The DOI matches its Crossref record; 1 of the 1 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Digital transformation—life cycle assessment of digital services, multifunctional devices and cloud computing
Open accessAbstract
The substitution of material-based services with digital services—for example films or music—alters the environmental impact of our everyday activities and shifts visible material use to less visible digital services. A holistic life cycle assessment (LCA) of digital transformation requires the assessment of information and communication technology (ICT) with its wide range of multifunctional devices as well as substitution and summation effects caused by new services enabled by modern ICT. The 73rd Discussion Forum on Life Cycle Assessment (DF LCA) was held on 21 November 2019 to discuss the environmental implications of digital transformation in view of the effective as well as the potential environmental impacts. While currently being a small but already relevant contributor to the overall greenhouse gas emissions, the relevance of the ICT sector is predicted to grow rapidly within the next 5 to 10 years (Belkhir & Elmeligi, 2018). This 1-day forum offered the possibility to discuss current as well as potential future implications of devices as well as digital services on the environment.
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Upgrades to AI-enabled consumer devices require natural resources for manufacturing and for processing user data and responding to queries in real time.
“However, these upgrades come with a price in terms of the natural resources required to manufacture them, as well as to process user data and respond to user queries in real-time [58].”
From From Efficiency Gains to Rebound Effects: The Problem of Jevons' Paradox in AI's Polarized Environmental Debate (2025) · cites this paper as [58]
The Discussion and conclusions (section 6; page not available) links electronic-device manufacturing to raw-material demand and cloud-server operation to energy consumption. The Digital transformation and environment section (section 2; page not available) also identifies impacts from processing data in data centres. The paper does not specifically address AI-enabled device upgrades or the resources required to answer user queries in real time. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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Bieser, J. C. T., & Hilty, L. M. (2018) · EPiC Series in Computing · doi:10.29007/lx7q · Cited by 64
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Research works printed but not linked: 14
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Cited by
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Luccioni, A. S., Strubell, E., & Crawford, K. (2025) · Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency · doi:10.1145/3715275.3732007 · Cited by 71
“However, these upgrades come with a price in terms of the natural resources required to manufacture them, as well as to process user data and respond to user queries in real-time [58].”
Metadata
- Authors
- Itten, R., Hischier, R., Andrae, A. S. G., Bieser, J. C. T., Cabernard, L., Falke, A., Ferreboeuf, H., Hilty, L. M., Keller, R. L., Lees-Perasso, E., Preist, C., & Stucki, M.
- Affiliations
- ZHAW Zurich University of Applied Sciences (CH)
- Empa (CH)
- Huawei Technologies (Sweden) (SE)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- TU Bergakademie Freiberg (DE)
- Bureau Veritas (France) (FR)
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Itten, René
- ORCID
- Venue
- The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment
- Published
- 2020-08-12
- Volume
- 25
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 2093-2098
- ISSN
- 0948-3349 (ISSN-L)
- 1614-7502
- OpenAlex
- W3048515427
- Cited by
- 87
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 18 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 4.12
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Locations
- The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften digital collection (Zurich University of Applied Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
- Funders
- Schweizerischer Nationalfonds zur Förderung der Wissenschaftlichen Forschung (407340_185630)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Green IT and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Photovoltaic Systems and Sustainability
- Keywords
- digital transformation, digital services, information and communication technologies, multifunctional devices, cloud computing, environmental impact, greenhouse gas emissions, substitution effect, material utilization
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