Gereon Mewes

This paper examines the different ways in which the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector negatively affects the environment. To capture environmental externalities beyond the common but limited carbon footprint, a novel holistic framework of digital sustainability was created - the Digital Environmental Footprint (DEF). To apply and test the DEF, the ICT sector was evaluated regarding its impacts on the sustainability dimensions of global carbon footprint, biodiversity, and availability of non-renewable resources. It was found that the production phase of digital devices has the most severe impact on these dimensions, followed by the end-of-life phase. The use phase was found to have moderate but significant impacts on sustainability that are expected to decrease over time alongside the global Carbon Intensity of Electricity (CIE). This paper emphasizes the importance of considering dimensions of digital sustainability beyond carbon footprint and the need for establishing holistic metrics for evaluating the sustainability of the ICT sector.