This document discusses how information and communication technologies (ICT) can help address major environmental challenges like climate change, resource depletion, and loss of biodiversity. It outlines how ICT facilitates knowledge sharing and empowers stakeholders to pursue sustainable practices. ICT is transforming sectors like power, transportation, agriculture, buildings, and manufacturing through "smart systems" that enable efficiency gains and emissions reductions. For example, smart grids and electric vehicles can reduce emissions from the transportation sector by 1.9 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. Overall, ICT has the potential to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 16.5% through solutions that create jobs and economic savings worldwide.

1. Innovation in ICT for mitigating
Environmental Challenges
D. Vasudevan

2. Defining Sustainability
• Intergenerational equity—development that
meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs
• that development does not endanger the
natural systems that support life on Earth:
the atmosphere, the waters, the soils and the
living beings
• consumption standards that are within the
bounds of the ecologically possible and to
which all can reasonably aspire

3. Sustainability & Development
• Sustainable development was
broadly endorsed by the 1992 Earth
Summit with the following three
pillars of equal significance:
1. economic prosperity
2. social equity
3. environmental protection

4. Major Environmental Challenges
•
•
•
•
loss of diversity
resource depletion
climate change
greenhouse gas emissions

5. How ICT is transforming World
• Information and communication technology (ICT) is
facilitating the flow of information between
governments and the public
• ICTs and innovative applications are promoting
knowledge exchange, technical cooperation and
capacity building for sustainable development
• Access to information, technical knowledge, and
know-how, through ICTs empower farmers, fishers,
and foresters to choose among diverse methods of
achieving sustainable agricultural production
• In education, more effective use of information and
communication technologies is enhancing learning
outcomes

6. How ICT is enabling sustainability
• Today ICT has very much altered the
underlying structures of social and
economic development that
sustainability needs to address.

7. Smart Systems
ICTs offer the potential to enable
large-scale reductions in carbon
emissions through what are called
―smart systems,‖ particularly in energy
production and distribution,
manufacturing, transport, construction
and building management.

8. Global e-Sustainability
Initiative says
“ICT-enabled solutions offer the
potential to reduce
GHG emissions by 16.5%,
create 29.5 million jobs and
yield USD 1.9 trillion in savings”

9. ICT’s Abatement Potential

10. Power
ICT adoption in the power sector could
yield 2.0 GtCO2e in abatement (or
22% of total estimated abatement
total) by playing a critical role in the
creation of a more dynamic power
market with supply and pricing
responding to changes in demand.
GtCO2e: Gigatonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent or say a billion metric ton

11. Transportation
• Emissions reductions in transportation
could reach 1.9 GtCO2e (21% of total).
Increased efficiency in cargo transit
through improved logistics networks and
fleet management represents a significant
abatement opportunity.
• Telecommuting and increased use of
video conferencing can reduce
transportation needs and emissions.

12. Agriculture and Land use
• Emissions reductions from this sector could
reach 1.6 GtCO2e (18% of total).
• As the inputs required to grow crops emit
large quantities of emissions, ICT that
allows farmers to accurately assess how
much to irrigate and fertilize their crops will
lead to emissions abatement.
• Systems that reduce the amount of land
required to raise livestock and reduce their
methane emissions also have significant
abatement potential.
• Also, monitoring equipment can help
governments prevent the destruction of
rainforests that act as carbon sinks.

13. Buildings
• ICT can abate 1.6 GtCO2e (18% of
total) in this sector by providing
occupants with the systems required to
support the generation of renewable
energy and incorporate it into the
building’s power supply.
• Smart design can reduce lighting and
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
needs while building management
systems ensure that those systems are
used efficiently

14. Manufacturing
• ICT-enabled efficiency in factories and
other manufacturing applications could
allow for 1.2 GtCO2e (13% of total) in
abatement from the manufacturing
sector.
• Through solutions that, for example,
better control a motor system to better
match its power usage to a required
output, there are many opportunities
for ICT to make manufacturing more
efficient.

15. Consumer and service
• Emissions reductions through ICT in
the consumer and service sector could
reach 0.7 GtCO2e (8% of total).
• ICT connects consumers to merchants
via the Internet and enables them to
purchase goods online rather than
physically traveling to the store.
• ICT-enabled software can also develop
packaging that generates less waste
and conserves resources.

16. Cloud Computing
• A company that adopts cloud computing can
reduce its energy consumption, lower its carbon
emissions and decrease its capital expenditure
on IT resources while improving operational
efficiency.
• By 2020, it is estimated that large US companies
that use cloud computing can achieve annual
energy savings of $12.3 billion and annual
carbon reductions equivalent to 200 million
barrels of oil.
• A 100-person company with applications
deployed in the cloud can reduce energy
consumption and emissions by more than 90
percent says WSP Energy & Environment Study
Source: Carbon Disclosure Project Supported by AT&T

17. ICT’s contribution versus
Abatement potential
• While ICT’s own footprint is projected to
rise to 1.27 GtCO2e by 2020, its
abatement potential is seven times higher

18. References & Acknowledgements
• Proceedings of the first International Conference on
ICT 4 Sustainability held at ETH Zurich on February
14-16, 2013: www.ict4s.org
• GeSi Smarter 2020 – Executive Summary Report by
Global e-Sustainability Initiative and The Boston
Consulting Group, Inc. in 12/2012
• http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2011/10/0
3/cloud-computings-hidden-green-benefits/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GtCO2e
• International Energy Agency: http://www.iea.org/
• http://www.sustainabilityperspectives.com/perspective/ict-power

19. Thanks…
dvasudevan@albionglobal.com