Impact and effects of ICT systems: approaches and results Budapest, 2003

Laboratory of ecosystem management

Impact and effects of ICT systems: approaches and results

Budapest, 2003

Yves Loerincik, Sangwon Suh, Christophe Matas, Olivier Jolliet, Jean-Marc Revaz


ICT systems

ICT systems: Internet, computer networks, monitoring systems etc….

- Complexity of the equipment - Influence of services- Impact or benefits of the system and indirect effects- Hidden impacts

Approaches:Process, Input-Output and hybrid LCA


Challenges

- To point out where are the main impacts in order to be as efficient as possible in reducing them;

- To understand the impacts and the benefits linked to the use of ICT systems and the indirect effects;

Reducing the impacts and promoting the benefits


The case study of the Swiss Federal

Institute of Technology (EPFL)

Internet infrastructure


Equipment Numberserver 68

switches 90router 22PC 6745

notebook 355printer 400cable 121225 meter

Step 1: Inventory of the necessary equipment for the Internet infrastructure at the EPFL

The functional unit = Internet infrastructure during one year


Corresponding annual costs

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

An

nu

al

co

st

[M$

]

5

Use

Production


Non-renewable embodied primary energy, comparison between use and production phase

(absolute value)

0.00E+00

1.00E+06

2.00E+06

3.00E+06

4.00E+06

5.00E+06

6.00E+06

7.00E+06

8.00E+06

En

erg

y [M

J]

use

production


0.00E+00

1.00E+07

2.00E+07

3.00E+07

4.00E+07

5.00E+07

6.00E+07

7.00E+07

8.00E+07

IO LCA Process LCA

En

erg

y [M

J]

papercableprinternotebookscreenrouterswitchcpuserver

Comparison between Input-Output and process LCA


Remarks

1. PCs are dominating (control unit (cpu) + screen)

2. Contribution of the switches and servers are significant

3. Use phase is in most of the cases dominating

4. The embodied energy during production is significant

5. IO LCA value is two times the PLCA result


Comparison of various case study for the non-renewable primary embodied energy of computers

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

MCC (PLCA) Miyamoto (PLCA) Atlantic Consulting(PLCA)

TU Munich (PLCA) IO LCA (LCANetbase)

En

erg

y [M

J]

Laboratory of ecosystem management Different levels of comprehensiveness

% to total upstream embodied

energy cumulative %Air transportation 12% 12%Electric services (utilities) 12% 24%Computer peripheral equipment 10% 34%Wholesale trade 10% 43%Semiconductors and related devices 9% 53%Petroleum refining 6% 59%Other electronic components 5% 64%Miscellaneous plastics products, n.e.c. 4% 68%Relays and industrial controls 3% 71%Gas production and distribution (utilities) 3% 74%Automotive rental and leasing, without drivers 2% 76%Hotels and lodging places 2% 78%Telephone and telegraph apparatus 2% 80%Aluminum rolling and drawing 2% 81%Motors and generators 1% 83%Blast furnaces and steel mills 1% 84%Sheet metal work 1% 85%Electron tubes 1% 85%Nonferrous wiredrawing and insulating 1% 86%Fabricated metal products, n.e.c. 1% 87%Legal services 1% 87%Paperboard containers and boxes 1% 88%Motor freight transportation and warehousing 1% 89%Power, distribution, and specialty transformers 1% 89%Gaskets, packing, and sealing devices 1% 90%Metal stampings, n.e.c. 1% 91%Real estate agents, managers, operators, and lessors 1% 91%Banking 1% 92%Eating and drinking places 1% 92%Management and consulting services, testing and research labs 1% 93%

Yellow = not normally considered in a PLCA


Remark

We only took into account the necessary physical equipment of the Internet infrastructure. But, if we

have a closer look (see next slide), the main expenses related to a computer network come from

other sectors than equipment (for example software, maintenance, management, etc…).


Total Cost of IT Ownership, Forrester Consultants, 1997

Hardware26%

Training14%

Software14%

Management46%

Management Costs:

Administration 34%

End user downtime 35%

Co-worker time 14%

Application developm’t 14%

Disaster prevention 5%

Disaster recovery 12%

If the boundaries are extended


Annual Costs, EPFL Internet

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

cpu

scre

en

note

book

serv

er

switc

h

rout

er

print

erca

ble

telec

om

softw

are

traini

ng mgt

Ann

ual C

ost

s [M

$]

