Measuring the Environmental Impact of ICT Products and Systems: An initial overview

This paper provides an initial overview of the measurement of the environmental impact of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), focusing on the importance of sustainable approaches in their design, development, and deployment. It explores the dual role of ICTs in environmental sustainability, both as enablers of resource optimization and as contributors to global warming due to their energy consumption and e-waste generation. In light of this, the paper describes a novel methodology that combines Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) principles with the Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement (GUM) guidelines, allowing a reliable measure of the environmental impact. The application of the methodology is shown on three case studies: Measuring Systems, Artificial Intelligence (AI) pipelines, and complex ICT infrastructures. These case studies demonstrate how the methodology can be used to estimate the Carbon Footprint while evaluating the associated uncertainty, providing actionable insights into enhancing the sustainability of various ICT systems.