JORGE ZAPICO

KTH / CSC / Media / Industrial EcologyCentre for Sustainable Communicationshttp://sustainablecommunications.org

zapico@kth.sehttp://jorgezapico.com

MJ1261 Hållbar Utveckling

2009/10/08 That’s me!

I have a bachelor in computer science and a master in sustainable technology. They seem unrelated, but I’ll present my view on their connections.

Computers and ICT have changed the way we live and work, the way we grow, learn and communicate with others

Everywhere in the world

But at the same time the old industrial way keeps going.

And we are still using this kind of stuff.

And environmental problems keep growing: climate change, pollution, resource depletion,

And this is the result (The graph is CO2 concentration)

So, what do these two things have in common?

A.DIRECT IMPACT

The environmental impact of hardware production, usage and end of life

Accelerating development Design for obsolescence Increased consumerism

We buy more and more electronic devices, and new things keep coming. For instance I want one of these new tablets coming soon.. And they will be old technology after one year.

A laptop average replacement time is 3 years

For mobile phones it is just 18 months

1 billion handsets per year

Only in January 2009 India got 15

million new mobile users

Much of this hardware is hidden from our view

Electronic equipment contains a big part of

the periodic table

Growing e-waste problem

We are buying enormous amounts of electronic devices + they are full with scarce and toxic materials + their life span is short = we got a problem!

8.7 million tons ewaste each year in the EU.

There is no data of what happen to 75% of it.

RoHSWEEE

Green our electronics

That’s an sculpture made of the amount of electric+electronic waste that one person generates in a lifetime

WEEE: EU directive that makes the producer responsible of the waste

RoHS: Ban of several toxic substances in electronics (as lead)

Green our electronics: Greenpeace campaign for increasing awareness of these problems

Most of carbon impact is in the use

phase: electricity

Numbers from apple. Not that true for Swedish scenario, but still a big part.

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A modern laptop consumes less than an

old light bulb

Surprising but true!Check the tool we made at http://carbon.to and you can play with several things like this.

The use-phase energy can be sustainable

Ericsson project: solar powered chargers

The network-side energy can be

sustainable

Cloud computingVirtualization

Back to dumb clients

Possible solutions for decreasing these problems

B.INDIRECT IMPACT

The environmental impact of the changes that ICT produces in the way we live brings. Positive and negative.

Dematerialization of knowledge

For instance in my e-reader I’ve got place for all the books I could possible read in my whole life

Virtual presence

Optimization Smart Grids

Computers can made everything much efficient. For instance the electrical grid: making appliances use power when lower demand and such things.

Optimization

But optimization works also for other things. ICT optimization is one of the reasons we have cheap flights now, equal lots of emissions...

The paperless office Technology sometimes hasn’t delivered what it promised. For instance the end of paper when computers were introduced in the office.

Telecommuting

Or reducing traveling by just communicating online, it has instead increased travelling

Rebound effects

Technology has usually unexpected

consequences in the real world, sometimes the

opposite of our predictionsRebound effects need to

be taken into account!

C. SOCIETAL IMPACT

ICT use as a tool for societal change and generator of sustainability.

ICT for DevelopmentAccess to knowledgeEmpowerment

See the video:http://www.ted.com/talks/

New forms of helpingHorizontal social

organization

Using web technologies for connecting people in need with people with means.

Giving voice to democracy

Making visible the invisible

Making the electricity consumption visible and help in reducing it.

Accounting sustainabilityChanging behavior

Accounting for carbon dioxide emissions is the first step for changing.In this case is travel CO2 thanks to www.dopplr.com

Many ICT applications try to change our behavior and increase our awareness. This one is we:offset by Nokia.

Using GPS it knows you have taken a plane to another country and encourage you to offset the emissions

1.1 T racking carbon footprint 1.1 T racking carbon footprint

People is forming communities and coming together on internet to try to solve things.

Bringing open source to the physical world

Open source and creative commons are great movements coming from the ICT world.

Check the vide:http://www.ted.com/talks/

ICT makes easier to behave in an environmental friendly way.

Check http://cykla.stockholm.se

My key pointis that computers have

changed our society in a deep way, and these

changes affects sustainability (the way society interacts with

nature) for good or for bad.

There are some technological patterns in

the previous opportunities

Key technologies to keep an eye in

Mobile phones

Single most used technology of history. More than 60% of the world population owns one and growing.

With convergence it would be the only device we need.

Pervasive SensorsGeo dataComputer control

Virtual knowledge

Virtual Presence

Social Media

The open movement

What will happen in the future?

Technology is developing at an accelerating pace.

Do we have the time to analyze its impact in society and in the environment?

Will the environment allow this continue development? Or will it say stop and change the course of technological development?

Conclusion

ICT is having more impact than we think in the pursuit of

sustainability, both positive than negative

These positive impacts can be empowered

ICT as any tool is what we make of it

That’s my point! ICTs are just tools! It is what WE made with them, will be design tools for increasing air travel? or applications to make the world better?

Contact at:

Jorge Zapico

zapico@kth.sehttp:// jorgezapico.com@zapico

Presentation at

http://slideshare.net/zapico

Thanks for watching!Send my questions / comments at those places in the right!

English / Swedish / Spanish / and easy Japanese are welcome =)