ICT and the environment

The relationship between ICTs and the environment is complex and multifaceted, as ICTs can play both positive and negative roles. Positive impacts can come from dematerialization and online delivery, transport and travel substitution, a host of monitoring and management applications, greater energy efficiency in production and use, and product stewardship and recycling. Negative impacts can come from energy consumption and the materials used in the production and distribution of ICT equipment, energy consumption in use directly and for cooling, short product life cycles and e-waste, and exploitative applications (e.g. remote sensing for unsustainable over-fishing.

The impacts of ICT on the environment can be direct (i.e. the impacts of ICTs themselves, such as energy consumption and e-waste), indirect (i.e. the impacts of ICT applications, such asintelligent transport systems, buildings and smart grids), or third-order and rebound (i.e. the impacts enabled by the direct or indirect use of ICTs, such as greater use of more energy efficient transport).