Abstract
Carbon footprinting is becoming a mainstream practice in product design and marketing. At the same time, consumer products are becoming so complex that their footprinting becomes increasingly difficult. The supply chain of a typical mobile ICT device (i.e., smartphone) contains hundreds of suppliers in several continents and the product itself is composed of several complex subassemblies. The use of the smartphones also has large systemic effects (e.g., cloud computing, server load, increased consumption, and green applications), which are commonly left outside the scope of product carbon footprints. In this chapter, we argue that the parts which are most easily left out of a study are in fact the most significant for the whole product life cycle. The chapter is arranged in subchapters for each topic: components and subassemblies without emission inventory data available, energy consumption of data transfer and storage in clouds, the effect of recycling and consumer behavior, induced consumption, and the potential of green applications.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Apple (2012) iPhone 5 environmental Report
Bass FM (1969) A new product growth for model consumer durables. Manage Sci 15:215–227
Braungart M, McDonough W, Bollinger A (2007) Cradle-to-cradle design: creating healthy emissions—a strategy for eco-effective product and system design. J Clean Prod 15:1337–1348
Cisco (2013) Visual networking index: Global mobile data traffic forecast update 2012–2017
Donner J (2008) Research approaches to mobile use in the developing world: a review of the literature. Inf Soc 24:140–159
Ecoinvent (2010) Ecoinvent database v.2.2. Swiss Centre for Life Cycle Inventories
Finnveden G, Hauschild MZ, Ekvall T, Guinée J, Heijungs R, Hellweg S, Koehler A, Pennington D, Suh S (2009) Recent developments in life cycle assessment. J Environ Manage 91:1–21
Gartner (2012) Gartner announcements [WWW Document]. URL http://www.gartner.com
Gaudreault C, Samson R, Stuart PR (2010) Energy decision making in a pulp and paper mill: selection of LCA system boundary. Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:198–211
Greenpeace (2013) Make IT green: cloud computing and its contribution to climate change
HTC, 2012. HTC Sense Environmental report
IDC, 2012. IDC Press releases [WWW Document]. URL http://www.idc.com
Jensen R (2007) The digital provide: information (technology), market performance, and welfare in the south indian fisheries sector. Q J Econ 122:879–924
Lenzen M (2001) Errors in conventional and input-output based life-cycle inventories. J Ind Ecol 4:127–148
Lenzen M, Crawford R (2009) The path exchange method for hybrid LCA. Environ Sci Technol 43:8251–8256
Mattila T, Kujanpää M, Dahlbo H, Soukka R, Myllymaa T (2011) Uncertainty and sensitivity in the carbon footprint of shopping bags. J Ind Ecol 15:217–227
Nokia (2012) Nokia Lumia 920 Eco-profile
NRDC (2012) The carbon emissions of server computing for small to medium sized organizations. A performance study of on-premise vs. the cloud
Peres R, Muller E, Mahajan V (2010) Innovation diffusion and new product growth models: A critical review and research directions. Int J Res Mark 27:91–106
Reck BK, Graedel TE (2012) Challenges in metal recycling. Science 337:690–695
Röös E, Sundberg C, Hansson P-A (2010) Uncertainties in the carbon footprint of food products: a case study on table potatoes. Int J Life Cycle Assess 15:478–488
Sinden G, Skea J, Jefferiss P, Clift R, Jackson T, Ilott T, Kenber M et al (2008) PAS 2050:2008 Specification for the assessment of the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of goods and services. British Standards Institute, London 2008
Steen-Olsen K, Weinzettel J, Cranston G, Ercin AE, Hertwich EG (2012) Carbon, land, and water footprint accounts for the European union: consumption, production, and displacements through international trade. Environ Sci Technol 46:10883–10891
Stiglitz JE (2002) Information and the change in the paradigm in economics. Am Econ Rev 92:460–501
Suh S, Lenzen M, Treloar GJ, Hondo H, Horvath A, Huppes G, Jolliet O, Klann U, Krewitt W, Moriguchi Y et al (2004) System boundary selection in life-cycle inventories using hybrid approaches. Environ Sci Technol 38:657–664
Tanskanen P (2002) Active disassembly using smart materials (ADSM): a status report of the ongoing EU project. Care Innovation, Vienna
Tanskanen P (2012) Electronics waste: recycling of mobile phones. In: Damanhuri E (ed.), Post-Consumer Waste Recycling and Optimal Production. InTech
Weber CL, Koomey JG, Matthews HS (2010) The energy and climate change implications of different music delivery methods. J Ind Ecol 14:754–769
Villalba G, Talens L, Ayres R, van den Bergh J, Gabarrell X, Hertwich E, Wood R (2012) Technology forecast of IT and electric-uses of scarce metals and economy-wide assessment of selected scarce metals. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Villanueva A, Wenzel H (2007) Paper waste—Recycling, incineration or landfilling? a review of existing life cycle assessments. Waste Manage (Oxford) 27:S29–S46
Williams E (2011) Environmental effects of information and communications technologies. Nature 479:354–358
World Bank, 2013. Electric power consumption (kWh per capita) | Data | Table [WWW Document]. URL http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EG.USE.ELEC.KH.PC
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mattila, T., Judl, J., Seppälä, J. (2014). Carbon Footprint of Mobile Devices: Open Questions in Carbon Footprinting of Emerging Mobile ICT Technologies. In: Muthu, S. (eds) Assessment of Carbon Footprint in Different Industrial Sectors, Volume 1. EcoProduction. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-41-2_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-4560-41-2_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-4560-40-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-4560-41-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)