Anders S.G. Andrae

Huawei Technologies · Sweden R&D Center

International Journal of Environmental Engineering and Development 2,283-289,2024. The absolute and avoided primary energy consumption (PEC) of Software (SW) services is getting more attention. However, there is no commonly agreed bottom-up methodology for calculation of the total PEC of SW services. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a common denomin...

Solutions provided by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) may help avoid environmental impacts. Several methodologies exist by which the avoided impact can be estimated. However, so far there is a lack of treatment of the uncertainty within the calculations. Especially the uncertainty range of the rebound effects compared to others is no...

IJAREM Vol. 10 Issue 04, http://www.ijarem.org/papers/v10-i4/1.IJAREM-G7320.pdf This research estimates the associated primary energy consumption for different combinations of dynamic switching energy for storage (J/bit), for processing (J/computation) and global computation intensity (computations/s). Bottom-up extrapolation is used. With ≈10 ron...

Particular Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services can help avoid environmental impact in larger contexts. However, there is no commonly agreed bottom-up methodology for calculation of the total net reduction effect of specific digital ICT services. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a common denominator for most methodologies. The most...

The use of Information Communication technology (ICT) is rapidly increasing in an age of digitalization. Measurement of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from ICT is crucial for reducing them. Most ICT organizations focus on Scope 1 and 2 emissions as they have greater control over them, commonly ignoring Scope 3 emissions. Scope 3 Category 1 (S3...

This report discusses J/computation and J/transistor from different perspectives.

A myriad of approaches for circularity scoring exist, with and without a distinct connection to life cycle assessment (LCA). Recently the international L.1023 standard for circularity scoring of electronic goods (EEE) was published defining circularity with three overarching circularity aspects. However, an approach to quantify weighting factors fo...

Panel session Towards more sustainable electronics. https://www.leti-innovation-days.com/2023-grenoble-sustainable-electronics/

Analyzing the electrical energy consumed when handling data is of global interest. Here are presented a number of equations which describe the relations between processor chips performance and global computations and resulting energy consumption. Hereby several topics can be analyzed and questions answered.

There is a tremendous interest in estimating the extent to which specific products, services and solutions can help avoid impact by reducing resource use and emissions in larger contexts. However, although the attempts made are plentiful there is no commonly agreed methodology for calculation of the total net reduction effect. Life Cycle Assessment...

Circular strategies must and will vary for different product groups. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) will help show which is the best strategy in any given situation as not all Circular Economy initiatives lead to universal sustainability benefits. There is a misunderstanding that lifetime extension via remanufacturing and refurbishment is ecologically...

In 2050 the data to be handled globally may reach >700000 trillion GB if the 40% annual growth rate continues. This translates to 186 Exabits/s in 2050. Data handled by Fixed Optical Networks, FON (Wired access + Core + Metro, CM) increase around 25% per year. The switch IC Capacity (b/s) has increased >40% per year since 2010, the Ethernet Link sp...

ICT/the Internet is an infrastructure just like lighting, air conditioning, water provisioning, and roads. ICT is thereby used in and by the main sectors of Agriculture, Buildings, Transport, Travel, Industry, Land use and Waste. ICT has a footprint (e.g. Electricity use, carbon, etc) and a handprint. ICTs handprint is ”digital services possibilit...

Life cycle assessment (LCA) is the internationally adopted tool to assess the environmental footprint. However, carrying out an LCA for ICT equipment is a challenging task due, for example, to the amount of data that should be collected to achieve accurate results. This paper describes how documents such as Full Materials Declarations can be used i...

In this decade there will an unprecedented growth of generated data, computations, instructions, and operations. This growth may not compromise clean air, clean water and a sustainable energy and material usage, but rather facilitate these prerequisites for flora and fauna. There are many indications (expected trends and estimates) showing that the...

A wide variety of products - which need packaging - exist in large ICT companies. The large amount of packaging waste - such as carton, wood, plywood, plastics, and paper - is notorious. Therefore, packaging is an important part of an ICT company's cost & emission reduction strategy. At present, traditional packaging (TP) technologies consume consi...

International Journal of Green Technology; https://scientificarray.org/ijgt/ijgtv6a3/. Toxin-free materials may be a prerequisite for the circular economy. However, the integrated overall environmental impact induced by banning the use of certain harmful materials should be assessed beforehand. No comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact...

