "macro-analysis-module" aimed at quantifying the potential contribution of e-business and ICT to dematerialisation and resource productivity. The analysis followed a top-down approach complementary to the case study based microanalyses. It compromised the analysis of energy-use and selected material flows (CO(2)) of three EU Member States to determine whether there is any macro-level evidence of dematerialization and increased resource productivity resulting from e-business and ICT.
From a micro and meso level perspective, the research object has been the provision of new IT based applications instead of "traditional" products, services and customs (e-commerce and telework). The research quantified the resource- and transport efficiency of e-business in different case studies and identified key factors determining the impact on resource- and transport efficiency.
The environmental impacts of mobile computing : a case study with HP ; final report ; Digital Europe
(2003)
This report includes the results and calculations of the HP case study within the Digital Europe project. This case study investigates the environmental effects of mobile computing devices as an element of the growing ICT infrastructure for applications such as ecommerce, egovernment and telework. Specifically, the resource intensity of a notebook computer and a handheld device will be analysed and discussed.
This report presents the calculations and findings as well as the resulting recommendations from the Barclays Plc case study within the Digital Europe project. Chapter 2 gives the background to the case study; chapter 3 investigates the environmental aspects; and chapter 4 highlights social aspects of different banking scenarios. Chapter 5 outlines future scenarios in the sector and chapter 6 finally makes recommendations for business and government.
Resource-efficient construction : the role of eco-innovation for the construction sector in Europe
(2011)
Technical innovations can contribute significantly to increase resource efficiency. A selection of 21 examples for resource efficient technologies, products and strategies from the field shows the brochure Resource Efficiency Atlas, which was created in line with the same titled project. Overall the project team analysed several hundred technical solutions and strategies and assessed its possible contributions to increases in resource efficiency. The project was arranged co-operatively by the Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering IAO, the Trifolium-Beratungsgesellschaft mbH and the Institut für Arbeitswissenschaften und Technologiemanagement of the University Stuttgart. The examples from the brochure and further 70 examples can be seen on the project website www.ressourceneffizenzatlas.de.
The innovative software system "myEcoCost" enables to gather and communicate resource and environmental data for products and services in global value chains. The system has been developed in the consortium of the European research project myEcoCost and forms a basis of a new, highly automated environmental accounting system für companies and consumers. The prototype of the system, linked to financial accounting of companies, was developed and tested in close collaboration with large and small companies.
This brochure gives a brief introduction to the vision linked to myEcoCost: a network formed by collaborative environmental accounting nodes collecting environmental data at each step in a product's value chains. It shows why better life cycle data are needed and how myEcoCost addresses and solves this problem. Furthermore, it presents options for a future upscaling of highly automated environmenal accounting for prodcuts and services.
The CO2 utilisation is discussed as one of the future low-carbon technologies in order to accomplish a full decarbonisation in the energy intensive industry. CO2 is separated from the flue gas stream of power plants or industrial plants and is prepared for further processing as raw material. CO2 containing gas streams from industrial processes exhibit a higher concentration of CO2 than flue gases from power plants; consequentially, industrial CO2 sources are used as raw material for the chemical industry and for the synthesis of fuel on the output side. Additionally, fossil resources can be replaced by substitutes of reused CO2 on the input side. If set up in a right way, this step into a CO2-based circular flow economy could make a contribution to the decarbonisation of the industrial sector and according to the adjusted potential, even rudimentarily to the energy sector.
In this study, the authors analyse potential CO2 sources, the potential demand and the range of applications of CO2. In the last chapter of the final report, they give recommendations for research, development, politics and economics for an appropriate future designing of CO2 utilisation options based upon their previous analysis.
Information and communiction technologies (ICTs), as a crosscutting evolving technology, can contribute to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). This opinion is not only voiced by business, but also expressed in specific MDG targets as well as from a range of stakeholders, e.g. NGOs, intergovernmental organisations and financial institutions. However, ICT implications are not only beneficial, a range of stakeholders raises critical issues. Quantified information on ICT contribution to the MDGs available today on both micro and macro level does not meet the expectations. Business actors thus need solid and balanced sustainability information to accurately get the implications of ICT and to promote and assess their voluntary activities. In this context the project "A Comprehensive Approach for Assessing Risks and Opportunities of the ICT sector and ICT applications" addressed the contributions of the ICT sector to the achievement of the MDGs. The project's core objective has been to develop a discussion paper on the assessment of risks and opportunities of ICT. The scope of the paper is to raise awareness for a balanced approach of sustainability information (regarding the contribution to the MDGs, at micro and macro level, risks and opportunities) and to provide best practice examples for a comprehensive approach in the ICT sector. Therefore, research questions have been addressed such as: How can ICT contributions to the MDGs be quantified? What are the demands on sustainability information for the ICT sector? What are the business implications from this?