Use

Production


0.00E+00

2.00E+07

4.00E+07

6.00E+07

8.00E+07

1.00E+08

1.20E+08

1.40E+08

1.60E+08

IO LCA with TCO IO LCA

En

erg

y [M

J]

mgt

training

software

telecom

cable

printer

notebook

screen

router

switch

cpu

server

Considering the other expenses and using an IO LCA

TCO = Total Cost of Ownership


New approach

1. Start with the EPFL expenses

2. Allocation to Internet (time, value, space, …)

3. Input-Output LCA first screening

4. Hybrid analysis more precisions


EPFL expenses allocated to the Internet infrastructure

0.00E+00

2.00E+05

4.00E+05

6.00E+05

8.00E+05

1.00E+06

1.20E+06

1.40E+06

1.60E+06

1.80E+06

2.00E+06

Buildin

gs m

ater

ials

Elect

ric in

stall

ation

mat

erial

s

elect

ric in

stall

ation

con

tract

secu

rity

equip

ment in

stall

ation

con

tract

buldi

ngs

cont

ract

elect

ric in

stall

ation

main

tena

nce

secu

rity

equip

ment m

ainte

nanc

e

build

ing m

ainte

nanc

e

elect

ricity

pape

r

Infor

matic

supp

lies

(con

sommab

les)

hard

war

e main

tena

nce

hard

war

e re

para

tion

infor

matics

pre

stat

ions

Infor

matic

netw

ork f

ees

(Sw

itch)

pers

onal

compu

ters

perip

hera

l equ

ipmen

t

salar

y

Co

st [

$/ye

ar]

buildingselectricity

IT-services

hardware

labor maintenance


First screening results (IO LCA) for the CO2 emission for one year

0.00E+00

5.00E+05

1.00E+06

1.50E+06

2.00E+06

2.50E+06

3.00E+06

3.50E+06

4.00E+06

CO

2 e

mis

sio

n [

kg/y

ea

r]

Hardware

Services (maintenance, …)

Electricity

Others


The monitoring system of the city of

Martigny


The problematic

- Cities are confronted with urging problems related to evolutions and recent events.

- The major part of the World’s population is living in the cities.

- For urban network managers the challenge is to run a good working infrastructure with respect to the citizen needs.


The approach

Urbistic = Urban management + Systemic

The city is composed by networks, that are systems, time and space dependent : water, gas, sewage, electricity, district heating or cooling, cabled TV, telecommunication (voice, data, image), transportation and so on.


Monitoring the flows

Measuring:

the flows within the city;

Understanding:

the interactions and the dynamic behaviour of the whole urban system ;

Reacting:

Actions aiming at improving these phenomena and coordinations can be defined only if the first two steps have been taken.


Description of the system

Martigny, Switzerland, 15'000 inhabitants.

Using microcomputers and the cabled TV network, the MAN (metropolitan area network) produces every hour a

total of more than 300 measures of consumption


Measuring station

Measurements:

- Water;- Electricity;- Gas;- District heating;


Benefits

Examples of actions:- Analysis of the gas and district heating consuming

facilities: a systematic over sizing of the equipment was detected in 90% of the studied cases;

- Electricity consumption of the heating plant: the global electrical consumption has decreased in a significant way;

- Inadequate watering detection, the urban utilities has defered the investments for a new reservoir and save more than 300’000 m3 a year;

- dynamic tariffing;


Comparison: Infrastructure versus benefits

-

50'000.00

100'000.00

150'000.00

200'000.00

250'000.00

300'000.00

350'000.00

400'000.00

450'000.00

500'000.00

Infrastructure Benefits

Co

st

[$/y

ea

r]

Water

Distance heating

Reservoir

Heating facility

Working place

Cable network

Electricity

Software

Cable

Captors

Modems

PC cards

PC

Research projects


Comparison: Infrastructure versus benefits

0.00E+00

1.00E+05

2.00E+05

3.00E+05

4.00E+05

5.00E+05

6.00E+05

7.00E+05

Infrastructure Benefits

CO

2 e

mis

sio

n [

kg

/ye

ar]

Water

Distance heating

Reservoir

Heating facility

Working place

Cable network

Electricity

Software

Cable

Captors

Modems

PC cards

PC

Research projects


- Input-Output approach enables a rapid screening- Process and hybrid approach can be used to go more in details, take into account particularities (for instance regional characteristics)- Impact of services can be evaluated- Impact of indirect effects can be evaluated (provided that we know what they are)

Conclusion


- To carry on with the hybrid analysis to have more precise results;- To better evaluate the impact of service;- Work together with social scientists to better evaluate the indirect effects and their corresponding environmental effect;- Forecast the environmental effect of future technologies

Future work


- 11th SETAC LCA Case Studies Symposium

-2003 European Meeting of the International Society for Industrial

Ecology -21st Swiss LCA Discussion Forum

« Environmental Assessment in the Information Society »

3rd – 4th december 2003, Lausannehttp://www.setaceu.org, [email protected]

Documents

Impact and effects of ICT systems: approaches and results Budapest, 2003