The main problems with several existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) power footprint investigations are: too limited (geographical and temporal) system boundary, overestimation of power saving potential in the next decade, assume that historical power use can predict future global power use in the next decade despite unprecedented...

There is no doubt that the economic and computing activity related to the digital sector will ramp up faster in the present decade than in the last. Moreover, computing infrastructure is one of three major drivers of new electricity use alongsidefuture and current hydrogen production and battery electric vehicles charging. Here is proposed a trajec...

http://www.ijarem.org/papers/v6-i1/1.IJAREM-D5113.pdf. This research contains a three-step methodology for identifying the design guidelines that need to be incorporated into an existing ICT good design in order to improve its product’s circularity in six dimensions. This research is intended to support ICT goods designers in determining the best c...

http://www.ijarem.org/papers/v6-i1/2.IJAREM-D5114.pdf. Evaluation of substance hazardousness is of large interest. Here a method describing how the total hazards statement indicator (HSI) - associated with any substance - is used to estimate the HSI of CdS, Pb(CN)2, thallium(I) carbonate, several other compounds and a full life cycle inventory of a...

http://www.lcaforum.ch/portals/0/df73/DF73-15_Andrae.pdf

International Journal of Green Technology 2019; 5(1): 50-63. Currently the global energy and electricity use of ICT networks and data centers are estimated and predicted by several different top-down approaches. It has not been investigated which prediction approach best answers to the 5G, Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things megatrends w...

https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/103600_103699/103679/01.01.01_60/tr_103679v010101p.pdf The present document investigates current approaches, concepts and metrics of LCA as proposed by PEF and their applicability for the smartphones. The present document: 1) searches to identify if Product Category Rules (PCR) and Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)...

The linear paradigm for the economy generates a lot of waste, both upstream and downstream. Especially the mining waste is increasing. Furthermore, in certain nations it is generally possible to buy cheaper new products than repairing older ones. Moreover, the optimal lifetime of products – from the viewpoint of cost and environmental benefit rates...

International Journal of Science and Engineering Investigations (IJSEI), Vol. 8, Issue 86, pp. 27-33, 2019, http://www.ijsei.com/papers/ijsei-88619-04.pdf, peer-reviewed article, The electricity use of the information technology (IT) sector - consisting of demand from computing, transmission and production - is of large interest. Here a theoretica...

The electricity use of the ICT sector-consisting of demand from computing, transmission and production-is of large interest. Here a theoretical framework describing how the total global electricity demand-associated with the computing instructions done in servers-is used to estimate the electricity use of computing and communication in 2030. The pr...

The electricity use of the ICT sector-consisting of demand from computing, transmission and production-is of large interest. Here a theoretical framework describing how the total global electricity demand-associated with the computing instructions done in servers-is used to estimate the electricity use of computing and communication in 2030. The pr...

It is not unlikely that we might enter the YottaByte (10 24 Byte) era in the next decade. If so, how can the effect on power consumption be understood? The main problems with several existing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) power footprint investigations are: too limited (geographical and temporal) system boundary, overestimation of...

The electricity use of the ICT sector is of large interest. Here a theoretical framework describing how the total global electricity demand-associated with the computing instructions done in servers-is presented. The proposed theoretical framework is based on the following parameters: instructions per second, joules per transistor, and transistors...

Current life cycle mid-point impact assessment practice uses several different mid-point indicators for terrestrial acidification (TA). More than a few methods use a mid-point category indicator of mole proton equivalents. The present research shows that the current mid-point TA indicators-the proton equivalents methods-are not precise as the acid...

Improved material efficiency as a means of improving product sustainability scoring is of large interest. Here a theoretical idea of how collection rate, reliability and simple refurbishing affect the life cycle score is presented. There is some misconception that repair, refurbishment and remanufacturing would bring huge benefits in bringing down...

Cooling of beverages is of large interest. Here a theoretical idea of how microwave ovens can be used for cooling beverages is presented. The proposed theoretical idea based on heat transfer features a microwave safe (isoprene rubber) torus shaped rubber ring (MWSR) holding a liquid (L) at room temperature. Fullerenol dissolved in acetone (L) insid...

