The well-kept secret of the IT industry
On the surface, you might think that the usage of IT has a positive impact on the environment due to less business travel and commuting to work. Additionally, the use of videoconferencing tools from Microsoft and Zoom, leveraging supply chain management software from SAP and Oracle, leveraging digital twin technology for predicting asset failure, Adobe Sign, and DocuSign for eSignature, and countless other cloud solutions are available at your fingertips. The ICT industry contributes to a large percentage of overall energy consumption, CO2 emissions, and e-waste, but it is also part of the solution of enabling remote working, process efficiencies, and energy efficiencies. With roughly 53.6% or 4.4 billion of the global population now on the internet, the immense activity is stacking up alongside the massive e-waste from computers, tablets, and smartphones resulting in a whopping 57 million tons of e-waste generated globally each year (Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think 2020) (ISWA 2020). The benefits of the ICT industry are well known, but to date, its environmental impact has been kept a secret. But things are finally changing.
Today, we take access to the internet, surfing on the web, hanging out on social media, or spending downtime on our streaming platform of choice for granted. Most of us don’t think about the environmental consequences because we associate them with something tangible such as aviation, industry, transportation, or agriculture.
The global IT industry generates as much CO2 as the aviation industry. Both industries emit roughly 2% of each of the world’s global emissions. Emissions from within the IT sector come 50% from the manufacturing of IT equipment and the rest from energy expelled from equipment and data centers (Reuse and recycle: Google, Microsoft & Dell join forces to tackle e-waste crisis by 2030–2021).
According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, US data centers consume 73 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of energy yearly. US data center energy consumption is on par with 6 million homes or roughly 2% of annual US electricity use. With the increased use of digital services, there is a massive increase in worldwide energy consumption, and some researchers predict that it could rise to 8%–10% of the world’s energy consumption in the next decade.
The life cycle of ICT equipment also has a significant impact on sustainability-related areas such as e-waste and the use of natural resources and rare minerals. For example, servers used to run services and devices such as smartphones, tablets, and computers to consume services containing finite and toxic materials lead to massive heaps of e-waste and require an enormous amount of energy. Let us look at a couple of examples, such as a typical laptop and smartphone.
A laptop from Dell emits 341 kgCO2e ± 81 kgCO2e over an expected product lifetime of 4 years. Manufacturing represents 85.9% of total emissions, transportation is 3.3%, end-of-life processing is 0.2%, and usage is 10.6% (Dell Latitude 7420 2021). The yearly energy demand is 17.14 kWh, which also impacts the environment depending on whether it is powered by renewable energy or fossil fuels.
An Apple iPhone 12 smartphone emits 70 kgCO2e over an expected product lifetime of 3 years. This model uses 99% recycled tungsten and 98% recycled rare earth elements, which is a positive sign of keeping finite virgin resources to a minimum. Similarly to the Dell laptop, manufacturing represents 83% of total emissions, transportation is 2%, end-of-life processing is <1%, and usage is 14% (Apple 12 Product Environmental Report 2020).
The environmental impact of laptops and smartphones is not insignificant. Along with a docking station, 1–2 monitors, a keyboard, and a mouse, they are standard equipment for a knowledge worker worldwide. If you are a technology leader with thousands of employees, your organization’s environmental impact from IT adds up quickly. Annually, the world is generating 57 million metric tons of e-waste according to the Global E-Waste Monitor 2020 Report. Over the last 5 years, we have seen a 21% increase rate. Even more tragic is that 80% is improperly recycled in countries with no recycling facilities. Therefore, technology leaders need to start thinking about new ways to apply circular practices to processes so that it does not go into e-waste. In the coming chapters, we will look at more examples and use cases regarding how to address this ICT issue.
With exponential technologies on the rise, such as artificial intelligence, the metaverse, robotic process automation, and cryptocurrencies, the need for more computing power, storage, and energy will continue to surge.