ICT as an Enabling Technology

This post provides an overview of how ICT enables savings of greenhouse gas emissions in society. Therefore an interactive mind map is presented, which relates and describes the common terms and concepts in this context. The branches of the mind map define the highest-level entities of a classification structure for approaches and applications of ICT for a Low Carbon Society. This structure has two dimensions: The main principles (optimization and dematerialization) and the application areas (public and economic sectors).

Explore the Mind Map to learn about ICT as an Enabling Technology

The central entity of the diagram reflects the central role of ICT as Enabling Technology in the whole context of achieving sustainability improvements by using ICT systems. The ICT sector as well as other sectors are the key players in this system. Every economic sector has a carbon footprint that is used as a measure of sustainability and can therefore be used to benchmark the progress of reaching the environmental goals. The enabling effect of ICT is based on the capability to optimize and dematerialize, which leads whether directly, or as a side-effect of energy efficiency, to emissions savings. Energy efficiency and emissions savings contribute to sustainability by reduced resource consumption and a lower greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere. Also the rebound effect has to be kept in mind, which is an implication of energy efficiency and partly offsets the emissions savings achieved by efficiency improvements. The aim of reaching sustainability exists in respect to the ongoing Climate Change, which is accelerated by greenhouse gas emissions.