Daniel Pargman, Edvard Ahlsén, Cecilia Engelbarg KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

1. Designing for Sustainability:
Breakthrough or suboptimisation?
Daniel Pargman (pargman@kth.se)
Edvard Ahlsén, Cecilia Engelbarg
KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm

2. If the goal is to cut carbon emissions radically by 2050, we urgently
need to…
• Install smart screen fridges?
• Pull out smartphone charger when the phone is charged?
• Put brakes on the expansion of digital infrastructures?
• Switch to more energy-­efficient screens for our digital devices?
Sustainability – what are we aiming for and?

3. “Every little bit helps” vs “looking at the larger picture”
MacKay: “If everyone does a little, we’ll achieve only a little”
Is switching from LED to more energy-­efficient OLED screens =
“a little” or “a lot”?
Are OLED screens a stepping stone to a sustainable society or
merely a distraction, “sustainability theatre”?
David MacKay’s (2008) :

4. Sceens galore: portable (tablets), intimate (smartphones),
ubuquitous (electronic shelf labels), workly (PCs, laptops),
homely (TVs smart homes, screen fridges) and public (large
public displays)
The screen = one of the most energy-­hungry components in
electronic devices
OLED screens hold the promise of thinner, brighter, faster, less
expensive and more energy-­stingy screens (compared to
current LED screens)
On the energy profiles OLED screens

5. OLED screens do not require any backlight because the pixels
themselves emit light (when needed)
OLED energy savings will happen when the color black is displayed.
OLED energy savings will evaporate when the color white is displayed
∑ There is a mismatch between the energy-­saving potential of OLED
screens vis-­à-­vis current webpages/webpage design practices
On the effects of OLED screen energy profiles

6. ExperimentPilot study of user
acceptance of OLED-­
adapted colorschemes

7. Different persons had different opinions about various prototypes.
The black prototype was the most popular;; 48% stated they would
use it “often” or “always” if available.
… though not primarily for sustainability reasons but rather for
making each charge last longer
Results

8. OLED makes great sense in the lab … but how about “in the wild”?
Squint and only look at the screen technology in itself vs look at the
larger ecosystem in which the technology is placed and used!?
• … Including lifestyles, practices, habits, behaviors?
Holistic perspective – systems boundaries

9. Where should the energy saving potential primarily be harvested?
To realise the energy saving potential is primarily an issue of:
• Hardware?
• Software?
• Content providers, webpage design?
• User behavior?
Where should energy savings happen?

10. Your inefficient fridge – should you replace it with a new one?
Your fuel-­inefficient car vs. an eclectic car?
Your TV, laptop, tablet, phone vs. OLED screens?
Interventions can have savings
Interventions always have costs

11. For the screen, but…
• The phone is a larger system than the screen
• The network is a larger system than the phone
• The universe of Internet content is larger than the network
that shuffles information back and forth
• Behaviors, practices, habits are larger (?) than the universe
of webpages
Best case = 90% savings for the screen

12. Energy used when charging your iPhone 5/6 or Samsung Galaxy SIII
from 0 to 100% each day for a year vs
Energy used each day in the average life of a (middle-­class) European
Fisher 2012, 2014 & MacKay 2008
Charging your phone vs average European lifestyle

13. Energy used when charging your iPhone 5/6 or Samsung Galaxy SIII
from 0 to 100% each day for a year ≈ 4 kWh/year
Energy used to manufacture a smartphone = 278 kWh
Payback time = 70 years
Fisher 2012, 2014, Raghavan & Ma 2011
Energy savings vs embodied energy

14. Informant: "I would first of all be curious as to how much energy you
save in actual numbers, or get a comparison with something else (flying
to Thailand, eating meat, printing an e-­mail) -­ only then would I really be
able to decide to what extent I'd be willing to change my browsing habits.
But I can definitely see me using the last [black prototype], if it brings
reasonably good energy-­savings”
… but there might of course be other reasons for switching
A switch to OLED screens is not sustainable

15. Require, ask or beg individuals to make more environmentally sound
consumption choices?
Or, work with societal actors in a variety of societal dimensions
(institutional, political, corporate, cultural, legal, economic…)?
Individual behavior vs systems and structures

16. Choice of systems boundaries make all the
difference between “sustainable” and “wasteful”
Something that seems to be sustainable when analysed as a stand-­
alone system (a screen fridge for decreasing food waste?) might not
be sustainable when you take a step back and expand the systems
boundaries!
Think about systems boundaries!

17. Daniel Pargman
pargman@kth.se
danielpargman.blogspot.com
Thank you!