Actual commitments by suppliers—in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) supply chain—to reduce their energy use are rare. The upstream supply chain is also very complex for electronic/ICT products and therefore challenging to control and measure for use by Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of products and upstream Scope 3 footprints of co...

This presentation outlines an estimation of the global electricity usage that can be ascribed to Communication Technology (CT) in the coming decade. The scope is two scenarios for use and production of consumer devices, communication networks and data centers. Two different scenarios— best and expected—are set up, which include annual numbers of so...

There is a lack of prescribed databases and approaches in place for performing comparable Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of smartphones and other electronic devices in a coherent manner. Hence there is a need within certain eco-rating initiatives for simplified, yet still precise enough, approaches that are expert independent. Here, five independent...

Virtual reality (VR) is one of the strongest trends for future communication systems. Considering the amounts of VR devices expected to be produced in the coming years, it is relevant to estimate their potential environmental impacts under certain conditions. For the first time, screening life cycle assessment (LCA) single score results are present...

PurposeThe production of cellulase enzymes (CE) has been identified as one major contributor towards the life cycle environmental and economic impacts of second-generation lignocellulosic bioethanol (LCB) production. Despite this knowledge, the literature lacks consistent and transparent life cycle assessments (LCA) which compare CE production base...

The present document aims to provide an overview of the most important existing aspects, parameters, indicators, metrics, results, and business models used for estimating the resource efficiency and CE characteristics of ICT infrastructure goods as input for further standardization.

Currently the pilot phase of the European Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) tests the PEF method and develops PEF category rules (PEFCRs) for selected product categories. In the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) domain, only Information Technology (IT) storage equipment has been tested so far. Here the results from two studies are...

The presentation contains several examples of Huawei’s approach for eco-design and eco-innovation. The examples include optical network terminals, mobile phones, etc. Especially a step-by-step method for integrating eco-innovation in the product development process, open eco rating for mobile phones and methodology for LCA of ICT goods are topics h...

This work presents the latest trends for ICT electricity use from 2015 to 2030. ICT scope is client devices, fixed and wireless networks, data centers and production of all the previous.

Cloud Computing (CloudC) is one of the most prominent recent trends in the digital communications sector and represents a paradigm shift within the ICT industry. The supply of popular applications, such as cloud storage and cloud video streaming, has caused a surge in the demand for CloudC services, which offer the advantages of low economic cost,...

Annually, it is estimated that about 4 billion units of consumer electronics for mobile communications are produced worldwide. This could lead to various ecological imbalances unless the design and disposal of the products are handled optimally. To illustrate how industry looks at and responds to the increasing social awareness, this article descri...

Because of unfolding ecological concerns, our society has begun to explore new solutions to mitigate damage to and restore our shared living space on planet earth. Products and services are essential to the market economy; however, their social benefits also come with broad ecoenvironmental loadings. In 2015, it has been estimated that at least 3.5...

As a summary of work in the project " Influence of bioethanol fuels treatment for operational performance, ecological properties and GHG emissions of spark ignition engines (Biotreth) " , evolving around the effects from bioethanol blending, this paper summarizes the findings from the 3-year long project. These are 1) attributional life cycle asses...

The global energy usage driven by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) cloud services is set to soar, with the wireless cloud computing being at the core of the radio technology trend. At the same time the market for renewable energy supply is growing fast. In this context the aim of a new radio base station (RBS) site solution concept (i...

As a summary of work in the project " Influence of bioethanol fuels treatment for operational performance, ecological properties and GHG emissions of spark ignition engines (Biotreth) " , evolving around the effects from bioethanol blending, this paper summarizes the findings from the 3-year long project. These are 1) attributional life cycle asses...

The eco-environmental impacts resulting from introducing biofuels, as alternatives to fossil fuels, are generally well understood via numerous attributional and consequential life cycle assessments (LCAs). Especially climate change and land use have gotten much attention, whereas other eco-environmental impacts are less understood. Ethanol-gasoline...

This work presents an estimation of the global electricity usage that can be ascribed to Communication Technology (CT) between 2010 and 2030. The scope is three scenarios for use and production of consumer devices, communication networks and data centers. Three different scenarios, best, expected, and worst, are set up, which include annual numbers...

Purpose Current comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) studies claim to answer whether it is better or worse for the environment to change from old to new systems. Most commonly, the attributional LCA (ALCA) is practised despite its limitations to describe market effects. Hence, an attempt is done here to include market effects in the ALCA practi...

