consumption perspective seems reasonable as it considers
both the use of products and services and their supply chain.
However, the high uncertainties and practical difficulties
related to such an approach need to be considered. In many
cases a production perspective is the only possibility based
on data availability. When looking into ICT the results both
for ICT´s own footprint and for its impact in other sectors
varies with the chosen perspective.
VI. ENABLING ICT SOLUTIONS
A. Which ICT solutions are relevant to consider?
Most activities of the modern society make use of ICT in
one way or another and ICT solutions include a wide range
of technical solutions. In this paper a distinction is made
between ICT solutions and other electronic systems, like
embedded microprocessor systems (e.g. a motor optimization
system), which are not considered as ICT systems.
Further, a distinction is made between solutions that are
mainly based on ICT, and solutions that are only supported
by ICT. For many ICT solutions like teleworking,
videoconferencing and e-commerce, the ICT usage in itself
enables the potential reduction in physical travel or
transports. For solutions where ICT is mainly used as a tool
for administration or design, and is not impacting the
performance of the associated activity, e.g. a building design
process. It seems better to apply a more conservative
boundary setting by excluding them when estimating the
macro-level enabling potential of ICT. Thus; this paper
proposes to consider only solutions where the use of ICT is a
prerequisite for the enabling, not only a tool for
administering it or designing it.
B. ICT solutions with anticipated enabling potential
The potential ICT solutions are countless and it is not
possible to capture the full potential of ICT – in analogy with
the difficulties in deriving the full impact from the use of
roads. Thus, it is necessary to identify the solutions that are
of main interest in order to set the scope for a macro-level
analysis. Kramers et al. [24] attempt to make a framework
for identifying areas where ICT solutions will have the
greatest impact on reducing energy usage. So called
household functions, hence, all society activities, seen from
an individual´s perspective, that require energy, are mapped
towards the ICT opportunities presented by Mitchell [25].
The authors use the concept “ICT opportunities” to denote
the main mechanisms leading to the enabling. The ICT
opportunities intelligent operation and soft transformation,
which represents transformation of existing physical
infrastructure, in combination with the household functions
of transport and heating of buildings, are seen as the areas
with the largest enabling potential. The result correlates with
Erdmann et al. [26] which concluded that the main
potentials for ICT to decrease energy consumption lie in
making use of ICT to shift from material goods to services,
installing intelligent heating systems, and using ICT for
production process control and supply chain management.
Looking into SMARTer 2020 [4], the largest reduction
potentials enabled by ICT are expected to occur in energy
and buildings, and transport and travel. Wireless access plays
an important role for these two areas. Many of the macro-
level studies listed in Table I also estimate high potentials for
the energy and transport sectors.
Smart meters which allow users to manage their
electricity consumption by using remote control and
monitoring areas, are of special interest. ICT also enable
small-scale efficient renewable energy production (e.g. solar
panels) and feedback into the grid. Introducing large
renewable energy sources into the grid demands that ICT is
used for dynamic monitoring and control, but the enabling as
such is not due to the ICT solution, but to the change in
energy source. This paper defines the integration of small-
scale renewable energy production as part of the ICT
enabling potential, while the introduction of large renewable
energy sources is excluded.
In the travel and transport sector mobile technology can
play an important role in route planning, fleet management,
traffic management, more efficient public transports and ride
sharing, etc. It should, however, be observed that this is an
area where ICT solutions have been used for quite some time
and part of the potential may already have been realized.
Potential reductions through the use of online media and
online meetings/conferences, have traditionally been
associated with fixed telecom, but are also enabled by mobile
broadband.
The manufacturing sector includes some reduction
potentials that are more related to local IT and
microprocessor solutions which cannot be labeled as ICT,
e.g. control of electric motors used at manufacturing sites.
On the other hand, by using ICT solutions, the use of
buildings, vehicles and other products and services can be
made more efficient which indirectly reduces the need to
manufacture these products in the first place. As the
emissions at the same time are large for the manufacturing
sector this hidden potential can be large as suggested by
Erdmann et al. [26]. It can be much more efficient to rent or
share products as a service, and ICT can play a large role in
this transition and enable future smart services that use
products more efficiently.
The agriculture and forestry sector is another sector
where wireless access can play an important role, e.g. in
monitoring assets and helping to plan activities depending on
different sources of information such as weather, demand,
etc. This sector may have a large future potential, especially
in developing countries, but more development is needed.
Consumer services are another area where there is significant
enabling potential. Here, e-commerce can play a large role.
Studies by NTT in Japan [27-29] estimate a high potential
for e-commerce. However, rebound effects may counter
potential reductions as discussed in [26].
For many societal services like health and education, the
focus is not so much on environmental sustainability, but
rather on improving the socio-economic sustainability, not
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