How ICT helps to save Emissions - A Big Picture

You may have heard of the term 'Low Carbon Society'. In short, it describes a society that produces a minimum of greenhouse gas emissions. In respect to the current issue of Climate Change the transformation towards a Low Carbon Society is necessary to reach environmental sustainability. ICT has the potential to support reaching this goal. This blog provides information about the sustainable use of ICT and how it enables reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in several 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.