In product development in the industry, it is important to estimate the environmental impact of each product in a logical and applicable way. However, the quantity of requirements can act as a barrier to introducing eco-design. Few methods have been presented that clearly describes how eco-design can really become a part of the traditional product...

Here attributional life cycle assessments (LCAs) for the same smartphone model are presented by two different organizations (Orange, OGE and Huawei, HuW) and the effect of different modeling approach is analyzed. A difference of around 32% (29.6 kg and 39.2 kg) for CO2e baseline scores is found using same study object and sector specific LCA standa...

A new photovoltaic silicon crystalline solar cell dry chemical etching process (DCEP) is developed. It is an alternative to the current State-of-the-Art (SoA) wet chemical etching process (WCEP), associated with relatively large environmental loadings in the form of high water consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases with high Global Warming P...

In product development in the industry, it is important to estimate the environmental impact of each product in a logical and applicable way. However, the quantity of requirements can act as a barrier to introducing eco-design. Few methods have been presented that clearly describes how eco-design can really become a part of the traditional product...

Life cycle assessments (LCA) of consumer electronics and beyond are usually performed and reported very differently. As a result it is often difficult to assess the robustness, variability and transparency of reported LCA case studies. The value of LCA for policy makers is in doubt if the present situation cannot be clarified and improved. As a par...

A system for conducting an LCA for a device includes a configuration engine that assists users to configure the scope of the device for the LCA study. The configuration engine is operably coupled to an LCA engine that is able to obtain information according to a standard of LCA for the device from the material content under the scope of the device...

Cloud computing suggests that we can move many computational and data storage services from the desktop onto the network. New thin clients provide an excellent user interface for cloud services and also reduce both manufacturing electricity and lifetime electricity use by an order of magnitude. But do they really reduce overall electricity consumpt...

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology for assessing the environmental aspects and potential impacts throughout a product´s life cycle from raw materials and energy extraction, components manufacture, assembly, distribution and sale, use and final end-of-life treatment such as disposal, recycling and energy recovery (i.e. cradle-to-grave). Th...

Experience of Huawei Introduction to energy consumption of ICT, Entertainment&Media and cloud Cloud computing micro implications macro perspectives Implications for energy saving – micro and macro Telepresence Telecommuting Summary Next steps

Since 2009, several emerging technologies have initiated broad and disruptive impact across the ICT sector: cloud computing promises efficiency of scale both in terms of capital and operational costs; high-speed wireless networks promise near-ubiquitous network access and thin-client solutions (smart-phones and tablets) provide appropriate, low pow...

The interest in cloud computing is overwhelming and the efficiency/cost gains are thought to be large. Here the potential electricity savings and CO2e emission are estimated for office usage of physical desktops (PD) and virtual desktops (VD) in a theoretical cloud network. For PD and VD the LCA results are 331–502 and 221–288 kg CO2e/user/year, re...

The general trend for fixed broadband is that FTTx will overtake ADSL platforms and the number of FTTx subscribers is increasing exponentially. Moreover, it is likely that the ozone depletion potential (ODP) of dinitrogen oxide (N2O) and the aquatic acidification potential (AAP) of CO2 have been underestimated in LCA studies. The aim of this study...

The aim of a new site solution concept (i-Site) has been to optimize energy costs, speed of deployment, and site equipment such as number of PV modules. The present study provides the first example of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifying the future environmental benefit of i-Site for support of a radio base station in South African Vodafone ne...

The aim of a new site solution concept (i-Site) has been to optimize energy costs, speed of deployment, and site equipment such as number of PV modules. The present study provides the first example of a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) quantifying the future environmental benefit of i-Site for support of a radio base station in South African Vodafone ne...

For the first time streamlined life cycle assessments (LCA) were performed to estimate the carbon footprint/energy payback times of three types of RBS off-grid sites in Italian network. Most advantageous is to locate solar wind power system in Southern Italy. Annually between 14 and 19 tonnes of CO2e can be saved by replacing power supply system ba...

Evidentially the lack of harmonisation and transparency for life cycle assessment (LCA) is a cause of concern in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. Building mainly on ISO 14040/44, several important stakeholders (network operators together with manufacturers of network equipment, end–user equipment, and parts) have jointly...