Some environmental

consequences of the
information economy
Nir Krakauer
27 May 2003

outline

direct impacts

energy: did Silicon Valleys servers blackout

California?
materials: exotic metals

indirect impacts

e-commerce
e-journals

Peter Huber and Mark Mills, Dig more coal - the PCs are coming (Forbes, May 1999):

the average personal computer uses a kilowatt of

power
electronics connected to the internet use 8% of all
American electricity; this becomes 13% when
non-networked computers are added
the internet will be the next impetus for a surge in
demand for electricity; environmentalists are just
getting in the way

Mills: In all likelihood, the Internet is

responsible for one-half to two-thirds of all
the growth in electricity demand.
It's now reasonable to project that half of the
electric grid will be powering the digitalInternet economy within the next decade.
conclusion: California shouldve been burning
more coal

Brown and Koomey (Energy Policy, 2003)

California electricity consumption per person

in 2000 was the same as in 1990
growth in California electricity consumption
in the 1990s was lower than forecast
air conditioning has remained the major
contributor to peak loads

Jonathan Koomey et al (2002)

actually, the average PC uses ~200 W

all office and communications equipment
combined likely uses ~3% of total electricity
if improvements in equipment efficiency
follow current trends this wont increase
greatly by 2010 (Kurt Roth et al)

hot elements:
USGS, Historical Statistics

GaAs circuits, diodes

+143%

high-density capacitors
world production 1990-2000:
+208%

LCDs
+131%
(1994-2002)
Chemicool, David Hsu

the rare earth elements

La: miniature batteries (nickel-metal-hydride)

Er: fiber-optic amplifying sections
Eu: the red phosphor in CRTs, LCDs
Nd, Sm, Gd, Dy, Pr: miniature magnets (e.g.
disk drives)
USGS

USGS

recovery of metals from scrap electronics is

possible and profitable (market prices up to
$1000s/kg) but not in the US

most American electronics are landfilled; most

processing takes place overseas
China has banned the import of scrap electronics
(more or less ignored by the US)

Dell Computer on Friday got a little greener with the

announcement of a program designed to recycle
consumers' outmoded notebook and desktop PCs.

they'll end up in the hands of federal inmates, through a

Dell partner called Unicor--also known as Federal Prison
Industries--which has been getting into the business of
electronics recycling. Unicor representatives say the
recycling labor is a step above other jobs that prisoners
could have.
J.Skillings, news.com, May 2002

better news

SB 20: would require California electronics

manufacturers to finance recycling with a $10
fee on new computers and TVs

vetoed by Gray Davis

nonprofit efforts to reuse computers: the

Sierra Club with Staples

indirect effects

to start with, how much efficiency will

information technology add to other
industries?

e-commerce: Hanne Siikavirta et al (2002)

grocery shopping in Finland

compared greenhouse gas emissions for

conventional shopping with e-shopping
followed by home delivery
in Helsinki, 12% of car trips are for grocery
shopping
use routing software to optimize van delivery
of orders

Hanne Siikavirta et al (2002)

results

depending on the delivery schedule,

greenhouse gas emissions reduced by 18 to
87%

how would e-shopping affect what is bought?

e-commerce: Williams and Tagami (2002)

book shopping in Japan

compared energy use for shopping at

bookstores compared with shopping online
and delivery by mail
accounted for energy use in stores,
transportation, packaging
looked at urban/suburban/rural customers

Williams and Tagami (2002)

results

e-purchase required slightly more energy than

conventional purchase
most of the energy consumed in the etransaction is for packaging

e-journals: Gard and Keoleian (2002)

compared energy use per article for a library

stocking a print vs. an electronic version of a
scientific journal
considers energy consumption by publisher
servers, library computers, library buildings,
journal printing and distribution, patron
transportation, photocopying and printing

Gard and Keoleian (2002)

results

digital access generally uses more energy

provided an article will be read many times.

does it makes sense to assume readership will

stay the same if you change the medium?

my conclusions

information technology is very much material,

so that
having an information-based economy will
not reduce environmental impacts; but
if employed for that purpose, some
information technologies have the potential to
contribute to developing a sustainable society